Does anybody know how the Austrian economy performed as Bohm-Bawerk as Minister of Finance.
'' The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.'' Stephen Hawking
Mises Daily: He [Böhm-Bawerk] finally took a post in the Finance Ministry, which at that time managed with a staff of just 121 civil servants and 67 supporting staff (Kamitz 1956, p. 58). One of his first tasks was to revive the abandoned preparations for a comprehensive tax reform. Böhm-Bawerk remained a civil servant up until 1904; three times he was Finance Minister (1895, 1897–1898, 1900–1904) and in 1899 he was awarded a life-long membership of the Herrenhaus. Apart from working on the tax reform of 1886, in the course of which a progressive income tax of no more than 5 percent was introduced (RGBl 1896, no. 220, §172),[2] he also succeeded in reducing the government's interest burden by converting public debt (Weiss 1924/1925, vol. 1, p. v). A balanced budget was of particular importance to Böhm-Bawerk because he believed it was the only thing that would secure the stability of monetary value. He did not shy away from using all the tricks of an experienced bureaucrat to block status-seeking, politically-motivated projects that lacked secure funding — such as a shipping-canal network for the whole of the monarchy (Gerschenkron 1977, pp. 81, 120–127). His maxim was that a finance minister should always be prepared to resign, but at the same time should always behave as if his desire was never to resign (Schumpeter 1925, p. 79). He resigned from the post permanently in 1904 when excessive demands from the military finally threatened to strain the budget.
Yes, but this does not say much about the economy's performance.