Preface

Summary

Twenty years have gone by since I first became seriously interested in Austrian economics. Although as an undergraduate in the early sixties I had read some books by Ludwig von Mises and had met Murray Rothbard and various New York Austrians and libertarians, my real attraction in those days was to the politics of the Austrians and not so much to their economics, of which I knew little. My real initiation into the economics of the Austrian tradition did not take place until 1974 at a conference on Austrian economics held in South Royalton, Vermont. Unbeknownst to me at the time, that conference was a decisive event in bringing about a revival of interest in the Austrian school among contemporary economists. For me, however, it was primarily an experience that raised a number of questions in my mind about economics in general and Austrian economics in particular that were not easily answered.

I found Austrian arguments intriguing, but elusive. I agreed with many of the sentiments expressed, but I could not quite figure out why I found them so appealing. I had first fallen in love with microeconomic theory as an undergraduate and had an abiding faith that it was sufficient to answer all important questions about the market (indeed, about life itself!), yet I also found Austrian critiques of parts of the corpus of microeconomics compelling.