ABSTRACT
On 17 September 2005 the Austrian newspaper Die Presse reported on a strange event in Germany. In front of a Berlin theatre, a three-metre-high 'depression barometer' had been installed that informed the German people about its current emotional state. A red liquid in a cylinder made of plastic provided an indicator to show the emotional state of Germans. The average the value indicated for July 2005 was 33.1 points out of a possible 100. The particular point that we would like to focus on more closely concerns Hayek's relationship to business cycle research. As one of the founding fathers of the Austrian Institute of Business Cycle Research, he was the first to import this from the United States to Austria. His colleague Mises notes that as the first director of the institute, Hayek performed well: Some time after his return to Vienna, he was entrusted with the management of a newly founded scientific institution, Austrian Institute of Business Cycle Research.
