Today’s is Joe Salerno’s birthday. He is an outstanding Austrian economist and the Academic Vice-President of the Mises Institute. Murray Rothbard said of Joe that he “has done remarkably creative work in the history of economic thought.”He has made major contribution to monetary theory, Austrian business cycle theory, the nature of entrepreneurship, and price theory. In pioneering work, he showed how Mises’s socialist calculation argument differed from that of Hayek. He is a zealous defender of the free market, ever ready to apply Austrian insights to current problems. At the request of Ron Paul, he testified before Congress on the Fed and monetary policy.
Besides being a great economist, Joe is also a great teacher of economics. Since 2005, he has headed the Austrian Summer Fellows program. He uses his remarkable analytical abilities and vast knowledge to guide the students in their research. In the breadth and depth of his work, he ranks as Murray Rothbard’s true successor. In addition, he is an all -around nice guy. I’m very fortunate to have him as a friend.
