In preparation for the onslaught of Keynesian/neo-classical theory that I'll surely be confronted with during my Intro. to Microeconomics course this fall, I'm interested in arming myself with a solid foundation of Austrian and free market theory. I've already read Economics in One Lesson and I plan on ordering the Economics 101 CD as well as Man, Economy, and State. However, I'd greatly appreciate any and all reading recommendations that specifically deal with Micro. Given the sheer size of MES, there's no way I'm going to get through it this summer. I was hoping to devour several shorter publications over the summer, and then refer back to MES during the fall semester. Once again, some advice on basic Microeconomics readings would be great.
My Intro course was pure crap. I ended up skipping all of the lectures and just showing up for tests.
The economics they taught was so bogus. Today I cannot read my Micro textbook for more than a minute because it's so stupid. I would say to ignore the course and spend your time on true economics, i.e. praxeology.
MES is great; also take a look at the praxeology reading list.
LibertarianAnarchy.com - Government is immoral, unnecessary, and doesn't work!
I totally know where you're coming from DW. Currently I'm taking a Macroeconomics class and so far it's okay but very basic. I've opted to not really read the class textbook and just read my copy of MES and damn is there so much deep details on certain aspects of Macroeconomics that aren't talked about in class but are heavily covered in MES. I'm not even half way through MES but I've set a daily reading schedule that will allow me to complete it in its entirety before fall semester begins in mid-August where I'll be taking a course in Microeconomics. And hopefully if extra time permits me, I'll be able to finish up Human Action before fall semester begins as well, which will be a great plus too. I've done a search for some books on Macroeconomics and Microeconomics in the Mises store and a couple of the most interesting books I've found are:
"Time and Money" Roger W. Garrison"The Theory of Money and Credit" by Ludwig von Mises"Crisis and Cycles" by Wilhelm Röpke
Definitely "The Theory of Money and Credit" for Microeconomics but you can also check out what the other two are all about by searching for them in the store to see what you think.
Hopefully this helps out a little.
I know I'm resurrecting an old thread, but I too have just started a Principles of Microeconomics course this summer and wanted to see if anyone else had any other advice or resources. I'm currently working through Hazlitt's "Economics In One Lesson" and Rothbard's "America's Great Depression." (I got about 1/5 of the way through Mises's gargantuan "Human Action," but my schedule got a bit crowded recently and I decided that since it's such a meaty read I wanted to wait until I had more time to devote to it.)
I took a "Money, Banking, and Financial Markets" course earlier this summer, which was a load of Keynesian BS (my favorite quote from my professor was: "And if you'll look at the graphs on page such-and-such in the textbook, it's quite intriguing. We don't really understand it at this point, but there seems to be a mysterious direct link between money supply growth and the inflation rate..." which actually made me laugh out loud in the middle of class.) I ended up skipping half the classes and gave up on reading the textbook ("The Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets" by Frederic S. Mishkin, a former Fed governor) about halfway through the course. I probably should have paid more attention so that I could understand Keynsianism better, since it is the primary enemy in this intellectual battle, but, whatever. I did fine on the exams and I took the 7-page paper assignment as an opportunity to make the case for abolishing the Federal Reserve System (my paper actually ended up being 10 pages).
I'm also taking Principles of Macroeconomics simultaneous with my Micro course right now, and already I've had fun with the professor. My Macro prof is big on class participation and he calls on people to comment on things he's saying (to keep everyone involved and make sure they're paying attention), and yesterday he called on me to comment on interest as the price of money. I turned it around and told him that the price of money is however many goods/services that money can be exchanged for, and that interest is really the price of time. Then we got into a little back and forth about liquidity preference vs. time preference, and it ended up with him saying he'd have to get back to me on the subject and that he honestly wasn't sure how to respond.. lol...
But anyways... tips for surviving a Microeconomics Keynes-love-fest college course as an Austrian schooler. Much appreciated.
"Anticapitalist theories share in common an inability to take human nature as it is. Rather than analyzing man as a complex creature, anticapitalist theories tend to focus on what the theorist wishes man to be." - Isaac Morehouse
That's funny. My professor was sure to make certain we understood interest rates are related to time preference.
-Jon
To darkness I condemn you...
DW89: I've already read Economics in One Lesson and I plan on ordering the Economics 101 CD as well as Man, Economy, and State. However, I'd greatly appreciate any and all reading recommendations that specifically deal with Micro.
Carl Menger's "Principles of Economics" is the single best micro text that I've read. Menger was on the forefront of the Marginal Revolution, and "Principles" meshes well with the Austrian tradition. I believe he taught or worked with Bohm-Bawerk.
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David Z
"The issue is always the same, the government or the market. There is no third solution."
I know that Rothbard's favorite microeconomics textbook was Foundations of the Market Price System by Milton Shapiro. I haven't read it but will once I find the time. I don't consider myself part of the Austrian school though so I favor Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach by Hal Varian for a good introduction to microeconomics.
"I cannot prove, but am prepared to affirm, that if you take care of clarity in reasoning, most good causes will take care of themselves, while some bad ones are taken care of as a matter of course." -Anthony de Jasay
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