Friedrich Hayek was an Austrian-born economist and philosopher, and a major critic of John Maynard Keynes. Hayek’s account of how changing prices communicate signals which enable individuals to coordinate their plans is widely regarded as a seminal achievement in economics. This and other contributions have led to Hayek being regarded as one of the most influential economists of the modern period, advocating a return to the proven classical economic model. Hayek is generally regarded as the grandfather of contemporary neo-liberalism.

In the 1930s Hayek was concerned at the general view in Britain’s academia that Fascism was a capitalist reaction against socialism. Instead, Hayek argued that Fascism was simply a militaristic form of socialism, and showed in his now famously prescient book, The Road to Serfdom, that all forms of socialism inevitably led to equivalent tyranny.

Hugely influential from first publication up to the present day, The Road to Serfdom makes a strong case against centrally-planned economies and shows how the best intentioned “wealth redistribution” initiatives of socialist regimes inevitably impoverish and finally enslave their hapless populations, leading finally to the collapse of the regimes themselves.

In his final years, Hayek said in an interview that his greatest satisfaction was to have lived long enough to see his predictions in the 1930s of the fall of the Soviet Union realised.

“When I was a young man, mostly only very old men agreed with my economic views, but I am pleased to see that now I am a very old man, mostly only old men disagree with me.”