Portrait: Ludwig von Mises, Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and sociologist

25 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  21 minutes

© Krapulat/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Krapulat/cc-by-sa-4.0

Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and sociologist. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberalism. He is best known for his work on praxeology studies comparing communism and capitalism. He is considered one of the most influential economic and political thinkers of the 20th century. Mises emigrated from Austria to the United States in 1940. Since the mid-20th century, libertarian movements have been strongly influenced by Mises’s writings. Mises’ student Friedrich Hayek viewed Mises as one of the major figures in the revival of classical liberalism in the post-war era. Hayek’s work “The Transmission of the Ideals of Freedom” (1951) pays high tribute to the influence of Mises in the 20th century libertarian movement. Mises’s Private Seminar was a leading group of economists. Many of its alumni, including Friedrich Hayek and Oskar Morgenstern, emigrated from Austria to the United States and Great Britain. Mises has been described as having approximately seventy close students in Austria.   read more…

Portrait: The economist and philosopher Friedrich August von Hayek

20 February 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  21 minutes

Friedrich August von Hayek, 1981 © flickr.com - LSE Library

Friedrich August von Hayek, 1981 © flickr.com – LSE Library

Friedrich August von Hayek (CH FBA), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian economist and philosopher best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Hayek shared the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Gunnar Myrdal for his “pioneering work in the theory of money and economic fluctuations and […] penetrating analysis of the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena”. Hayek was also a major social theorist and political philosopher of the 20th century and his account of how changing prices communicate information that helps individuals co-ordinate their plans is widely regarded as an important achievement in economics, leading to his Nobel Prize.   read more…

Portrait: Adam Smith, the father of modern economics

8 February 2014 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  18 minutes

19th-century building at the location where Adam Smith lived (1767-1776) and wrote "The Wealth of Nations" © Kilnburn

19th-century building at the location where Adam Smith lived (1767-1776) and wrote “The Wealth of Nations” © Kilnburn

Adam Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economy from Kirkcaldy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is best known for two classic works: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. Smith is cited as the “father of modern economics” and is still among the most influential thinkers in the field of economics today.   read more…

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