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currently at 22 member sites

New Member: Hans Economics

LWA welcomes Hans Economics on board as our 22nd member.  The intellectual foundation behind much of the ideas of liberty comes from the Austrian School of Economics with economists like Mises, Rothbard, Hayek, and Hans Sennholz (after whom this site is named)

Hans Economics is a terrific new blog that focuses on the Austrian arguments for economics. We’re very glad they are joining us and can’t wait to see more great content.

(this interview was conducted with Nick Freiling of Hans Economics and r0thbard of LWA)

Site: HansEconomics.com

Who are you?

We are four students of Austrian economics seeking to defend the discipline from bad logic, fallacious claims, and outright lies. Currently, our team includes myself (Nick Freiling), and several other authors. We attended Grove City College.

What led you to the ideas of liberty?

We all have different stories about how we ‘discovered’ the philosophy of liberty, and we all hold differing views about how to best seek its preservation and advancement in the modern context.

But one thing we all have in common is the economics department at Grove City College. Through the tutelage of Drs. Herbener, Ritenour, Miller, and Hendrickson, we have all come to more fully understand the tenets of Austrian/free market economics and the importance of liberty in allowing for economic progress.

On what do you write?

We write about economics. At this point, every single one of our articles is a response to an article from some other source that contains some sort of error or fallacious claim about economics.

For whom are you writing?

We are writing for anyone interested in discerning fact from fiction with regards to economics.

Why the Austrian school of economics?

The Austrian school of economics is, as far as I can tell, the only school of economics that takes into full account the self-evidently true conclusions of praxeology. This–coupled with the fact that Austrian theory has been vindicated by historical experience–makes it a worthy object of study and something the world simply cannot do without. I can’t speak for my colleagues at Hans, but I am certain they would agree.

Where do you see the Austrian movement going in the next few years?

I prefer not to think of it as a ‘movement’, per se. Austrian economics is a school of thought. Yes, there has been a resurgence of interest in Austrian economics over the past few years, but there is nothing about Austrian theory that requires a concerted effort on the part of it’s adherents to bring about any sort of political or social change.

I do believe that the Austrian school will continue to see more interest among the larger public, but only by ensuring more and more people have a thorough understanding of Austrian theory will it ever become a mainstream–or the mainstream–school of economics.

If you had 3 dream writers to (dead or alive) to bring on to your team, who would they be?

Henry Hazlitt because of his journalistic dexterity in illustrating free market principles for both scholarly and popular audiences alike.

Murray Rothbard because of his exhaustive knowledge of Austrian economics and succinct manner of explicating Austrian theory.

Peter Schiff because he is a great communicator and an expert refuter of Keynesians!

hazlitt-rothbard-schiff

In 3 years from now, where do you hope to see your website?

Ideally I’d make a living being the executive editor of Hans Economics full time. We would be a well-known online magazine with a strong reputation as a go-to reference for individuals interested in examining the accuracy of the many attacks on Austrian theory as well as questionable claims about economics in general.

Any favorite blogs or sites that you’d like to give a shout-out to?

All of our writers derive an incredible amount of inspiration and enlightenment from the scholars at the Mises Institute, so Mises.org is one I highly recommend.

LewRockwell.com is also visited almost daily by all of our writers.

Others include Liberty Fund, the Acton Institute, and the Foundation for Economic Education. They all have great websites with awesome (and free) resources helpful to anyone interested in discovering more about Austrian/free market economic theory.

Check out some of their recent posts:

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