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Title: Economics for Real People: An Introduction to the Austrian School by Gene Callahan ISBN: 0-945466-35-8 Publisher: Ludwig Von Mises Inst Pub. Date: June, 2002 Format: Paperback List Price(USD): $11.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (12 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Tip of the iceberg
Comment: I've barely gotten into this book even though I've skimmed most of it, so I'll probably edit this later (reason for the 4 stars). That being said, it's easy to read and understand, and I'm looking forward to more Austrian thought.
To reader from Dulles, I cannot *believe* you are citing Card and Krueger's study. My understanding is that it has been widely repudiated by the economic community. Wow.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent introduction, not a substitute....
Comment: This book is an excellent introduction to the Austrian School, but not a substitute to the work of Menger, Bohm-Bawerk, Fetter, Mises or Rothbard. I suppose that most people who are planning to buy this book are familiar with the Ludwig von Mises institute website. If you think of the best articles on the Mises site, and organize them in the structure of a general treatise, that is what this book is closest to.
While you won't learn as much as you would reading Capital and Interest, or Man, Economy and State for example, there is one purpose where this book is immensely useful: verbal debating. You would be pretty well served to import the arguments from this book directly into your verbal debates.
To the reader from Dulles, you managed to pack an unbelievable amount of fallacies into a handful of seemingly benign sentences. But I think I've spotted the problem: ""Austrian" economics, a super-libertarian school of economic thought founded by thinkers from Central Europe in the early 20th century". Anyone with even a passing knowledge of this school knows that Menger founded it in 1870, and some of its most prominent economists, such as he and Bohm Bawerk were in the 19th century. You are clearly trying to come off as looking more knowledgeable than you are. By the way, is Enrico Barone done writing that article yet? (If you get that, pat yourself on the back)
Edit: Second reply to the reader from Dulles- If I came off as too combative and assumptive, forgive me. Most mainstream economists and professors give an overview of the Austrian School (especially the calculation debate) which is not only logically, but factually distorted (The classic example being the one I alluded to above in which people state that a paper written by enrico Barone in 1908 was an intended refutation of Mises' 1920 paper. Also, the only post-lange contributions on the capitalist side taken into account are those of Hayek). I assumed that you were influenced by this attitude from your statement "the familiar lapses that have made "Austrian" synonymous with "crackpot" in many circles".
Anyway, even if you maintain that Menger did not originate a unique school of thought (I say he does. Although, compared to the Anglo-American classicals, he was very similar to Jevons and Walras, he is far too unique to be classed as simply a "marginalist" along with them), the statement that the austrian School was founded "in the early 20th century" is irreconcilible with the career of Bohm-Bawerk. His most significant work, Capital & Interest saw two volumes published in the 1880s (including the most famed one , 1889's "positive theory of capital).
I would also like to tackle your statement about the minimum wage and the elasticity of demand for labor.
Of course, we can't make a quantitative judgement without knowing this, but we can make a qualitative judgement.
The only way an increase in the minimum wage could not cause a lower demand for labor would be if the demand for labor was extremely inelastic. how inelastic would it have to be? It would have to be as inelastic as a steering wheel (the amoutn of steering wheels demanded at any price are limited by the amount of cars in use. i.e.- if steering wheels were one cent a piece, you still wouldn't have 6 for every car you own). However, labor being incredibly scarce and nonspecific, can never approach this degree of inelasticity.
Also, the idea that the Mises institute is "cultish" is absurd. You should see the critique of Mises in Rothbard's "Ethics of Liberty". (rothbard was a major player in the mises institute)
Edit #2:
Rothbard certainly was a misesian, but he didn't have a cultlike admiration for the man.
From Rothbard's "The Ethics of Liberty" (p. 207) ,attempting (in my opinion failing) to rebut Mises' defense of "value free" economics on the grounds that he could tell what policies would lead to certain ends, and people could then choose what ends they wanted.
"But ingenious as it is, the attempt completely fails. For how does Mises know what the advocates of the particular policy consider desirable? How does he know what their value-scales are now or what they will be when the consequences of the measure appear?.......Mises makes one further attempt to establish his position, but it is even less successful.....Furthermore, it is hardly correct for Mises to denounce these judgements as as "emotional"....It is pointless for Mises to call to call for his critics to use "discursive reasoning" since he himself denies denies that discursive reason can ever be used to achieve ultimate ethical values."
Also, the definition of "inelastic" requires that more money would go to the "poor" (I don't think we want to get into a debate about interpersonal utility comparisons) in the aggregate. I was talking about the total level of employment.
Rating: 5
Summary: Shhhhh! Don't tell the sheep
Comment: You can have great fun by actually learning about economics that isn't Keynes, Chicago, or Socialist. Plus, it happens to be the only one that has it right. Don't tell the others. Once they find out, they'll ruin it too. Read Mises, Hoppe, Popper, Hayek and be happy. Callahan does a great job introducing you to the Austrian School. Win a large bet that your politically active friends don't know what you're talking about. Win another large bet that they will within 10 years when they start voting for candidates supporting Austrian policy. Good job finding this, Callahan's book will introduce you to the rest of the discovery.
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Title: Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt ISBN: 0517548232 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 14 December, 1988 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Man, Economy, and State by Murray N. Rothbard ISBN: 0945466323 Publisher: Ludwig Von Mises Inst Pub. Date: 15 June, 1993 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays by Ludwig von Mises, Gottfried Haberler, Murray N. Rothbard, Friedrich A. Hayek, Richard M. Ebeling ISBN: 0945466218 Publisher: Ludwig Von Mises Inst Pub. Date: March, 1996 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: What Has Government Done to Our Money by Murray N. Rothbard, Murray N. Rothbard ISBN: 0945466102 Publisher: Laissez Faire Books Pub. Date: December, 1990 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
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Title: Democracy: The God that Failed: The Economics and Politics of Monarchy, Democracy, and Natural Order by Hans-Hermann Hoppe ISBN: 0765808684 Publisher: Transaction Pub Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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