The Economics and Life of Wilhelm Röpke

Estefanía Campos  | 13 de febrero de 2018  | Vistas: 353

Samuel Gregg, author of a book on Wilhelm Röpke’s political economy, visited Universidad Francisco Marroquín to talk about the life and thought of this outstanding german economist and philosopher who was interested in the intersection between sound political, moral thinking and free market economics.

The purpose of his work was to integrate good economics with good philosophy to develop and grow a free society, which according to Gregg, was unusual in that time. He describes Röpke’s performance in the kaiser’s army during World War I, which made him conscious about the suppression of the individual. Later he went to the university where he studied law and then he became professor of economics at age twenty six.

I think his life in many respects tracks and reflects many of the developments and some of the conflicts that existed within the 20th century movement for greater liberty and freedom”.

Wilhelm wrote about monetary and banking theory as well as business cycle theory at the same time Hayek and Mises were also writing about it. Gregg describes the controversy that his publications defending freedom caused, and how they were the reason nazis expelled him from the university he was teaching.

Röpke is the one responsible - intellectually speaking - of why Germany should move towards a free economy rather than social democratic arrangements”.

Later Samuel Gregg describes the relevance this character acquired in the defense of capitalism and free market, because he criticized several socialists, particularly Keynes and later on, criticized the European Union and its negative consequences because of the centralization of power.

Röpke in many respects is an interdisciplinary thinker. He was prepared to go beyond economics and think about other disciplines and to ask how do this things relate to each other”.

Learn about the important legacy of this economist to today’s understanding of the world’s economy.