The National Post presents an essay reflecting on the 60th anniversary of Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom
Hayek was an adherent of the “Austrian School,” which had revolutionized economics in the late 19th century by overturning flawed classical theories of value. As a student of business cycles, Hayek — like the rest of the Austrian School — believed that the main reason for economic fluctuations was government monetary manipulation, so he could hardly be enthusiastic about Keynes’s pretensions (although he and Keynes were friends and Keynes wrote a glowing recommendation for The Road to Serfdom). Yet again, however, Hayek’s role was that of Cassandra; Keynes, by contrast, was telling politicians what they wanted to hear.