Jesús Huerta de Soto

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Jesús Huerta de Soto
File:Jesús Huerta de Soto 2014 (cropped).jpg
Jesús Huerta de Soto in 2014
Born (1956-12-23) 23 December 1956 (age 67)
Madrid, Spain
Nationality Spanish
Field Political economics
School or tradition
Austrian School
Influences Ludwig von Mises, Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Friedrich Hayek, Murray Rothbard, Israel Kirzner
Awards King Juan Carlos International Prize for Economics, Adam Smith Prize, Franz Kuechel Prize for Excellence in Economic Education[1]

Jesús Huerta de Soto Ballester (Madrid, 1956) is a Spanish economist of the Austrian School. He is a professor in the Department of Applied Economics at King Juan Carlos University of Madrid, Spain and a Senior Fellow at the Ludwig von Mises Institute.[2][3][4]

Education and career

Huerta de Soto received a bachelor's degree in economics in 1978 and a PhD in economics in 1992, from Complutense University. His MBA in actuarial science is from Stanford University, 1985.[1][5] In 2000 he became a full professor of Political Economy at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid.[6]

Huerta de Soto was Editor of seven volumes of the Spanish language version of the University of Chicago Press's The Collected Works of F.A. Hayek. In that capacity, he was responsible for bibliographies, footnotes, introductions, and hiring translators.[7][8][9][10][10][11] He is a member of the editorial board of New Perspectives on Political Economy[12] and on the advisory editorial board of the Journal of Markets and Morality.[13] Huerta de Soto is a Senior Fellow of the Ludwig von Mises Institute[14] and is on the editorial board of its Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics.[15] He was formerly a Trustee of the Madrid Institute for Advanced Studies (IMDEA)[16] in social sciences and was a vice-president and director of the Mont Pelerin Society from 2000 to 2004.[16]

Economic views

General equilibrium theory

Economist Leland B. Yeager has cited Huerta de Soto as an example of scorn in economics. Yeager states that Soto scorns general equilibrium theory, citing a passage in which Soto refers to the "pernicious analysis" of price equilibrium at "the intersection of mysterious curves or functions lacking any real existence...even in the minds of the actors involved."[17]

Austrian business cycle and full reserve banking

Huerta de Soto advocates full-reserve banking, a system in which 100% reserve requirements for banks would prevent any expansion of credit.[18][19]

In 2006, Huerta de Soto wrote an 876-page book on the subject, published in English by the Mises Institute as Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles.[20] Samuel Gregg reviewed the book writing that "[t]he sheer length of this text will demand much time and concentration of readers wishing to fully absorb its insights. Certainly there is an element of repetition at different points. This tends, however, to reflect De Soto’s determination to demonstrate that the moral, legal, and economic dimensions of money, credit, and banking cannot be artificially separated from each other without risking the loss of a sound understanding of the subject." [21] In the journal New Perspectives on Political Economy, Ludwig van den Hauwe suggested that "[e]ven if it may be difficult at this time to gauge in any precise manner the effect the book will have on the economics profession at large, there can be no doubt the book is destined to become a classic, both by virtue of the subject matters that are treated and in virtue of the manner in which they are treated: thoroughly and authoritatively." [22]

Larry J. Sechrest's review of Huerta de Soto's book, also published by the Mises Institute, stated that the author attempted to provide "final and decisive proof" that fractional reserve banking is incompatible with private property rights, morality, and a stable economy. Sechrest wrote that although Huerta de Soto presented a painstaking investigation of legal theory, banking history, business cycles, and medieval theological doctrine, a great deal of it is irrelevant to the book's thesis. Sechrest concludes "Above all, Huerta de Soto refuses to even consider the possibility that banks’ customers may have been quite willing to face some risk exposure in exchange for the benefits 100 percent reserve banks are unable to provide" and believes that "any departure from 100 percent reserve banking is automatically taken to be evidence of malfeasance by bankers, even when there is no clear data on the details of the contractual relations negotiated by depositors."[23]

In his chapter on "Attempts to Legally Justify Fractional-Reserve Banking", Huerta de Soto considers the possibility "that a certain group of bank customers (or for the sake of argument, all of them) enter into a deposit contract aware and fully accepting that banks will invest (or loan, etc.) a large portion of the money they deposit". In this case, argues Huerta de Soto, "the supposed authorization from the depositors lacks legal validity" because few lay-persons understand the instability inherent in fractional-reserve banking: they believe their deposit is guaranteed, which Huerta de Soto considers a (near universal) misconception. As evidence of the true wishes of depositors, he cites the riots that resulted when banks suspended payments during the 1998–2002 Argentine great depression.[24]

Money and banking

Andre Azevedo Alves and Jose Moreira state that Huerta de Soto has written the "most complete and integrated analysis of the theories of banking" of the School of Salamanca.[25]

Reception

In a review for the Mises Institute's Review of Austrian Economics, Institute Associated Scholar Leland B. Yeager called the book "the most thorough treatment in print of Austrian ideas on banking and the business cycle".[26] Mises Institute Senior Fellow and former United States representative Ron Paul endorsed Huerta de Soto's view that fractional reserve banking is the cause of financial instability.[27][28] An Institute of Economic Affairs review described The Theory of Dynamic Efficiency as "A major new collection in the field of Austrian economics" and called Huerta de Soto "a leading Spanish scholar".[29]

Honorary Doctorates

Publications

Books

  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. 3 volumes: OCLC 434819610 , 632702538 and 632702507
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Series: Historia del pensamiento económico. OCLC 247910035 , 45036015 and 644714015
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  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Series: Nueva biblioteca de la libertad
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[32]
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[33]
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (with Martin Froněk)[34]
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (Originally as Socialismo, cálculo económico y función empresarial; part of the New Thinking in Political Economy series by the Institute of Economic Affairs)[35]
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[36]
  • Chapter 2: A brief note on economic recessions, banking reform and the future of capitalism in Óscar Dejuán, Eladio Febrero, Maria Cristina Marcuzzo (editors), The First Great Recession of the 21st Century: Competing Explanations, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011, ISBN 1849807469
  • Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (with Melinda A. Stroup, translator) Also available as a PDF here

Journals

For a list of articles published in Spanish, English, and other languages, see the Huerta de Soto website.[37]

See also

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Announcement regarding Jesús Huerta de Soto, Finance University under the Government of the Russian Federation, April 27, 2011.
  2. Jesús Huerta de Soto listing, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos website.
  3. ""Faculty Members." Ludwig von Mises Institute.
  4. An Interview with Jesús Huerta de Soto in The Austrian Economics Newsletter. (Summer 1997; Volume 17, Number 2.)
  5. Jesús Huerta de Soto website, see Curriculum Vitae, Titulos Academicos.
  6. Jesús Huerta de Soto website, see Curriculum Vitae, Actividad Docente Desempeñada.
  7. Jesús Huerta de Soto website, see Curriculum Vitae, Labor Editorial; section includes information on the Compete Works of F.A. Hayek, pp. 1–2; New Library of Liberty, pp. 3–4; Journal of Market Processes, pp. 4–5.
  8. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. Stephen Kresge, Editor, Money, Part I: Volume Five of the Collected Works of F.A. Hayek, Routledge, 2013, p. 1904, ISBN 1135630755
  10. 10.0 10.1 F.A. Hayek, The Collected Works of F. A. Hayek, Bruce Caldwell, General Editor, University of Chicago Press, 19 Volumes.
  11. Jesús Huerta de Soto edited these volumes of the series F.A. Hayek, Obras Completas (in Spanish), all published by Unión Editorial, Madrid: La Tendencia del Pensamiento Económico: Ensayos, editor with William Warren Bartley, Stephen Kresge, 1995; Las Vicisitudes del Liberalismo: Ensayos sobre Economía Austriaca y el Ideal de la Libertad, editor with Peter G. Klein, 1996; Contra Keynes y Cambridge: Ensayos, Correspondencia, editor with Bruce Caldwell, 1996; Hayek sobre Hayek: Un Diálogo Autobiográfico, La Fatal Arrogancia: Los Errores del Socialismo, editor with Stephen Kresge, Leif Wenar, 1997; Socialismo y Guerra: Ensayos, Documentos y Reseñas, editor with Bruce Caldwell, 1998; Ensayos de Teoría Monetaria (two volumes in 2000, with Stephen Kresge and José Antonio de Aguirre and 2001. For more details see Jesús Huerta de Soto website, Curriculum Vitae, Labor Editorial, A. Compete Works of F.A. Hayek, pp. 1–2.
  12. New Perspectives on Political Economy board listing at its website.
  13. Editorial Board listing of the Journal of Markets and Morality at its website.
  14. [1]
  15. Editorial Board Listing of Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics
  16. 16.0 16.1 Jesús Huerta de Soto website, see Curriculum Vitae, Otros Meritos.
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  23. Larry J. Sechrest, Larry J. Sechrest Book “Free Banking: Theory, History, and a Laissez-Faire Model”, Larry J. Sechrest Preface to June 2008 edition published by Ludwig Von Mises Institute, pp. 1–3; originally published by Quorum Books, 1993.
  24. Huerta de Soto, 2012, pp. 141-142.
  25. Andre Azevedo Alves, Jose Moreira, The Salamanca School, from series "Major Conservative and Libertarian Thinkers", Continuum International Publishing Group, 2009, p. 131, ISBN 0826429823, ISBN 9780826429827
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  28. Ron Paul, End the Fed, Hachette Digital, Inc., 2009, Chapter, "Origin and Nature of the Fed, ISBN 044656818X, ISBN 9780446568180
  29. "http://www.iea.org.uk/publications/recommended-reading/the-theory-of-dynamic-efficiency Review of Theory of Economic efficiency]", Institute of Economic Affairs website, November 12, 2008.
  30. Federico Bauer Rodríguez ¿Por qué la libertad? (I) (Spanish) El Periódico. Retrieved 5 January 2014
  31. LAUDATIO in honour of Professor Jesús Huerta de SOTO from Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid Alexandru Ioan Cuza University. Retrieved 4 January 2014
  32. Also published in German as: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (trans. from the Spanish by Ingolf Günter Krumm; The international library of Austrian economics series); and in French as: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (trans. from the Spanish by Rosine Létinier; part of the Collection Science économique et liberté series)
  33. Reviewed in: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. Reviewed in: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. Reviewed in: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. Also published in Dutch as: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.; in German as: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.; in Polish as: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (with coauthors Grzegorz Łuczkiewicz & Mateusz Machaj); and in French as: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (trans. from the Spanish by Rosine Létinier; L'Esprit économique. Série Économie formelle.) and Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. (with Melinda A. Stroup, translator) (Reviewed in: Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. Jesús Huerta de Soto website, see Curriculum Vitae, Actividad Investigadora Publicaciones I and II and Otras publicaciones.

External links