It’s also worth pointing out that Mises and Hayek explained the great Depression before it occurred. Part of the reason for Austrian Business Cycle Theory’s brief popularity during the 1930s was that they were recognised as having predicted what would happen. And of course Mises wrote his “Causes of the Economic Crisis” in 1931.
This, by the way, is the same Jim Powell who wrote The Triumph of Liberty. So he’s written about Rothbard’s book (pp. 277-8), as well as about Mises’ analysis of the Great Depression (p. 356) and Hayek on the ABCT (p. 363); thus he’s certainly aware of the Austrian contribution.
But Friedman is the hero of his chapter on depressions. I suspect that Powell, like Ebenstein, sees Austrian theory through Friedmanite lenses, and buys the Friedmanite line that the Austrians were great political theorists but inferior economists. His chapters on Mises, Hayek, and Rothbard focus more on their political views than their economic ones; from reading his chapter on Hayek you’d think Hayek’s first book was The Road to Serfdom.
