A Contradiction in Hayek’s Famous 1945 Article

In his “Quotation of the Day” yesterday, one of my favorite parts of CafeHayek, Don Boudreaux quotes from one of my favorite articles by Hayek, his “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” published in the American Economic Review in 1945. (Parenthetical note: Wouldn’t it be great if the AER started publishing articles with words and no equations, articles that make important points? A fella can dream.)

Here’s a key paragraph that Don quotes:

The peculiar character of the problem of a...