Born today in 1881, Ludwig von Mises was one of the 20th century’s most important intellectuals and one of its most passionate defenders of freedom. He is the economics equivalent of the giants of all the other disciplines (e.g., Einstein). And as Mario Rizzo notes over at ThinkMarkets, he is responsible for what is probably the most important single economic idea of the last century: rational economic calculation is impossible under socialism, and attempts to put such a system in place will only impoverish the citizenry.

Read the rest at The Austrian Economists: Happy Birthday to Mises.