“The social function of economic science consists precisely in developing soundeconomic theories and in exploding the fallacies of vicious reasoning. In the pursuit ofthis task the economist incurs the deadly enmity of all mountebanks and charlatanswhose shortcuts to an earthly paradise he debunks. The less these quacks are able toadvance plausible objections to an economist’s argument, the more furiously do theyinsult them.”

Austrian and American political economist and philosopher

Ludwig Heinrich von Mises was an Austrian and American political economist and philosopher of the Austrian school. He is known for his work on classical liberalism and the place of consumers in a market economy. He wrote and lectured widely on the social value of classical liberalism, and on praxeology, the study most closely associated with his work. He is also known for comparing communism and capitalism, and for defending liberal ideas against the spread of illiberalism and authoritarianism in 20th-century Europe.