| The Last Knight of Liberalism |
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| Wednesday, 26 September 2007 | |
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A few weeks ago, Guido Hülsmann, professor at the University of Angers, published one of the best books ever on von Mises, his life and his work. He describes the flights, that forced von Mises to first leave his hometown, Lvov for Vienna and -in 1940- from Vienna via Switzerland- to the USA. He was considered most dangerous by the Nazi's, because he was known "as an archenemy of National Socialism and of every form of Socialism. He had personally steered Austria away from Bolshevism-in the twenties and thirties-, saved his country from the level of hyperinflation that destroyed interwar Germany, and convinced a generation of young socialist intellectuals to embrace the market." Hülsmann describes the difficulties von Mises had to face to survive in the USA. In a period, that Keynes and his followers dictated world economy, he "was considered an anachronism"-he defended a 100% gold standard-, but when he passed away, he left "a small circle of admirers and disciples, that has grown ever since". Hülsmann did a great ,job writing this book and we should be gratefull for that. It will inspire us for the next decades. Title: Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism" By Jörg Guido Hülsmann to be ordered at the von Mises Institute in Auburn, USA.
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Ludwig Von Mises, one of the most prominent economists of the 20th century, was born in Lvov (The Ukraine). While studying in Vienna, he came to appreciate and defend the principles of classical Liberalism. In 1911, he published his path-breaking book Theory of Money and Credit.
An opponent of the totalitarian developments between the two World Wars, he fled to Geneva and later to the U.S.A.(1940). There he continued to write his enormous oeuvre against the rising tide of Socialism and Keynesianism. His work was dominated by two themes: The first was the essential role of money for the social efficiency of the market system. The second was the free society. He was a prolific writer and his most important works are: Theory of money and credit, Human Action, Liberalism, Bureaucracy; The Anti- Capitalist Mentality.
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