An "Austrian" Point of View on Total War: Stefan T. Possony

After WWI, the necessity of a planned economy in war time had become conventional wisdom. A young Austrian scholar, Stefan Possony, openly challenged this point of view. His analysis of the economic problems of an - imminent – total war was completely developed inside the Austrian framework. Recalling Mises’ s and Hayek’s positions, Possony stressed the limits of human knowledge as the main reason which hindered the actual working of any economic plan. From this hypothesis, Possony argued for market economy and entrepreneurship as the only tools to support war economic effort efficiently.