The Hayek Love Song

Steven Horwitz Since the start of the financial crisis and recession, there has been a renewed interest in the ideas of Austrian economics by scholars, public intellectuals, and even the media.  For the first time in a long time, the analytical framework of Austrian economics is being taken note of, if not taken seriously, by a variety of opinion makers.  This is, of course, a good development. 

|Peter Boettke| When a fellow economist labels someone in the field it is usually because it serves as a short-hand for a set of arguments and beliefs, and/or area of orientation.  She is a labor economist, he works in development economics. Those are fields.  But she is an experimentalist, or he does behavioral economics.  Those are paradigmatic expressions.  This is the positive role of labels.

Steven Horwitz Given the debate going on in this thread, I thought I would post the section of my contribution to the Spring 2010 Journal of Private Enterprise symposium on Dan Klein and Jason Briggeman's critique of Kirzner here as it speaks directly to the issues that have been raised about Mises and Hayek. *** II.  Kirzner’s Entrepreneur as the Misesian Solution to a Hayekian Problem

Steven Horwitz Normally Austrians talk about the two big debates of the interwar period - the socialist calculation debate and the Hayek-Keynes debate.  And those were big, particularly if "big" here means something like "had major, direct consequences on policy." It's a fun conversation to try to argue which one was more important.

|Peter Boettke|

Steven Horwitz Pete has often said that the best reading of Mises is a Hayekian one, and the best reading of Hayek is a Misesian one.  I completely agree, and I've spent energy over the years trying to convince people of the truth of the first half of that aphorism, mostly because it seems that self-proclaimed "Misesians" are more hostile to Hayek than Austrians more favorable to Hayek are to Mises.  But today I offer some evidence for the second half of the aphorism.

Steven Horwitz The end of the week brings new Horwitz videos from FEE and Reason.tv.  From FEE:  "What Austrian Economics IS and What Austrian Economics is NOT."     And from Reason, an interview at Freedom Fest covering Austrian economics, my work on the family, and bleeding heart libertarianism.  

This recession has brought out a great deal of talk about the Austrian approach to economics, a subject I studied intensely in my student years.  This post is a brief primer for the mainstream business owner or manager.