The roots of neoliberalism in Friedrich von Hayek

Hayek is one of the most important liberal thinkers of the twentieth century. Born in 1899 in Vienna, he became with Ludwig von Mises, who was his mentor during his time at Vienna, one of the main representatives of the Austrian School of liberal economic thought. In 1931 he emigrated to Britain and took up a position at the London School of Economics. There he became the main intellectual opponent of John Maynard Keynes poising free market economy against Keynes’ planned economy. This contest led both men in their work far beyond the disciplinary limits of economics or perhaps to the origins of economics where it actually explains the functioning of society as a whole and ideally the positive contribution economics can make to that. He died in 1992 in Freiburg, Germany.