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Austrian Economics is a school of economic thought characterized by the works of Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, and Murray Rothbard, among others. The Austrian school argues in favor of consistent laissez faire economic policies, private property, and representative money as opposed to fiat money.Detractors reject the Austrian school as old-fashioned and inflexible, because it does not provide a mechanism for governments to control the money supply and ignores the lessons learnt over the course of the 20th century - particularly the necessity of a welfare state to alleviate poverty and reduce social inequality. Proponents argue that the history of the 20th century actually proves the soundness of their ideas.
The Austrian school is closely allied with the political philosophy of libertarianism, because both favor unrestricted capitalism.
