Best of
Economics

1962

Man, Economy, and State


Murray N. Rothbard - 1962
    If Mises's Human Action was the culmination of the School from Menger's time, Rothbard's treatise takes Austrian thought even further in the areas of utility and welfare economics, antitrust, labor, taxation, public goods, and social insurance schemes. Inconsistencies are ironed out and the system of thought, in all its logical rigor, is unbroken. More than any book, Man, Economy, and State taught economics to the post-Mises generation. It refutes still-common errors among the mainstream and grapples with the post-war Keynesian literature point by point. The impact of this work was also enhanced by its breathtaking logic and clarity, even in the most difficult subject areas. Special insights along the way include a full critique of government statistics and the Fed's definitions of the money supply. Nearly twenty-five years after it first appeared in print, it remains the standard bearer for the Austrian School.

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science: An Essay on Method


Ludwig von Mises - 1962
    Mises believed that, since the publication of Human Action, economists and scientists alike had misinterpreted the idea of economics as a science by deeming it epistemological positivism—that they believed that the “science” basis was still more rooted in philosophy than in actual science.In this volume, Mises argued that economics is a science because human action is a natural order of life and that it is the actions of humans that determine markets and capital decisions. Since Mises believed these links could be proven scientifically, he concluded that economics, with its basis on that human action, is indeed a science in its own right and not an ideology or a metaphysical doctrine.What has been described as his most passionate work, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science brings together all of the themes from Mises’s previous works to proclaim what Israel Kirzner calls “the true character of economics.”Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) was the leading spokesman of the Austrian School of Economics throughout most of the twentieth century. He earned his doctorate in law and economics from the University of Vienna in 1906. In 1926, Mises founded the Austrian Institute for Business Cycle Research. From 1909 to 1934, he was an economist for the Vienna Chamber of Commerce. Before the Anschluss, in 1934 Mises left for Geneva, where he was a professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies until 1940, when he emigrated to New York City. From 1948 to 1969, he was a visiting professor at New York University.Bettina Bien Greaves is a former resident scholar, trustee, and longtime staff member of the Foundation for Economic Education. She has written and lectured extensively on topics of free market economics. Her articles have appeared in such journals as Human Events, Reason, and The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty. A student of Mises, Greaves has become an expert on his work in particular and that of the Austrian School of economics in general. She has translated several Mises monographs, compiled an annotated bibliography of his work, and edited collections of papers by Mises and other members of the Austrian School.

Early Writings


Karl Marx - 1962
    In the Critique of Hegel's Doctrine of the State, he dissects Hegel's thought and develops his own views on civil society, while his Letters reveal a furious intellect struggling to develop the egalitarian theory of state. Equally challenging are his controversial essay On the Jewish Question and the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, where Marx first made clear his views on alienation, the state, democracy and human nature. Brilliantly insightful, Marx's Early Writings reveal a mind on the brink of one of the most revolutionary ideas in human history - the theory of Communism.This translation fully conveys the vigour of the original works. The introduction, by Lucio Colletti, considers the beliefs of the young Marx and explores these writings in the light of the later development of Marxism.

The Case for the 100 Percent Gold Dollar


Murray N. Rothbard - 1962
    No other system will stop the seemingly endless monetary inflation of the Federal Reserve system. He also makes his strongest case against fractional reserve banking. This essay was written in 1962 and this edition includes Rothbard's sweeping introduction from 1991, in which he argues that the true gold standard is more viable than ever.Copied From Mises.org

Price Theory


Milton Friedman - 1962
    The former deals with how the economic problem is solved, while the latter deals with how the economic problem should be solved. The effects of price or rent control on the distribution of income are problems of positive economics. The desirability of these effects on income distribution is a problem of normative economics.Within economics, the major division is between monetary theory and price theory. Monetary theory deals with the level of prices in general, with cyclical and other fluctuations in total output, total employment, and the like. Price theory deals with the allocation of resources among different uses, the price of one item relative to another.Prices do three kinds of things. They transmit information, they provide an incentive to users of resources to be guided by this information, and they provide an incentive to owners of resources to follow this information. Milton Friedman's classic book provides the theoretical underpinning for and understanding of prices.Economics is not concerned solely with economic problems. It is a social science, and is therefore concerned primarily with those economic problems whose solutions involve the cooperation and interaction of different individuals. It is concerned with problems involving a single individual only insofar as the individual's behavior has implications for or effects upon other individuals. Price Theory is concerned not with economic problems in the abstract, but with how a particular society solves its economic problems.

Out of Step


Frank Chodorov - 1962
    He was also a top-notch intellectual figure who has been tragically neglected. Out of Step may be his best collection. Among the smashing essays here are "Isolationism," which is his defense of the great American tradition (if you have hesitated to call yourself one, you might change your mind); his classic "Don't Buy Government Bonds"; his tribute to Westerns; his powerful essays against those who say that the New Testament endorses communism (sounds crazy but … ); his blast at the New Deal; his tribute to the peddler; and so much more. His writing is leagues above most of what passes for political writing today. Bring back Frank Chodorov!To search for Mises Institute titles, enter a keyword and LvMI (short for Ludwig von Mises Institute); e.g., Depression LvMI

Shorter Classics of Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Vol. 1


Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk - 1962
    This volume represents his expansion, examination, and improvement of his system. It includes the famous essay on "Karl Marx and the Close of his System," which undoubtedly is the best-known critique of Marx ever written, and four other sagacious essays: "The Austrian Economists" "Whether Legal Rights and Relationships are Economic Goods" "The Ultimate Standard of Value" "Control or Economic Law?" In the last essay, published posthumously, Bohm-Bawerk analyzed the crucial questions of government intervention: can political law, regulation or coercion of any kind negate or overwhelm "economic law?" What are the consequences of government intervention or labor union coercion on economic production and individual income? Can government controls or union restraints raise the incomes and improve the conditions of all working people? In the wide realm of economics there are no more important questions than these.

The economics of trade unions


Albert Rees - 1962
    

A Study of Communism


J. Edgar Hoover - 1962
    It also returns to the economic, sociological, political and psychological origins of the movement and its attractions, returning in particular to Karl Marx and the writing of Das Kapital and concluding that Communists are ""false prophets"". Their method is error and their views are distorted. Parallels are drawn between Lenin's adaptation of the Marxist movement and the American Revolution. In later chapters Hoover traces the perversion of the ideology in the hands of the Russians, the power struggle that followed, the attempts to communize the U.S. since Stalin's rise and fall, and how nationalism has thwarted Communism. How the Communist Party operates in the United States, and how Communism and Free World structures differ on such basic points as law, economy, education, elections, etc. also form basic parts of the book. Hoover's historical information is correct though overfly simplified, and his conclusions seem to follow much thinking in this country today. It is a book dispassionately written, designed not to dis-color, but to bring the reader awareness of a broad and important area of political facts. As such it succeeds, although in some of the dichotomies between the Red and Free Worlds, it tends to make too many black and white distinctions. The head of the F.B.I. carries weight in many circles and speaks with special authority."