Note on Hayek’s “The Trend of Economic Thinking”
On March 1, 1933, Friedrich A. von Hayek delivered an inaugural lecture at the London School of Economics. The lecture was published two months later in Economica under the title "The Trend of Economic Thinking." In the paper, Hayek despairs over the direction of current "public opinion," which favored increasing state intervention in the economy. He also notes that the concept of planning, then in vogue both in the popular press and among intellectuals in Britian, had its origins in the writings of continental socialists, in particular the German historical school. Though this article is the first published piece in which Hayek discusses such topics as socialism and planning, it has passed virtually unnoticed by scholars of the Socialist Calculation Debate. This would be reason enough for mentioning it. But a closer examination of the article, given what we know of Hayek's subsequent work, reveals it to be an extraordinary document. Hayek touches upon a number of themes in "The Trend of Economic Thinking" that were to engage him for the remainder of his career.
