Mainstream economics postulates that economic actors make rational, well-informed trade-offs to achieve their objectives. In this neoclassical perspective, the market tends towards an equilibrium point where resources are efficiently allocated, a statically modeled state.

Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek propose a radically different vision. For them, the market is not a state of equilibrium to be achieved, but a dynamic process in constant evolution. The individual is at the heart of this process, making subjective decisions based on his or her knowledge, which is always imperfect and incomplete. The role of the market is to coordinate inter-individual actions by facilitating free exchange. This coordination forms what Hayek calls a spontaneous order, whose tendency is to tend towards equilibrium without ever really reaching it.

This difference implies that the market is fundamentally dynamic, uncertain, subjective and decentralized. No central authority can perfectly direct this process, as the necessary knowledge is dispersed among all the players.

Hayek developed the concept of spontaneous order to describe the functioning of the market. Extended order is a spontaneous social order naturally established by men to coordinate and cooperate efficiently. In "The Use of Knowledge in Society", Hayek explains that the necessary knowledge never exists in concentrated form, but only in the form of dispersed elements that all individuals possess in part.

This dispersion explains why Austrians see the market as a spontaneous order impossible to direct consciously. Following methodological individualism and the subjectivity of value, it becomes impossible for a planning organization to centralize individual preferences. This impossibility is accentuated by time preference: an individual's preferences may differ over time and according to his or her environment.

The market process coordinates actions despite this dispersion. Each actor needs only a fraction of the total information, and the price system plays a central role. As Peter Boettke sums up, the division of labor implies the division of knowledge, and it is through the market process that this knowledge is discovered, used and communicated.

Hayek put forward a crucial concept: tacit or implicit knowledge. This notion refers to the non-formalized knowledge that economic players use on a daily basis, without necessarily articulating it. Thus, actors naturally adopt a sensible approach to money and credit, without any prior theoretical training.

Competition within well-structured institutions enables this communication process. Prices generated by competition serve as socially accessible indicators of this tacit knowledge. Price formation becomes an indispensable means of coordination, helping to guide resource allocation despite the inherent complexity of the economic system.

While the market is a natural and spontaneous process, it is self-regulating thanks to two fundamental mechanisms. Firstly, economic calculation based on voluntary exchange and free prices enables the allocation of scarce factors of production. Secondly, the law of profit and loss rewards or sanctions entrepreneurial action, allowing capital to be allocated to those who make the best use of it.

As Mises writes, with every penny spent, the consumer determines the direction of production processes. This self-regulation makes the free market a form of economic democracy.

To demonstrate the impossibility of a perfect equilibrium, Mises developed the concept of a uniformly rotating economy: a hypothetical state in which all variables remain constant. But such a situation is absurd, as it would imply that the future is certain, contradicting the very principle of human action. In reality, individuals are constantly adjusting their decisions in the face of uncertainty, and the market as a dynamic process enables this continuous adaptation without any single authority having to direct the whole.