Friedrich Hayek: Why Free Markets Trump Central Planning A concise guide to the economist who turned the battle of ideas on its head
Friedrich August von Hayek (1899-1992) was an Austrian-British economist, political philosopher, Nobel laureate and—above all—a relentless defender of individual liberty. His critique of socialism is more than an economic argument; it is a warning that every attempt to “design” society from above chips away at the very freedom that makes prosperity possible. BACKGROUND IN BRIEF • Born in Vienna into an academic family; fought in WWI, then studied law and economics at the University of Vienna. • Early career in the “Austrian School of Economics” alongside Ludwig von Mises. • 1930s: sparred with John Maynard Keynes over business-cycle theory at the London School of Economics. • Post-WWII: shifted toward political philosophy, writing The Road to Serfdom (1944) and The Constitution of Liberty (1960). • 1974: shared the Nobel Prize in Economics with Gunnar Myrdal for work on the interdependence of economic and institutional phenomena. THE THREE IDEAS THAT MADE HAYEK IMMORTAL 2.1 THE KNOWLED...