History of the Austrian School of Economics

The engineer and the gambler both face uncertainty, but only one can control the forces involved. Jonathan Newman explores the gap between plan and outcome that drives all economic life.

Mises said the modern theory of value didn't just improve economics. It created an entirely new science: the general theory of human action.

Armen Alchian opened a seminar by reading a paragraph on property. Only one person in the room recognized it from Mises's Human Action. It changed everything.

Hülsmann opened Mises's 1912 Theory of Money and Credit expecting a historical curiosity. He found a work that surpassed everything published since.

To spend his compulsory East German currency, Hoppe's only options were Marx, Engels, and Russian novels. Then he found his way to Mises through Friedman and Hayek.

By 1950, the Austrian School was nearly dead. Keynesianism had displaced its business cycle theory, and the profession declared Mises wrong on socialism. Human Action was the counterattack.

Mainstream economics starts with models and works backward to reality. Mises started with reality and worked forward to theory. Herbener explains why that distinction changes everything.

Mises was a psychological hedonist, but not the kind you think. David Gordon untangles a philosophical position most Austrians have never examined closely.

DiLorenzo learned more about inflation and recession in 45 minutes of reading Mises than in two semesters of macroeconomics. That, he argues, is the Austrian School's greatest advantage: anyone can become their own economist.

Ricardo's law of comparative advantage wasn't just about trade between nations. Mises saw something deeper: it's the reason human society exists at all.