Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises ( born September 29, 1881 in Lviv, † October 10, 1973 in New York ) was an Austrian- American economist, theorist of libertarianism and one of the most important representatives of the Austrian school of economics in the 20th century.

• 5.1 bibliographies
• 5.2 Biographies
• 5.3 More

Life

Ludwig Edler von Mises was born on September 29, 1881, the son of Arthur Edler von Mises and his wife Adele, born in Landau, the son of a wealthy Jewish family in Lviv (then capital of the crown land Galicia, now Lviv, Ukraine) born. The survey in the hereditary nobility was done for his great-grandfather Mayer Rachmiel Mises by Emperor Franz Joseph I.. His brother was the mathematician Richard von Mises. A few years later the family moved to Vienna, where Mises in 1900 began his studies of law and in 1906 graduated with a dissertation. Von Mises was from 1906 employees of the trade and industry chamber in Vienna, where he oversaw the finance department. He taught from 1913 in an unpaid private lecturer, from 1918 as an associate professor at the University of Vienna, and from 1934 at the International University Institute for Graduate School in Geneva. During his time in Vienna he also held private seminars from his office at the Chamber of Commerce, participants were about Fritz Machlup, Oskar Morgenstern and Eric Voegelin. Even today's Economic Research Institute ( WIFO) goes back to its founding. Von Mises was one of the leading economic adviser to the Austrian government; his most important employees at the time was Friedrich August von Hayek.

From Switzerland von Mises emigrated in 1940 to the United States because he felt increasingly threatened in Europe. In the U.S., he had as consistently liberal in the phase of the New Deal professionally initially a hard time and had to live off savings. In 1946 he was awarded an American citizen. He taught from 1945 to 1969 - at that time the oldest teaching professor in the U.S. - at New York University on a Chair. Von Mises was a member of the liberal think tank Mont Pelerin Society.

Work

Theory of money and fiduciary media (1912 )

Von Mises was first trailer of the historical school of Gustav von Schmoller, was but after acquaintance with the writings of Carl Menger's a convinced representative of the Austrian school. He studied from 1903 with Eugen von Böhm- Bawerk and extended the teachings of Scripture with his theory of money and fiduciary media.

The social economy (1922 )

In his book, The Social Economy (later engl. Than Socialism ) he founded in 1922 theoretically that a pure planned economy can not work because there is in it no way to determine prices for factors of production. The information function of the market price could no longer lead to an efficient allocation of goods and opportunity costs would not be considered so as Mises. Therefore, were the socialist economic system in its definition any " industrial system" in the strict sense, since a comparison of quantity, quality of goods and efficient use of the scarce means of production was not possible. This argument is based on the assumption that socialist systems no monetary systems use to evaluate factors of production. This became clear in the course of Calculation Debate denied by Oskar Lange. The collapse of the socialist economic system in the Soviet bloc 70 years later view his supporters as confirmation of his prediction.

Von Mises capitalism thought was a guarantor of human freedom and the only viable economic system. Only by free economies is the modern standard of production emerged and just so he could continue to operate. He argued that government intervention always lead to further and eventually lead to socialism, which in turn would lead to a radical reduction in the general prosperity. (→ Ölflecktheorem )

Liberalism (1927 )

In the 1920s and 1930s, von Mises was one of the few German-speaking intellectuals who held fast to the classical liberalism. In his book Liberalism of 1927, he tried to justify this logically utilitarian basis. History of liberalism was the first political direction that would serve the good of all, not the particular layers. From socialism, who also pretend to strive for the good of all, the liberalism would not differ by the target, but by the means which he choose to achieve this final goal (p. 7).

He continued, "It can not be denied that the fascism and dictatorship all similar endeavors are full of the best intentions and that their intervention has saved European civilization for the moment. The merit that the fascism has thereby acquired will continue to live forever in history. But the policy has brought salvation for the moment, is not of the kind that the permanent adherence could promise to her success. The fascism was a makeshift of the moment; him to be regarded as more would be a fatal mistake. "

Herbert Marcuse has these and other statements known Liberal consulted about the rise of fascism in order to prove his thesis of the " inner kinship between the liberal social theory and the seemingly anti-liberal totalitarian state theory." However, the Mises biographer Jörg Guido Hülsmann rejects the assertion that Mises had paid homage with this, often taken out of context quote fascism.

Although he personally had quite conservative values, he also joined for the legalization of drugs. The most important means to international peace he saw the elimination of all barriers to trade; Moreover, he refused to state schools as it was in this - saw a means of oppression of minorities - especially in the former Eastern Europe.

National Economics ( 1940) and Human Action (1949 )

In 1940 he published the book economics, which should summarize the overall teachings of the "Austrian school". Once again significantly extended this work appeared in 1949 in the U.S. under the title Human Action. It would provide a complete science of human action, the von Mises called praxeology. As the only correct method of praxeology, which should include economics as a branch, saw von Mises logical- deductive closure. The praxeology can find such objective, a priori true laws. The book has been expanded in subsequent editions and eventually encompassed nearly 1,000 pages.

Mises took the idea of ​​synthetic a priori by Immanuel Kant, that there are true statements about reality that can be derived from simple axioms and logic and therefore no longer need to be tested. But Mises added one important aspect: mental Kantian categories can be understood explored in categories of action as final. Thus Mises bridged the gap in Kantianism, the strict distinction between the mental and the physical.

Almost all economists, even some of Mises ' own disciple of Hayek, criticized the praxeological method. The view that one can determine economic laws a priori by pure deductive reasoning and without empirical observation is rejected by almost all of today's economists.

Bureaucracy (1944 )

Among the other works are significant: Bureaucracy (German Bureaucracy ), in which he formulated a theory of bureaucratic economic activity and explaining that bureaucracy is a necessary consequence of government activity, as well as some theoretical writings, which dealt with the methodology of economics and in which he tried to justify and defend his praxeology.

Awards

Writings

• Theory of money and fiduciary media. 1912, ISBN 978-3428118823 (PDF).
• The social economy. 1922, ISBN 978-3878811039 (PDF).
• Liberalism. 1927, ISBN 978-3896653857 (PDF).
• Monetary stabilization and economic policy. 1928 (PDF).
• Basic problems of political economy. 1933 (PDF).
• Economics. Theory of action and economy. 1940, ISBN 978-3878811725 (PDF).
• The bureaucracy. 1944, ISBN 978-3896653161 (PDF).
• Human Action: A Treatise on Economics. 1949, ISBN 978-0945466246 (PDF).
• Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis. 1951, ISBN 978-0913966631 (PDF).