Historical Figure
Friedrich Hayek
1899–1992
Austrian economist and philosopher (1899–1992)
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Biography
Friedrich August von Hayek was an Austrian economist and philosopher. He is known for his contributions to political economy, political philosophy and intellectual history. Hayek shared the 1974 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Gunnar Myrdal for work on money and economic fluctuations, and the interdependence of economic, social and institutional phenomena. His account of how prices communicate information is widely regarded as an important contribution to economics that led to him receiving the prize. He was a major contributor to the Austrian school of economics.
In Their Own Words (5)
She was a very good-looking woman, and extremely intelligent. But she wasn’t really very female; she had too much of a male intelligence.
Conversation with Alchian (1978); About , published in Nobel Prize-Winning Economist: Friedrich A. von Hayek (1983), p. 363 , 1978
Since the value of freedom rests on the opportunities it provides for unforeseen and unpredictable actions, we will rarely know what we lose through a particular restriction of freedom.
“Principles or Expediency?” Toward Liberty: Essays in Honor of Ludwig von Mises on the Occasion of his 90th Birthday (29 September 1971) , 1971
If a big country like the United States did return to the gold standard, it would start a great deflation. Most likely the government couldn't stick to it for long. They'd switch the policy to some halfway measure like a gold exchange standard.
Interview in Silver & Gold Report, Vol. V, No. 20, (Late October 1980) , 1980
A society that does not recognize that each individual has values of his own which he is entitled to follow can have no respect for the dignity of the individual and cannot really know freedom.
p. 79. , 1960
I don’t believe we’re in for a crash now. It's much more likely that government will just conceal the continuation of inflation by price controls. But if anything is worse than an open inflation, it’s a repressed inflation. What you’re likely to get is not a violent deflation but increasing stagnation of productivity.
Interview in Silver & Gold Report, Vol. V, No. 20, (Late October 1980) , 1980
Timeline
The story of Friedrich Hayek, told in moments.
Served as an artillery officer on the Italian front. The war left him partially deaf in one ear and permanently suspicious of centralized power.
Published The Road to Serfdom. It argued that government planning leads inevitably to tyranny. Reader's Digest condensed it. Millions read it.
Won the Nobel Prize in Economics, shared with Gunnar Myrdal. Hayek said the prize shouldn't exist because it gives economists undeserved authority.
Died in Freiburg at 92. Margaret Thatcher kept a copy of his book in her handbag and once slammed it on a table during a policy meeting, saying "This is what we believe."
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