The Year 2021 in Review

2021 is behind us and it’s time to reflect and see how we can improve in the New Year. The second-year with the pandemic has gone by and it hasn’t been easy. The lockdowns and restrictions governments placed throughout 2021 have made life harder, considerably so when it came to planning and organizing events.

This forced the Free Market Road Show to stay online, except on two occasions in Zurich and London. As part of the FMRS, this year we organized 91 webinars with more than 50 keynotes by prominent libertarians about issues stemming from the current COVID pandemic, be it educational, economic, or political. During the Road Show, our experts concentrated on unintended consequences of regulation; they discussed the problems of closed schools, closed businesses; they criticized the growing debt due to prolonged help packages and much more.

Like the FMRS, we had to stay online for the annual European Resource Bank meeting. The ERB has again teamed up with Competere in Rome with which we started a series of webinars on the economic, social, and political consequences of COVID-19 and the restrictions governments worldwide put on their countries. The Dragon’s Den Competition took place again and from the many great projects, we received was Francisco Zalles Martínez’s IdeasLAB 2021 that took home the first prize. The second and third prizes were awarded to Ilija Franeta’s Decentralised Future Programme and Mirela Lucia Pascu’s The #EuGandesc (#IThink) Project respectively.

The successful transition of the Free Market Road Show 2020 in the online sphere resulted in the ongoing project of an Austrian Economics Monthly, a monthly webinar organized together with Competere.

We organized many webinars and published many articles on our blog, spreading the ideas of liberty to thousands of people. At the same time, our Director Barbara Kolm appeared in many interviews (It’s A Paul World, Money Talks, Epoch TV,) spoke at many conferences (Global Trade Coalition Meeting, Balkans 2021: Fostering regional cooperation in the post-COVID era, Freedom Fest, International Railway Fair, Economic Recovery and Growth beyond COVID First Annual Conference by the Ministry of Finance of North Macedonia, National Liberal Youth Summit, CIO-Huawei Intelligent Finance Summit, Glasgow Climate & Freedom Symposium, Global Wellness Summit). Our Senior Fellow Federico N. Fernandez was interviewed and gave a talk at many events as well (Project Arizona, Miltonalia 2021, Electric LibertyLand, Economic Forum 2021). Our senior fellow Martin Gundinger gave a Presentation of the Nanny State Index 2021, participated in the European Forum Alpbach 2021. He also took part in the 26th Session of the Budget Committee. Our Research and Outreach Coordinator Kai Weiss spoke at The Future of European Environmental Policy, European Pillar of Social Rights, World Bank Group – Global Influencer Barometer Panel.

We the American Conservation Alliance were joined by more than 130 free-market leaders from more than 60 countries and all continents in singing the Market Environmental Declaration in calling for a pro-market alternative to protect the planet.

A documentary honoring the life and work of Carl Menger, the father of the Austrian School of Economics was being shot in which to get a multidimensional portrait, Barbara Kolm interviewed experts on economics, history, and politics The script for the documentary was written by our Research and Strategy Advisor Scott Nelson.

In collaboration with the Fundación Bases and the Hayek Institut, we organized the 10th Austrian Economics Conference. #RestartVienna became a great motivation for the promoters of the ideas of the Austrian School to join forces to meet in the place where it all began. The Institut Misesa Poland team organized a panel about Menger’s life and achievements; a panel was dedicated to the Green Markets, Capitalism, and Environmentalism; the Mises Institute (United States) organized a panel dedicated to Carl Menger and his past and present influence; Brian McWilliams hosted a live session of his “Lions of Liberty” Podcast; The keynote lectures were held by Jeffrey Booth who spoke on our rapidly increasing understanding of economics; Agnieszka Płonka gave the 3rd Juan Carlos Cachanosky going into a deep dive into the history of dialectics. The grand finale of the 10th Austrian Economics Conference was Hannes H. Gissurarson with his keynote lecture on Carl Menger’s political significance. The conference had many other scholars presenting their papers, focused on post-COVID policies in the EU, entrepreneurship, productive organization, monetary problems after the pandemic, and much more. All of the papers are included in the Austrian Economics: 150 years after Carl Menger.

Lastly, this year the Hayek Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Veselin Vukotić, “for his tireless efforts and being a pioneer in promoting Austrian Economics during the transition, his advancement of economic understanding and for raising the general level of economic education in Montenegro, the Balkans, and abroad.”

You can find the report in full here.

In our fight to spread the ideas of individual liberty and personal responsibility it was the support of all our friends, all our partners, indeed, all of you out there that made it possible. The success we are so glad to have had would not have been possible without you. This year we will continue the battle, spreading the #freedomvariant, starting with the Free Market Road Show 2022. We want to continue the fight for freedom, and further spread the ideas of libertarianism and the Austrian School of Economics.

For this, we need your continued help. This is why we ask you to stay or become a supporter of our work, regardless of whether it’s by considering a (tax-deductible) donation, by following us on social media and spreading our message there, by sending us your articles, applying for an internship, or simply consume our material by reading what we write and attend what we organize.

We couldn’t be happier to continue the fight in 2022. Please be part of it.