Richard Michael Ebeling

The Citadel · School of Business

My interests in Austrian Economics and classical liberalism all began when I was a teenager by being introduced to the writings of Ayn Rand, which soon led me to the works of Carl Menger, Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek, and others. The journey then carried me to attending the first “Austrian” conference in June 1974, and two Institute for Humane Stu...

The Austrian economists are well known for their theory of the stages and periods of production. Less well known is that in the 1920s and 1930s, several members of the Austrian School -- Hans Mayer, Paul N. Rosenstein-Rodan, and Oskar Morgenstern -- also contributed to an "Austrian" Theory of Consumption Period Planning. This essay explains and tra...

About one hundred years ago, the Austrian Economist, Ludwig von Mises, published his, now, famous article on why rational economic calculation was "impossible" under a fairly comprehensive system of central planning. This was followed by F. A. Hayek's equally famous analysis on the division of knowledge in society that can only be effectively share...

The Austrian economists are well known for their contributions to the theory of the time-structure of production. But less well known is that in the interwar years of the 1920s and 1930s members of the Austrian School also attempted to develop a theory of consumption period planning in the context of the logic of choice. This paper focuses on the d...

Carl Menger’s Grundsätze der Volkswirtschaftslehre was published 150 years ago, in 1871, marking the beginning of the Austrian School. Menger’s contribution was not only part of the beginning of the “marginalist” turn in economics, but to the unique “subjectivist,” market process-oriented aspects of the “Austrian” tradition, that also includes a fo...

Thirty years ago, in 1991, the Soviet Union formally came to an end as a political entity on the map of the world. It marked the conclusion of the dream of a new socialist system based on comprehensive government central planning for a better society. Soviet socialist reality was a nightmare of tyranny, economic chaos, along with political privileg...

This year marks the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Sec-ond World War. On May 8th, Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allied Powers in Europe. On September 2nd, Imperial Japan sur-rendered to the Allies on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay, thus ending a global conflict that is estimated to have cost the lives of upwards of 50 mill...

Quinn Slobodian’s Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism (2018), attempts to draw a picture of the interwar and postwar periods of the 20th century that sees neoliberalism as a political and economic idea meant to preserve the power of private Bcapital^ over democratic Blabor^ for the exploitation of the latter by the former....

The case if made for a "new liberalism" that is not modern American liberalism of activist government, but builds upon and extends the premises and policies of classical liberalism. The author explains the ideas and successes of 18th and 19th century liberalism, the American experience of an open and liberal society that drew tens of millions of im...

This year, 2019, marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Ludwig von Mises’s lesser known book, Nation, State, and Economy, which appeared in the immediate aftermath of the First World War. One of its leading themes was to trace out the interactions between language, nationalism, and the emergence of the political movement for national sel...

Ebeling portrays Wilhelm Röpke as a leading European advocate of a liberal economic order and a conservative social order built around the institutions of civil society. While not an advocate of laissez-faire, Röpke believed that a competitive market economy was essential to a free and humane society, which was the opposite of the totalitarianisms...

"Austrian Economics and Public Policy" offers a detailed overview of many of the essential ideas of the Austrian School of Economics from Carl Menger through Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich A. Hayek and Israel M. Kirzner to the present, and applies these ideas to a variety of contemporary policy issues including the interventionist-welfare state, fr...

The fundamental flaw in Keynesian Economics revolves around the misplaced and misdirected focus on statistical aggregates and averages that hide from view all the underlying microeconomic and market process relationships and interconnections through which change and economy-wide fluctuations play themselves out. They hide from view that what Keynes...

This first book offers a detailed explanation of the Austrian theory of money and the business cycle in comparison to the Keynesian and Monetarist approaches, including in the context of an analysis of the causes, consequences and cures for the Great Depression of the 1930s. The second part of the volume critically analyzes the political and econom...

O artigo explica a sua relação pessoal e profissional entre Friedrich A. Hayek e Ludwig von Mises durante o período entre as duas Guerras Mundiais e, também explica as concepções destes dois economistas sobre processo de mercado, papel do conhecimento, preços e expectativas empreendedoras na tendência de produzir coordenação do mercado competitivo....

This paper traces the personal and intellectual relationship between Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich A. Hayek, especially through the period of the interwar period of the 1920s and 1930s in Vienna. It explains the influence that Mises' writings had on the development of Hayek's own thinking in economics, and their differing but complementary formula...

This paper discusses the historical origins and development of classical liberalism in the 18th and 19th centuries, and its political-economic agenda in the years between 1815 and 1914. It, then, analyzes the reactionary forces, of socialism, nationalism, and welfare-statism that undermined the belief in and some of the practical achievements of cl...

The Ukrainian-Russian conflict over Crimea highlights the different meanings of "right to self-determination." The classical liberal idea of the individual's right of self-determination in deciding in to which country he wishes to be a member is contrasted with the notion of "national self-determination," meaning the unification of all people shari...

Herbert Davenport was one of the leading economists in the early decades of the 20th century, and 2013 marked the centenary of the publication of "The Economics of Enterprise." It is explained how he formulated a dynamic theory of the market process derived from the subjective valuations of demanders and the entrepreneurs' anticipatory appraisement...

Herbert J. Davenport was one a prominent American economist in the early decades of the 20th century, heavily influenced by the "Austrian" economists. The year 2013 marked the centenary of the publication of his major work, "The Economics of Enterprise," in which he developed a dynamic theory of the competitive market process, focusing on the pivot...

Ludwig von Mises was most likely the most uncompromising advocate of free market liberalism in the 20th century. But while he is most famous for his theoretical treatises on various aspects of economic theory and political economy, he made his living in the Austria of the interwar period as a senior economic analyst for the Vienna Chamber of Commer...

This paper compares the political-philosophical arguments for individual liberty and economic freedom in the writings of Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek, and Ayn Rand. After first explaining their common historical experiences in the early decades of the 20th century with collectivism-in-practice in Europe, the paper analyzes their different concepti...

In general, the term “Austrian Economics” has been used both descriptively and normatively. It has either designated a set of ideas about the fundamental nature of economic theory and its logical implications or it has been viewed as a conception of society and the market with certain policy implications concerning the limits to and dangers from go...

The Austrian Theory of Money and the Business Cycle are contrasted with Keynesian Economics in the context of interpreting the causes and policy "cures" for the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is argued that the "Austrian" focus on monetary dynamics and relative price effects during 1920s offers a richer understanding of the events of the early 1...

Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, was one of the most original and controversial economists of the 20th century, both as a defender of free-market liberalism and a leading opponent of socialism and the interventionist-welfare state. He was both the grant designer of a political economy of freedom and a trenchant, detailed critic of government r...

The revival of the modern Austrian School of economics may be said to have begun 30 years ago. In 1974 the Austrian School had been on hiatus for almost a quarter of a century. For more than 60 years before the 1940s, the Austrian economists had been considered some of the most original contributors to economic theory and policy. They were among th...

ABSTRACT This is an invited response to James C. W. Ahiakpor, “Wicksell on the Classical Theories on Money, Credit, Interest and the Price Level.”American Journal of Economics and Sociology 58 (July); 435-457. Wicksell's contribution was to introduce Böhm-Bawerk's theory of capital into a monetary setting.

The revival of the modern Austrian School of economics may be said to have begun 30 years ago. In 1974 the Austrian School had been on hiatus for almost a quarter of a century. For more than 60 years before the 1940s, the Austrian economists had been considered some of the most original contributors to economic theory and policy. They were among th...

Schutz and the Austrian Economists emphasized meaning and intentionality for understanding social and market processes. This is clearest in their conception of the logic of action and choice, and the mental process by which social and market agents formulate interpersonal expectations for purposes of successful mutual orientation.

In “The Final Problem,” the story that concludes The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, Professor Moriarty confronts the world's “only unofficial consulting detective” in his rooms at 221B Baker Street. Knowing that Holmes possesses the means to bring about his destruction within a matter of days, Moriarty is determined to persuade him to “stand clear… or...

F or four decades, from the mid-1930s to the 1970s, Keynesian economics almost monopolized economic policy in the United States and around the world. The "new economics," as it was called, was going to assure mankind economic stability, full employment, and material prosperity— all through wise government management of monetary and fiscal policy. S...