On November 4-5, the 10th Austrian Economics Conference took place at the Austrian Central Bank (Österreichische Nationalbank). The event was organized in collaboration with the Fundación Bases and the Hayek Institut and received more than 150 academics, researchers, think-tankers, entrepreneurs, and student advocates of the ideas of freedom from all over the world.
#RestartVienna became a great motivation for the promoters of the ideas of the Austrian School to join forces to meet in the place where it all began. The Austrian Economics Conference 2021 was very special as we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the publication of the “Principles of Political Economy” by our founder Carl Menger and the 100th anniversary of his death.
After the welcoming remarks by Federico Fernandez, Ingo Friedrich and Barbara Kolm and the Opening Speech by Dr. Robert Holzmann on “The natural interest rate – or: why policy rates are that low”, the brilliant presentations of our speakers from Europe and America on the main topics of discussion of the Austrian School.
But also, discussions on Austrian philosophy, epistemology, and methodology took place. The presentations recovered the tradition started by Carl Menger and the contributions of his followers and their contributions to current problems were revalued. Attendees had the opportunity to debate with the speakers during the presentations that continued during the breaks.
The first day at OeNB, Kassensaal
by Simon Sarewski
Austrians know that we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Carl Menger’s Grundsätze this year. To commemorate this, the Institut Misesa Poland team organized a panel where they spoke about Menger’s life and his achievements, both the ones in economics and otherwise. Mikolaj Pisarski, Krzysztof Turowski, Norbert Slenzok, and Tomasz Agencki reflected on Menger’s life, work, and influence. To end this awesome sneak-peak into Menger’s life the panel concluded with Tomasz Agencki’s vision of what a movie about Menger should and would look like, like the one he is producing at the moment.
Before lunch we had the opportunity to hear Jeffrey Booth’s keynote speech on our rapidly increasing understanding of economics. Everybody was engulfed by his vision of today and the future. To sum up his talk in one sentence: The future is bright and bitcoin (and crypto in general) are here to grant us freedom, for which the governments and the central banks of the world won’t be able to do much about it.
The day continued with Facundo Corvalán’s discussion of the Methodenstreit and the ever important history vs. theory debate. Of course, economics is not only (neoclassical) mathematics as the Mendoza Psychological School of Economics on which Menger has made an imprint, as Natalia Conti explained. This was followed by a lecture of Menger’s capital treatment by Ferdinando Meacci. Gabriel Mursa proved wrong all those saying that Austrian Economics is “only theory” with his discussion of the German hyperinflation of 1914-1923 through the lenses of an Austrian. The segment ended with Fernando Rassiga, who combined philosophy, free markets, and religion.
The theory of capital discussion continued into the next segment as well explained by Youly Ninov, followed by an awesome discussion in the “philosophy of Austrian economics,” where Łukasz Dominiak and Norbert Slenzok made their case on whether Rothbardian economics is value-free. Clifford F. Thies showed that the Socialist Calculation Debate is still alive, even if we only talk about it in applied terms, not just in theory. Esteban Viani Villarroel observed the yield curve, while Harald Wiese focused on mining and using tin, connecting it with Austrian economics and ABM.
The climax of the first day was the Hayek Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 presented to Prof. Dr. Veselin Vukotic, the Rector and Founder of University of Donja Gorica – UDG.
