Mises, Ludwig von

Mises, Ludwig (Edler) von

(born Sept. 29, 1881, Lemberg, Austria-Hungary—died Oct. 10, 1973, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Austrian-U.S. economist whose theories followed those of the Austrian school of economics. He taught at the University of Vienna (1913–38) before immigrating to the U.S. and joining the New York University faculty (1945–69). In The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality (1956), an examination of U.S. socialism, he dealt with the opposition to the free market by intellectuals, who, in his view, bear an unwarranted resentment toward mass demand, which is the basis of prosperity in big business.

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Mises, Ludwig von 

Born Sept. 29, 1881, in L’vov. American economist.

Mises graduated from the University of Vienna in 1906, where he was a professor from 1913 to 1938. During 1938–40 he worked in Switzerland; he moved to the United States in 1940, and in 1945 became a professor at New York University.

In works such as Socialism (1951) and The Anticapitalist Psychosis (1956), Mises emerges as an apologist for capitalism, proclaiming it to be a system that corresponds to human nature. An advocate of unrestricted freedom of competition, Mises rejects any attempts at government interference in the economy, taking the view that such interference disrupts the natural process of economic development. Many of Mises’ propositions are severely criticized even by bourgeois economists.