Friedrich August Hayek
Friedrich August von Hayek (1899–1992) was an Austrian-British economist and political philosopher, Mises' most famous student, Nobel laureate (1974), and patron saint of neoliberalism.
Doctrines
- Knowledge problem: prices aggregate dispersed tacit knowledge no planner can possess (see Economic Calculation Problem).
- Spontaneous order: beneficial institutions evolve; constructivist rationalism (planning) destroys them.
- The Road to Serfdom (1944): any planning slides toward totalitarianism.
- Denationalization of money (1976): competing private currencies.
Organization of neoliberalism
Hayek founded the Mont Pelerin Society (1947), the coordination point for rebuilding laissez-faire ideology after its depression-era discredit. The "neoliberal thought collective" (Mirowski's term) then captured academia, foundations, and eventually Thatcher/Reagan governments.
Critique
Marxists note the asymmetry: Hayek's epistemology demolishes omniscient planning but never touches corporate internal planning or finance's power over states. "Spontaneous order" mystifies historically specific capitalist relations as natural law. Infrared treats him as high priest of the Anglo Box worldview.