Jeff Marshall Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 I'm starting to get extremely interested in economics and I'm slightly scared that if I get a hold of a bad book/author in my beginning stages of learning that it will screw me up for good. AR constantly mentions Mises and Austrian Economics. Should I start reading Austrian tilted books or are there better books with which to build my economic foundation on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrPickles Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson is quite good for debunking many economic myths such as Full Employment, Unions, and much more. So far Ludwig von Mises' Human Action seems to be pretty good (albeit I am still on chapter one.) George Reisman's Capitalism is supposedly very good, as it synthesizes Austrian Economics with Objectivism. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adrock3215 Posted February 17, 2009 Report Share Posted February 17, 2009 (edited) Keep in mind there is no such thing as official "Objectivist Economics." For an introduction to the study of economics, I would recommend The Wordly Philosophers by Heilbroner. For an introduction to solid economic principles, I would suggest Hazlitt's work. For information on business cycles, I sent this list to a poster here in private at one point: The General Theory of[...] by Keynes The Theory of Money and Credit by Mises Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle by Mises Prices and Production by Hayek Time and Money by Garrison Business Cycles by Schumpeter Recessions and Depressions: Understanding Business Cycles by Knoop Many of Milton Friedman's works are also good. Read everything you can get your hands on and form your own opinions. Keep in mind that a lot of work needs to be done in economic methodology. If you have access to economic journals, you can find some good articles there as well. The "Journal of Economic Perspectives" is one of the least technical and often has quality work. Edited February 17, 2009 by adrock3215 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veebers Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson is quite good for debunking many economic myths such as Full Employment, Unions, and much more. So far Ludwig von Mises' Human Action seems to be pretty good (albeit I am still on chapter one.) George Reisman's Capitalism is supposedly very good, as it synthesizes Austrian Economics with Objectivism. I must agree with you on that. Economics in One Lesson is also recommended by Dr. Peikoff, which is reason enough for me to read it. If you happen to Google it, many pdf or HTML versions of the book come back as a result. I thought it was public domain at first, but upon research I'm almost 100% sure that these are illegal copies. It's not hard to find this book used online, for cheap. Also Capitalism: An Unknown Ideal, of course, if you haven't read it already. If you're interested in "Objectivist Economics," this is it. A little difficult to grasp, but it definitely reveals many economic myths in its naked ugliness. Definitely worth a read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-Mac Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 I've not read it yet, but I hear Andrew Bernstein's The Capitalist Manifesto is good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D'kian Posted February 18, 2009 Report Share Posted February 18, 2009 I'll add my vote to Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson. It's an easy read, very accessible, succinct and complete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
utabintarbo Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 http://fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson/ Apparently, the Foundation for Economic Education has a special edition available in PDF format. Read this book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidV Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 I'm starting to get extremely interested in economics and I'm slightly scared that if I get a hold of a bad book/author in my beginning stages of learning that it will screw me up for good. AR constantly mentions Mises and Austrian Economics. Should I start reading Austrian tilted books or are there better books with which to build my economic foundation on? There are two approaches to studying economics: reading economic treatises by Hayek, Mises, Menger, etc or getting a broad but shallow overview from many essays. If you are actually willing to read an original treatise, do so by all means, but don't wear yourself out on a single work and miss the bigger picture. Here are some books to read: Economics in One Lesson Economics for Real People Economic Calculation In The Socialist Commonwealth There are some important essays here: http://mises.org/misesuniv.asp Also, some self-promotion: http://oneminute.rationalmind.net/category/economics/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve D'Ippolito Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 I've not read it yet, but I hear Andrew Bernstein's The Capitalist Manifesto is good. It's not anything like an economics textbook though. It discusses philosophy and gives a lot of history and debunks a lot of asshat socialist myths. On second thought I shouldn't have crossed out "asshat." It is an excellent book (when Bernstein told me it was 500 pages my jaw dropped--it was such a great read it hadn't seemed that long!) but probably not what you are looking for at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randroid Posted February 19, 2009 Report Share Posted February 19, 2009 "Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy" by Thomas Sowell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erik Christensen Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 I second, George Reisman's "Capitalism". It is a tour de force in a class by itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMartins Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 I've been told that Jean-Baptiste Say's "A Treatise on Political Economy" is the best work on economics for Objectivists. Is this true, and how does it compare to "Human Action" by Ludwig von Mises? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softwareNerd Posted March 7, 2009 Report Share Posted March 7, 2009 In case you'd like to check it out, Say's treatise is online, as is Mises's "Human Action". Of those two, I would suggest the former, particularly if its among the first 10 books one reads on economics. In general, the classical scholars tend to be less abstract that Mises. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knast Posted April 10, 2009 Report Share Posted April 10, 2009 I recommend you to read the following books, in the following order: Economics in one lesson by Henry Hazlitt: https://www.aynrandbookstore2.com/prodinfo.asp?number=DH01B Economics for real people by Gene Callahan: http://mises.org/resources/2031 Markets don't fail! by Brian P Simpson: https://www.aynrandbookstore2.com/prodinfo.asp?number=DS81B Economic Policy by Ludwig von Mises: http://mises.org/etexts/ecopol.pdf Capitalism: A Treatise on Econmics by George Reisman: http://www.capitalism.net/Capitalism/CAPITALISM_Internet.pdf Human Action by Ludwig von Mises: http://mises.org/resources/3250 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEgoist Posted April 10, 2009 Report Share Posted April 10, 2009 Knast got it. George Reisman's "Capitalism" is pretty damn good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markoso Posted June 12, 2009 Report Share Posted June 12, 2009 (edited) Personally, my view is that if one intends to read Mises, they should probably start with Menger. If you hit up the Ludwig Von Mises institute, you can order Carl Menger's Principles of Economics, which will lay the basic foundation for the rest of the Austrian school. It can be a bit of a troublesome read (the grammar employed is not something I'd personally encountererd elsewhere, possibly because it was originally written in german), but it will prepare you for thinking like an Austrian Economist. From there, Human Action and pretty much anything by Mises or Hayek makes for a good route. Edited June 12, 2009 by Markoso Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softwareNerd Posted March 19, 2014 Report Share Posted March 19, 2014 Milton Friedman's TV series "Free to Choose" is now available free online. (Friedman presented mostly classical economics ideas -- with all its flaws, but still a valuable introduction.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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