I'm curious if anyone has read the following from Skousen and if they are recommended or not:
-Economic Logic
-Economics on Trial: Lies, Myths, and Realities,
-The Structure of Production
Thanks in advance.
rothbard helped with Structure of Production, and it does contain some good history of thought material, some of which isn't gathered elsewhere.
I'm really of two minds on his other books. They are sort of half-Austrian and are filled with errors, and he always seems to come to some fashionable conclusion. At the same time, his books are out there and they do provide something of an entry for many people who are thinking about economic issues. He drops lots of names so they can be a take off point for further research.
We do hesitate to put him in the store just because they can also be very misleading, even when he knows better.
Jeffrey TuckerEditorial VP, Mises
His book Vienna & Chicago is good, if only because he (correctly) grants 3/4 of all victories to Vienna (he acknowledges the Austrians are right on gold.) The only section in which he grants Chicago a victory is where he is weakest, i.e. methodology. David Gordon recorded some of his dreadful mistakes in interpreting Mises's methodological views. Other than that the book is good though.
To darkness I condemn you...
I've read chapters from SoP in grad school, but not the whole book. I'd like to read the whole book someday.
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David Z
"The issue is always the same, the government or the market. There is no third solution."
Odd, I was browsing around the forums & managed to come across this, & about an hour ago I found a copy of Skousen's "Economics on Trial" at my local used book store. Would anyone recommend EOT? I will have to look for Structure of Production next time I'm there, but for now I think this was the only Skousen book in the entire warehouse lol.
WARNING: This signature violates Rule 5. Stay classy!
Yuck.
Mark Skousen's the guy who got chummy with Rudy Giuliani, even inviting him to speak at FEE. The fact that I now have been forced to mention nightstick liberal Rudy and FEE in the same sentence is reason enough not to patronize Mr.Skousen's works in my mind. I admit, I don't know too much about the man's life, and there may be some redeeming details but I saw Mr. Huebart's article from awhile back here. Unless there is some kind of huge exonerating evidence or good side I wouldn't buy his book.
Let's keep in mind it's Rudy the Red here. If he'd invited a Kirkian conservative it wouldn't have been that tragic but Rudy the Red. Geez, the perpetually scowling military socialist?
PS: If I'm being unfair based on my knowledge of this one even I apologize. Just Giuliani at FEE. Ew.
This seems to me kind of a bizarre attitude. Most serious libertarian scholars are at least passing familiar with Das Kapital, Mein Kampf, The Phenomonology of Right, Plato's Laws etc. One must understand positions one rejects, especially if those positions are otherwise quite similar to yourself, even more so than for the radically different (Rawlsian, Platonic, Nazi) views which can be disposed of by simple methodological and economic arguments.
In the edition I have he grants Chicago victory re the gold issue!
No. I mean, yes, he does. But read it carefully. He says theoretically the Austrians are on safer ground. To me that is as good as saying they're right on gold. He even mentions Friedman recanting (which is true; he did.)
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