Happy Mises Day

30 September 2006 at 10:14 am Peter G. Klein 1 comment

| Peter Klein |

We neglected to wish our readers yesterday a Happy Mises Day. Ludwig von Mises was born 125 years ago on 29 September 1881. Guido Hülsmann, whose full-length biography of Mises will appear in 2007, shares some tributes that were published on (or just before) Mises’s death in 1973. Among the accolades: “Recognized as a brilliant contributor to economic thought not only by his disciples but also by many who disagreed radically with his political and social philosophy” (International Herald-Tribune). “The world’s liberal economists [have lost] their most prolific pen” (Daily Telegraph). “He held that a free society and a free market are inseparable. He gloried in the potential of reason and man. In sum, he stood for principle in the finest tradition of Western Civilization” (Wall Street Journal). “The de Tocqueville of modern economics” (CBS television). Murray Rothbard wrote in Human Events:

Readers of Mises’ majestic, formidable and uncompromising works must have often been surprised to meet him in person. Perhaps they had formed the image of Ludwig Mises as cold, severe, austere, the logical scholar repelled by lesser mortals, bitter at the follies around him and at the long trail of wrongs and insults that he had suffered. They couldn’t have been more wrong; for what they met was a mind of genius blended harmoniously with a personality of great sweetness and benevolence. Not once has any of us heard a harsh or bitter word escape from Mises’ lips. Unfailingly gentle and courteous, Ludwig Mises was always there to encourage even the slightest signs of productivity or intelligence in his friends and students.

(For some reason, I never forget Hayek’s birthday.)