History of the Austrian School of Economics

I congratulate the Ludwig von Mises Institute for bringing back into print Hayek's writings on business cycles.

Economic knowledge gets more valuable as the economy worsens; but the economy worsens according to the level of political intervention — which is a function of economic ignorance.

Many laboring in the thriving cottage industry of Hayek biographers, critics and interpreters have commented on the transition from a "Hayek I" to a "Hayek II" that began in the late 1930s, portraying it as almost wholly an intellectual re-orientation and change in research interests. Few, if any, have recognized the radical alteration in analytical procedure and rhetorical style that characterized this transformation.

If the market is left to its own devices, the price will be an accurate reflection of what something is worth at a given point in time. When the government intervenes, it forces the prices to lie: the signals about the costs and benefits of different actions will be distorted.

"No benefit results from the mere expenditure of the money [on public works], nor the employment of the workmen employed on its construction; for, if this money had remained in the hands of the contributors, it would either directly or indirectly have put in activity an equal quantity of industry."

The Frederick L. Maier Lecture, recorded at Mises University 2008.

Government subsidies mean that there will be more production in the geographic space defined by the GO Zone, but this is not net new production.

This audio essay is narrated by Gennady Stolyarov, II.

They tell us how much better off economically we all are in war than in peace.

This is a wonderful article in the Investors Business Daily: