The Austrian Aversion to Macroeconomic Aggregates Pertains to Laws Devoid of Reference to Individual Choice

The last 30 years saw the ascent of macroeconomics and a temporary eclipse of Austrian thought. What attitude should Austrian economists adopt today towards macroeconomic aggregates? We spoke above of skepticism engendered by a distrust of all formalizations of economic experience which do not have an identifiable source in the mind of an economic actor. But a more positive attitude is called for. Austrian economists must attempt, wherever possible, to impart a measure of subjectivism to the products of macroeconomic thought.

We may note that Austrian aversion does not pertain to these aggregates as such. Austrian economists, after all, did discuss the balance of payments of the Habsburg Empire. It pertains to the construction of an economic model in which these aggregates move, undergo change, and influence each other in accordance with laws which are devoid of any visible reference to individual choice. Like the bodies of a planetary system, each aggregate is affected by changes in other aggregates, but never, it appears, by changes taking place within itself. It is this conception of the mode of relationships among aggregates, rather than the existence of the aggregates themselves, which defies subjectivism.

—Ludwig M. Lachmann, “An Austrian Stocktaking: Unsettled Questions and Tentative Answers,” in New Directions in Austrian Economics, ed. Louis M. Spadaro (Kansas City: Sheed Andrews and McMeel, 1978), 8-9.