Ghosts of Mont Pelerin
The story of our economic system began with a meeting at a Swiss ski resort in 1947. What can Mont Pelerin Society’s success teach us to help transform today’s economy?
In 1947, a group of economists met at the Swiss ski resort of Mont Pelerin to discuss the future of economics. Amongst the attendees of the inaugural Mont Pelerin Society meeting were those who today are considered titans of the discipline: Friedrich von Hayek, Milton Friedman and George Stigler, all of whom would go on to win the Nobel prize in Economics; Frank Knight, famous for Knightian uncertainty and teacher of Friedman and Stigler; Ludwig von Mises, the father of Austrian economics; and Karl Popper, one of the most influential philosophers of freedom in the 20th century.
The Mont Pelerin Society continues today, though for what purpose is somewhat unclear given the success the group has had. In 1947, however, with Keynes gone but his economics widely accepted, these architects of neoliberalism set themselves the task to change the world.
Before I discuss how, and importantly what we can learn from Mont Pelerin, it’s important to appreciate what the Society was trying to achieve. Undoubtedly, they did not call it neoliberalism per se, though the term had been in existence…
