by Kurt R. Leube *

“Before we explain why people commit  mistakes, we must first explain why they should ever be right.» 

F.A. von  Hayek

I

It is 2012, and lets we forget one of the most seminal minds of our times, we should recall the important work of Friedrich A. von Hayek who died 20  years ago, on March 23, 1992.

F.A.von Hayek grew up in a typical Austrian family that could lay claim to an academic tradition of well over three generations. At the age of 18, to avoid his failing at several schools in Vienna he voluntarily joined the Austro-Hungarian Army and served as an artillery officer until the end of WW I. Immediately after his return from the Italian front, Hayek enrolled in the University of Vienna and, only three years later obtained his law degree (Dr. jur.).  While Hayek studied for his second doctoral degree in Political Science (Dr. rer. pol.) which he earned in 1923, he began to work under Ludwig von Mises’ directorship in the “Abrechnungsamt”, a Vienna based office for the settlement of pre-war debts. As the most eminent scholar of the third generation of the Austrian School of Economics, Mises (1881-1973), soon became Hayek’s mentor and in 1927 they succeeded in founding the “Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research” which soon gained high academic reputation under Hayek’s and later Oskar Morgenstern’s leadership.

Sigue leyendo →