The Free Market Road Show, which is a series of events organized jointly with the Austrian Economics Center, with the aim to promote free market economics and libertarianism in general, was held for the ninth time at the Danube Institute in Budapest. The subtitle of the Road Show—Shatter Barriers–Ignite Change—embodies a commitment to exploring uncharted territories in policy-making, economics, and social discourse.
At the ceremonial opening of the two-day event Danube Institute President John O’Sullivan presented the condensed Hungarian version of world-famous economist Friedrich A. Hayek’s (1899–1992) book The Road to Serfdom. On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the publication of the Nobel Prize-winning economist’s book, the Danube Institute, under the auspices of the Austrian Economics Center, published the booklet in Hungarian with the aim of making Hayek’s most important teachings easily accessible to Hungarian students.
Friedrich A. Hayek is known for his vision of the market economy as an information processing system characterized by spontaneous order: the emergence of coherence through the independent actions of large numbers of individuals, each with limited and local knowledge, coordinated by prices that arise from decentralized processes of competition.
Hayek is also known for his advocacy of a broad range of free market policies and for considering the substantially unregulated market system to be superior to competing alternatives
precisely because it makes the best use of dispersed knowledge.
John O’Sullivan also shared a personal story with those present, as he had the opportunity to interview Hayek decades ago personally. ‘That conversation deepened my admiration for both his intellect and his humanity’, the president of the Danube Institute said, who added: the book, written during the Second World War, is an important achievement of Central European civilization.
John O’Sullivan also thanked Barbara Kolm, Founding Director of the Austrian Economics Center, Vice President of the Österreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), President of the Friedrich A. v. Hayek Institute, for contributing to the publication of the booklet, and also because, as the founder of the Free Market Road Show, she promotes Hayek’s views worldwide.
At the ceremonial opening, Barbara Kolm thanked John O’Sullivan and Melissa O’Sullivan, deputy director of the Danube Institute, for hosting the Free Market Road Show for the ninth time as a partner of the Austrian Economics Center. She added:
the conference series has now grown into the largest libertarian event in the world.
The founding Director of the Austrian Economics Center emphasized that this year the Free Market Road Show was held in 37 countries and five different states of the United States, and provided a platform for dozens of people to have an exciting exchange of ideas about the challenges and economic situation of our time. ‘We provide libertarian solutions to today’s problems. This is what we do and this is what we have done in the past seventeen years, and we will continue this work with the help of our great forefathers and ancestors of the Austrian school’, Barbara Kolm explained.
Started in 2008, the Free Market Road Show brings together renowned economists, leading politicians and prominent business leaders every year to discuss current economic problems and possible solutions at a variety of venues across Europe and the Caucuses. It also provides unparalleled networking opportunities for participants and those within the European free market movement, with exclusive events such as cocktail receptions and dinners with top opinion leaders and decision-makers.
