individualism for the masses

BK Marcus is an amateur political economist with no formal education in the subject.

He works from Charlottesville, Virginia as an editorial consultant for the Ludwig von Mises Institute and managing editor of Mises.org.

He is no longer a house husband, nor a faculty spouse, but he is still a dilettante and a layabout, at least in spirit.

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"It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a 'dismal science.' But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance."

Murray Rothbard

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Benjamin Tucker Marcus
February 19, 2010

’s

January 14th, 2009 by bkmarcus

Someone who occasionally proofreads for Mises.org recently double-checked with me that it’s OK to add an apostrophe s to form the possessive "Mises’s."

The short answer is yes it is OK and it would violate house style to form the possessive in any other way.

Here is the longer answer:

Not only is it OK, but it would be wrong to have it otherwise — not only in our house style but in general according to what the Chicago Manual of Style refers to as Strunk and White’s famous rule 1 ("Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding ’s"):

William Strunk, Jr. (1869–1946).  The Elements of Style.  1918.
 
II. ELEMENTARY RULES OF USAGE
 
  1. Form the possessive singular of nouns with ’s.
     
    Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,
     
    Charles’s friend
    Burns’s poems
    the witch’s malice
     
    This is the usage of the United States Government Printing Office and of the Oxford University Press.
     
    Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names in -es and -is, the possessive Jesus’, and such forms as for conscience’ sake, for righteousness’ sake. But such forms as Achilles’ heel, Moses’ laws, Isis’ temple are commonly replaced by
     
    the heel of Achilles
    the laws of Moses
    the temple of Isis
     
    The pronominal possessives hers, its, theirs, yours, and oneself have no apostrophe.

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