Is Austrian School of Economics Back?

While I would not say that Austrian economics is mainstream again, this story in the Wall Street Journal profiles one of its main high priests and dedicated thinkers. I noted the resurgence of Austrian School theorists a while back when von Hayek's The Road to Serfdom was top of the Amazon bestseller list. And while I have read a much smaller number of Peter Boettke's works, than I would like, I readily concede that the austrian School is a powerful approach to explaining the limits of central planning on one side and the lottery nature of industrial policy.

My introduction to the Austrian School was an encounter with Von Hayek's Road to Serfdom which I found quite impressive in its rendition of the inherent weaknesses of statism especially in the area of economic management. I have since then considered it as one of the most ideal ways to introduce students of economics to the Austrian School generally and to an appreciation of the limits of state action on the other.  It is also a gentler way of introducing students to the subject political economy by avoiding the large models driven by mathematics. As most of the Austrian School theorists believe, understanding the first principles of economics is important in itself and the mathematics should aid understanding and not undermine it.

As the article concludes, the major problems for Austrian School economists is that while they are able to identify why state action may be harmful, they are not often able to generate much policy advise to fix problems. And that explains why Keynesians fall from favor but always arise again. the Austrian School is one of the most important and ne to which I am most partial.