History of the Austrian School of Economics

F.A. Hayek's many contributions to the Austrian school of economics are highlighted by Peter Klein.

"Murray Rothbard would later say 'Without the founding of the Mises Institute, I am convinced the whole Misesian program would have collapsed.'"

Jeffrey Herbener discusses the significant contributions of Frank Fetter (1863–1949) on the implications of the marginalist revolution

Schumpeter's review, now available in English, emphasizes that Fetter's Principles is more than merely a textbook, and highlights the close connection between Fetter’s theory and the economics of the Austrian school, especially his classification of entrepreneurial activity.

"He used Menger’s edifice as a framework, and then he solidified its foundations and proceeded to build an entire basilica on top of it. It was an enormous achievement."

"There is one good thing about Marx: he was not a Keynesian. I recently asked Yuri Maltsev, former Soviet economist, why is it that things seem to have fallen apart so rapidly in the Soviet Union in the last twenty years. He said in the last twenty years, the leaders of the Soviet Union have relaxed the money supply and have used inflation to solve short-term problems. That spelled doom for the system."

A member of the “second generation of the Austrian school of economics,” Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk (1851–1914) and his works are discussed by Peter Klein.

Thanks to Mises, we now understand that the only way that socialists can solve the problem of resource allocation is by adopting capitalism.

It's important to remember that the government can engage in credit expansion through many ways other than directly inflating the money supply. 

Recorded at Mises University 2018.