So in light of the current situation in the country, I have suddenly developed a greater interest in economic theory, and am interested in learning more regarding the Austrian school of thought. Any suggestions on where to start with reading? I know there have to be a few Mises fans around here - over at B&B I knew who they were, but not sure over here. Speak up!
Austrian school of thought? I never knew that one existed. But, as an Austrian school, I expect it to teach you thoughts like "I think I want another beer" ::
:happy102 For those who are proponents of the Austrian school, they know what I am talking about. But for the rest, it is, as I understand it, a school of economic thought that is strongly free-market and libertarian.
Prominent Austrian School economists of the 20th century include Joseph Schumpeter, Henry Hazlitt, Murray Rothbard, and Nobel Laureate Friedrich Hayek. Are you just wanting economics or also political?
Yes. Probably a little bit of both, although for the economics, something fairly readable for someone not deeply versed in economic theory.
While not of the Austrian school, strictly speaking, Milton Friedman was influenced by Hayek and the other Austrian school economists. Economics is an extremely complicated subject. Even the ideas of Keynes, which are generally loathed by the classical liberals/libertarians among us, contain some good concepts. The works of Hayek and Friedman are not without flaws either. In my opinion, the evidence against Keynesian economics and for free-markets in practice seem overwhelming. The only "communist" nation to truly prosper has been China, and that is due to a shift towards capitalist markets. India is another fine example. The removal of many government restrictions has opened India up to an astounding amount of progress (still a long way to go though.) [edit] I saw an interesting list recently of the countries with the highest debt in terms of their GDP. The pinnacles of socialism in Europe have tremendous amounts of debt.
I am more into the political side of it but you will find many of these influenced by the Austrian School of Economics. My views are libertarian and firmly believe that less gov't is what this country needs and that it is a joke that they show the Constitution in DC because we have gotten very far away from what the founding fathers wrote on that paper. http://www.cato.org/ - Cato Institute is probally the most economic intensifive site that you will see on this list. http://www.campaignforliberty.com/ - This is the official website of Ron Paul's Campaign For Liberty. Congressman Ron Paul is the leading advocate for freedom in our nation's capital. http://www.house.gov/paul - Congressman Paul's congressional website. He will post weekly "talks" here. I would also reccomend you his latest book, The Revolution, A Manifesto. Lots of Austrian Economic in here. http://www.theadvocates.org/ - The Advocates for Self-Government I encourage you to take the World's Smallest Political Quiz here http://www.theadvocates.org/quizp/index.html I can send you more if you want.....
I rather like Reason magazine for a bit of libertarian guidance. They have a pretty decent website. (www.reason.com) I'd say I'm 99% libertarian, differing only on a few subjects that I think the official libertarian views are a bit too idealistic about. Right in theory, difficult in practice. I like Ron Paul, he's one of the few politicians in Washington that I think is there for the right reasons.
I'm a big fan of the Austrian school and a regular on the mises.org forums. Although that website tends to practice a little too much "cult of personality" there's lots of reading material to be downloaded. Rothbards book on the '29 depression is extremely interesting and to the point. The main point is that people will always go for what is best for themselves. Because not everybody has the same set of needs, it will bring a balance in the long run as long as government stays out. The problem is that the needs of groups is sometimes more important then the needs of one individual. Take for example public transportation. For some areas it's just not econocially feasible to send a bus or a train. This would lead to economic undervelopment of that area and ultimately migration of the inhabitants to better developed areas. Austrian economists describe what happens very acurately but maintain that governments shouldn't sponsor transportation. This will result in the enormous megacities you always see in SF movies. Another issue of Austrain thought is the lack of a mathematical framework. Keynesians snub anything that can't be explained in numbers and formula's. This is off course to simple because human behavior is too eratic to be caught in numbers and economies are driven by human behavior. Have a look at the site if you're more interested in stuff like that!
Thanks for starting this thread Mike! Like I don't have enough reading material to start wading through, now I get a whole bunch more! Currently, I'm working my way through The Federalist Papers, although in all honesty I'm finding it a difficult read....:ashamed001 But I'm looking at it from a solid foundation point of view.... :signs097
Have the Federalists Papers by the night stand myself. Hard going on some of them. Reason is a good mag just started reading that.
Thanks for the input. I have been to the mises.org website before - some interesting reading there. I have never read all the Federalist papers, but have read a few. I've been meaning to get a copy to read through - from time to time I sit down with more cerebral reading, like the time I read Plato's Republic, Macchiavelli's The Prince, and a few other similar works. Is Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" worth adding to the list?
I haven't read it myself, but "The Road to Serfdom" is Hayek's most well known work. It was popular even out of economist/academic circles. While slightly off-topic, another good website for those interested in these sorts of things would be the Heritage Foundation (www.heritage.org). It's a conservative think tank, but they don't dwell on the social stuff too much. The constitutional side of things is their main focus.
