Hayek in Jacobin
Vivek Chibber, in an interview with Jacobin, presents a critique of central planning aligned with the views of Mises, Hayek, and Kornai, emphasizing inherent information and incentive problems. He argues that technological advances like AI cannot overcome systemic flaws in planning due to distorted information and misaligned incentives. Chibber urges the left to bear the burden of proof for advocating planned economies and to learn from historical failures.
- ▪Vivek Chibber outlines the Mises–Hayek–Kornai critique of central planning in an interview with Jacobin.
- ▪He identifies information and incentive problems as fundamental flaws in central planning, not solvable by supercomputers or AI.
- ▪Chibber asserts that leftists must bear the burden of proof for replacing markets with planning and must learn from past planning failures.
- ▪He rejects blaming Soviet failures solely on Stalin, Russian culture, or poverty, seeing the problems as systemic.
- ▪The article notes Chibber’s call for leftists to be rigorous and humble about facts when advocating for socialism.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Hayek in Jacobin by Alex Tabarrok May 16, 2026 at 7:18 am in Current Affairs Economics History Here’s something I never expected to write: Jacobin, the magazine of the DSA-aligned left, has a good article on central planning. In an interview, Vivek Chibber lays out essentially the Mises–Hayek–Kornai critique of central planning. Information problems, incentive problems and the consequent failures are laid bare. Moreover, Chibber refuses to lay the blame at the feet of Stalin, poverty, or the Russians. Nor does he wave hopefully at supercomputers and AI, as is fashionable today on the planning-curious left: The dilemma is this. There is a problem of information. Supercomputers will in fact help process information better.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Marginal Revolution.
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