Ludwig von Mises

Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) was an Austrian economist, the leading theorist of the Austrian School and of praxeology — economics as a deductive science from the axiom of human action.

Doctrines

• Economic calculation problem: without market prices for capital goods, socialist planning cannot rationally allocate resources (1920 essay; see Economic Calculation Problem).
• Theory of money and credit: business cycles originate in credit expansion below the natural rate of interest (Austrian Business Cycle Theory).
• Subjective value: marginal utility revolution completed; value is not intrinsic.
• Apriorism: economic laws are deduced from action, not tested empirically ("praxeology").

Politics

Mises was an uncompromising laissez-faireist, advising (and later admitting sympathy for) Austrofascism as a stopgap against Bolshevism — a fact his disciples downplay. His student Hayek popularized his calculation argument; Rothbard radicalized him into anarcho-capitalism.

Marxist assessment

The calculation debate forced socialists to clarify planning mechanisms (market socialism, input-output computation, cybernetics — Glushkov's OGAS). But Mises' framework excludes exploitation, class, and power: exchange appears as pure harmony. Infrared treats the Austrian School as the scholasticism of finance capital — see Friedrich August Hayek, Murray N. Rothbard, Hans Hermann-Hoppe.