Trygve J. Hoff (1895–1982)

Why planning in a society without market prices to calculate from is difficult. A scissors and paste job to a very large degree, with the cut-outs from various books untranslated in the Norwegian version; that is, when the language is English, German or Scandinavian - French we are not supposed to know, and are given a parallel translation. A book to be enjoyed by linguists. One of many words that had me reaching for the dictionary was the "tesaurering" (Norwegian) that Keynes' was said to be harping about in the General Theory. German Wikipedia had the answer: "Der Begriff der Thesaurierung (v. gr. thesauros, Schatzhaus) bezeichnet Vorgänge, bei denen die von einer Organisation erwirtschafteten Gewinne nicht ausgegeben oder ausgeschüttet werden, sondern in der Organisation selbst verbleiben." - Fancy word, just had to use it at least once! The one who translated the book into English probably just wrote: hoarding of money?… (más)

Written during the war, partly while Hoff was incarcerated in Grini prison camp, the book deals largely with the bad sides of German culture (which is analyzed with much citations), but also with cultural degeneration in general, as he found it exemplified among other things in the popularity of Swing-music and sports. The book's content feels very "dated," but for the libertarianism, which when explained by Hoff sounds like the libertarianism of today. He does admit a scarcity of empathy with sufferers in libertarian ideas; spending time in the Grini camp might have softened him a little.… (más)