This day in history: Economist Friedrich Hayek died on this day in 1992. Hayek wrote the economics classic, The Road to Serfdom, which "[warns] of the danger of tyranny that inevitably results from government control of economic decision-making through central planning." [i.e Socialism]
Milton Friedman said of The Road to Serfdom, "This profound book was highly influential in the immediate post-World War II period when it was a lone voice presenting the case for libertarian philosophy and pointing out the consequences of an increase in the role of the state. It was certainly one of the most effective works leading people to take libertarian principles seriously."
Hayek was especially hard on economists: "When Friedrich Hayek won the Nobel Prize for economics in 1974, he embarrassed many economists by noting their failures. Speaking in the midst of a great inflation that caused a greater loss of stock-market wealth in the U.S. than the Great Depression, he noted that the inflation was 'brought about by policies which the majority of economists recommended and even urged governments to pursue.' He added, 'We have indeed at the moment little cause for pride: As a profession, we have made a mess of things.'"
It's interesting that Governments always seem to choose the wrong "experts."
My favorite quote from Hayek is “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine the can design.”
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