How were you first introduced to Austrian Economics?

I was first introduced to Austrian Economics by Peter Schiff and Ron Paul!

Same here.  I was also introduced to Austrian Economics by Ron Paul and Peter Schiff.  Almost forget to mention Jim Rogers as well.

My introduction was through Ayn Rand's praise of Mises, back when I was a quasi-Objectivist.  I googled "Ludwig von Mises" and, lo and behold, LvMI was one of the first results.

Hans Hoppe's DTGTF introduced me to it.

Ron Paul introduced me to Austrian Economics, and I ran with it... like Jessie Owens.

Bounced around from Classical economics like Friedman and Sowell until I LUCKILY stumbled across the LvMI.   From then on, I have been absorbing information like a sponge.   Thank's Lew!!

I followed this obvious trend as well...

YouTube --> Ron Paul --> Peter Schiff --> mises.org

oh yeah, and I read Ayn Rand as well.  

 

 

When I was in college I grew increasngly skeptical of what I was being taught in history classes as it related to economics. I had always been pretty simplistic in my interpretations of cause and effect. To me, the bad times were too much credit and the stabilization was liquidating all that bad investment. Of course, in public schools I may as well have been talking Chinese because no one could comprehend such a complex notion. After nearly being numbed to the point of utter stupidity, I decided there was no way I was the only one on this planet who saw things so realistically and simple. About 3 years ago I heard a guy named Ron Paul speak...Holy SH*T! There was at least one other person...wait and there were cheers so that meant there was like 10 or 20! It wasn't long before the biggest "Boom" in my life occured and I found von Mises, Menger, Rothbard, and the Austrian School.

I couldn't have explained it better myself Kevin.  I myself have such a difficult time with what is being taught in school that felt I was the only one who saw what a diservice it was doing to the world.  Then I heard Ron Paul speak and found, just as you, that there are leaders out there that share my views.  It was such a relief and now I am studying as much as possible on my own in the hopes that I can influence those around me who are missing the message.

Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

After starting my undergrad economics degree i was amazed by the amount of Mathematics involved and simply couldn't fathom how these formulae could accurately predict such complex phenomena, nonetheless, i was somewhat impressed, although also found myself slightly bewildered. I was then introduced to Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb (he may not even be too familiar with The Austrian School but certainly shares many similar views and thought processes) which appealed to me due to its brilliant but simple exposition of many results orientated decisions based on faulty logic which have become especially apparent in the economic world. It also highlighted the complete failure of economics in the field of prediction which until then i was completely unaware of. These were probably the books that motivated me to actually take study etc seriously for the first time in my life. From there i took an interest in Popper, most notably, the Poverty of Historicism which although a sociological work, helped me pinpoint some of the problems i had with neoclassical methodology. Taleb also introduced me to the field of Behavioural Economics, which for a time i believed was going to be a discipline that could solve some of my problems with neoclassical economics and was easily sold on Thaler’s “libertarian paternalist” approach. Luckily, after reading in a "most influential book in your life" thread there was much discussion about Atlas Shrugged which i then decided to read and was not disappointed. After finishing the book, a few Google searches sufficed in bringing me to mises.org and I’m just happy to have discovered The Austrian School before my degree was over.

I have been on an extremely steep learning curve ever since,constantly reforming my opinions and gaining new insights into all manner of topics. The last 4 or so months have truly been an enlightening experience and i am extremely grateful for the resources that are on offer at mises.org.

 

 

Through Ron Paul & Petter Schiff somehow. I must found them through YouTube. I linked to mises.org through some other site. I forget the site now but the first article I read was on Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?

I was introduced to Austrian Economics when I was following Ron Paul's campaign.

I as well, Thankfully , stubled across Austrian Economics whil following Ron Paul and his historic campaign!

In the Economists book Economics, it spoke if the recession to come. To put in a nut shell the fed cut rates after the stock market bubble burs in 2001 created a new bubble in the housing market, which lead to a worse recession. And that the austrian school says let these recessions happen they are the cycle and necessary for change. After that I had to find more on this school.

I'm probably one of the few British Austrians :(

I was introduced to it by the current recession... the methods of old didn't seem to be working, and I was unsure of my economic beliefs, so I looked into the different schools of economics, and (as a gold standard supporter) found Austrian economics to my liking.

Watched the Zeitgeist movie in January --> found Ron Paul --> Read Peter Schiff's "Crashproof" --> found Mises Institute online --> recognized it was in my same town (I go to Auburn Univ.) --> Made my first visit of many more to come yesterday.

I read Ayn Rand and searching for her online I stumbled upon Austian Economics.

RP. Though I'd like to think I've always been an Austrian, I just hadn't realized others shared my condition and that our condition had a label.

Oh, and I remembered an old email I had sent Lew Rockwell a while ago, and through the magic of gmail's archives I have found it. Dated 11/3/06 Me: "Do you know of, or have you ever considered starting on your site, a libertarian discussion forum? I have noticed that there are plenty of interesting libertarian articles and blogs throughout the web, but I haven't seemed to stumble across a discussion board where non-professional/academic libertarians can have fruitful discussion (using the common vbulletin or phpbb bulletin board software.) Thanks," His reply: "Sir, I have, and am glad to know you would join it if I did." Seems I have finally found it.

I read Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged), got interested in libertarianism. From there I listened to Stefan Molyneux for awhile, until I found the LvMI. He was interesting, but once I found Austrian Economics, I never listened to him again.

While I was at Auburn I had a macro class with Roger Garrison who is an adjunct faculty at the LvMI.  I was very lucky not to be subjected to the typical Keynesian dribble.

 

I was introduced to economics by my mother who is a pretty independent thinker herself. She introduced me to the topic with Henry Hazlitt's "Economics in 1 Lesson" and Fredrick Bastiat's "The Law". Previous to reading both of those books however, I had read Vick Lockman's Biblical Economics in comics which shows that the Bible supports free market economics. (This illustrates the power of comics on a young mind.) My mother also introduced me to some of Richard Mayberry's books like "Whatever happened to Penny Candy?" about money and "The clipper Ship strategy" which simplifies the Austrian theory of the business cycle. After that, I started reading Mises because some of his books were mentioned in the "further reading" at the back of Hazlitt's book.

 

While I do love to read books on economic freedom and limited government , I don't have nearly as much time to give to it as I would like. Certainly, I still consider myself a beginner in my quest to understand the way Human's Act.

Same here. Ron Paul's campaign got me interested in reading all I could find about it. Soon after, I became a follower and advocate.

I was first introduced to the term Austrian Economics through one of Vox Day's article submissions over at WorldNetDaily.

the first I ever heard about economics, and Austrian economics, specifically, was through "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?" by Richard Maybury, as well. And then I got interested into reading his other books. I really like "The Law" too, it is fantastic, as well as "Economics in One Lesson"...those are a few of my top favorite books. 
My friends are attending a local college right now taking economics classes, one of their books was written by Ben Bernanke, so you have an idea of what they're learning, and I am glad to find young people who haven't been brainwashed by Keynesian economics!

My first experience with Austrian Economics was connected to Hayek, later I read something by Bastiat and Ron Paul, and found mises.org.

I first heard of the Austrian School through Ron Paul's campaign. Nearly every view he had on a topic either mirrored mine, or caused me to be more interested in the debate itself. Then he name-dropped Mises one time and I looked into his stuff with google and found the LvMI.  I've been studying Mises, Rothbard, etc. for the past couple of years.  Whenever I was in high school I read Atlas Shrugged and Anthem and they had a profound impact in my thinking.  But I think the real credit goes to L'lengle's A Wrinkle in Time, and The Giver, by Lois Lowry, which I read when I was very little, and Lord of the Rings.  I suppose those books, read in the formative years, gave way to the important questions of power which I feel I have always been asking.  I found answers in Human Action, Man, Econ, & State,  For a New Liberty, and many others.  I found a calling in scholarly work - I'm trying to improve my writing so that I can contribute something to the libertarian philosophy.  Of course, I have a long way to go.  Sorry if I am replying to a reply.  I'm new here.  :)

Ron Paul of course

I too heard about austrian economics through ron paul .Before then I had been a pretty strident objectivist and pretty anti -libertarian( I guess I had been brainwashed by rands rhetoric).Well as soon as i looked into libertarianism I found friedman,hayek and then ron paul.At first I thought he was a conservative because that's what website about him said so I was a bit put off but once I read his positions I noticed I agreed with him.It wasn't long before I dropped being an Objectivist and became a Libertarian with some Objectivist elements remaining.I also decided out of the minarchists ron paul most appealed to me.I found him virtous,honest and intelligent.I really looked up to him. As 2008 went on I absorbed all I could find he had said and wrote about all sorts of issues again and again I agreed with him(the only exception being abortion and immigration) then as I heard about rumbling's of the recession I focused more on what ron paul said and heard him speak about austrian economics and the business cycle.I looked up recession and then austrian economics and it all began  from there. I admit when i first read austrian economics It sounded like martian to me because I was completely new to economics but I liked that It used logic instead of maths because I'm a great lover of philosophy and I'm pretty weak on math.I read a few sparse articles on austrian economics at that point struggling to make sense of it all and focusing mostly on the politics of libertarianism.it wasn't till late 2008 that I started to begin to grasp it  and this year I've made huge leaps in my understanding though I'd still say to my embarassment I'm pretty much a beginner still because these ideas are so new to me and I don't always have as much time as i'd like to sit down and read 100 + paged  Pdfs but i'm getting there.I understand the basic frame work now it's just a case of builing on it.Podcasts and comments on sites like this help tremendously.

" I found a calling in scholarly work - I'm trying to improve my writing so that I can contribute something to the libertarian philosophy.  Of course, I have a long way to go"

My story is very much the same.I recently decided this year I want to go into what I'm best at, writing.I love thinking about and writing about all these ideas philosophically,economically and politically.I want to improve my style and develop my knowledge so I can add to libertarian thought. Knowing I could never be a mises or a rothbard or even a Hoppe ,I want to be at least as good as walter block or stephan kinsella or  robert higgs or maybe even lew rockwell If I'm lucky.I'm not there yet but I know if i keep learning and practising my skills I can made progress.I definately feel I've gotten so much better just this year.

 

 

 

I was introduced to libertarianism through a discussion with my father (who is a conservative) and then began reading the works of Rand. From there I began getting involved (to the best of my ability) with the Libertarian party. I eventually ran into the Mises institute and here I am.

I was first introduced by Ron Paul's book The Revolution: A Manifesto.  From there I looked more into it and like what I am seeing.  Thank you Ron Paul!

I was brought in very much by chance actually. I watched glenn beck, volunteered with a tea party, we were told to try twitter as means of communicating, stumbled on an account called economic doom, economic doom posted an article of a critique of beck's common sense which was posted on mises.

The article was ok, but i stayed for the mises dailies.

BTW, im 17 and still in HS. Any chance there are some cute austrian girls my age?

I heard of it through Ron Paul and the internet. I live in sweden and its quite socailistic(and going toawards environmentalism) so the works of the Austrian school dont popup in our education or media.so the internet is quite vital for liberty. Let me tell ya, its quite lonely being a Austrian type libertarian here. peolple simple do not understand the words im saying, they look at me as if I was an monster. na not that bad maybe.

Peace

Certainly , Praxeology (Mises fundamental achievement) succeded utterly in explaining the way human's act.Likewise, the first "austrian economics" book I read was Economics in One lesson wich  made me understand that there can never be an excessive advocacy of the free market, because is the only logical option humans have to conquer poverty.The middle-of-the road position, as Mises called it, is not a third system,but a road to totalitarian socialism,step by step.So the importance of Misesian economics is that  in the theoretical conflict between capitalism and socialism only private property of the means of production permits to preserve  Freedom of thought and Freedom of choice without ending as serfs of "irresponsible dictators" as Mises called  the burocrats who want to substitute the consumers priorities for their arbitrary priorities.There can not be a successful mixture between socialism and individual freedom.Austrian economics can guide the student of economics to a a very successful intellectual activism to recover Liberty.

Ron Pauls presidential campaign.

I knew about F.A. Hayek's Road to Serfdom, but did not really get into the heart of it until a friend who followed Ron Paul introduced me to Austrian Economics and this site.  He and I had many good discussions and I downloaded The Austrian Case for the Free Markets audiobook.

For the past ten years I have been researching the long-term social and political implications of the rise of the Internet and the new perspectives and structures of thought that medium it fosters.  That led me here to communities like Mises, which could not have been possible before the web, and also to Hayek's work on psychology, The Sensory Order, which is brilliant in that regard.  It provides a cognitive foundation (that is, the human mind cannot possibly know enough to control the vast, multi-faceted, often counterintuitive operations of the free markets--so therefore don't try to control the markets.  That I find to be a decisive argument for the Austrian School, in addition to all the economic data in support of it.

So, now I am Communication Director for a fantastic political candidate, Jim Trautz, who also shares these views as well as those about the primacy of our Constitution as championed by Ron Paul and very few others.  I am going to be leaning heavily on the Austrian School and this site as we swim upstream into the more complex issues around money, credit, TARP, and the Fed.  The Austrian School, I believe, can carry the day in this area and we would consider a privilege to be another faithful voice for Austrian Economics in Washington today.

Brett:

I was brought in very much by chance actually. I watched glenn beck, volunteered with a tea party, we were told to try twitter as means of communicating, stumbled on an account called economic doom, economic doom posted an article of a critique of beck's common sense which was posted on mises.

The article was ok, but i stayed for the mises dailies.

BTW, im 17 and still in HS. Any chance there are some cute austrian girls my age?

And if you were wondering, i no longer consider myself a tea party person, nor do i watch beck much. I especially dont twitter. Mises dailies are great but I now i stay for all the books available on the site.

Im not sure how to post w/o replying.

But I was first introduced by one of the best Macro teachers in the world. Roger A Arnold at CSUSM in an intermediate macro class.  It was a lecture the day after Lehman went down.  He seemed pretty upset and kicked a finance major out before class started.  The austrian stuff wasn't in our book, so he urged us to write it down.  We started with Bohm Beweks, theory of the interest rate, and he related it to the housing market and how it was overheated. We got a full dose of the Austrian business cycle.  Because this was  the only thing that made any real sense in that class...I was hooked.  RA Arnold taught at UNLV and supposedly knew Murray Rothbard before he passed away(RIP).  Since then I have read alot of Austrian literature.  I especially like Doug French and FAH, 'The road to surfdom' should a starting point when discussing policy...especially these days.

My stepfather, a long-time benefactor of the Ludwig von Mises Institute and Hillsdale College and an Adjunct Scholar with The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, introduced me to the Austrian School. He began giving me issues of Hillsdale College's Imprimis (http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp) during middle school, though I was not especially interested in history and economics then. During ninth grade, however, a particular issue, "Constitutional Myths and Realities," piqued my interest, and I began regularly reading the Imprimis and doing additional research. I am lucky enough to have an entire bookcase full of books written by prominent Austrian economists and classical liberals at home, so this research, of course, entailed reading books published by the LvMI.

Hmmm good question.

 

I’m sure I first heard the term during some rant from my Dad. But obviously I wasn’t paying much attention. Lol I think I must have heard it mentioned in a number of places and eventually went to look it up.

 

I have a bachelors degree in Economics, and while I may have heard the term in school (can’t remember if I did) I certainly didn’t learn anything about it there.

 

I work in real estate and became very interested in finance, banking, currency, etc when the financial crisis hit. I wound up here because I am reading The Mystery of Banking which is published by the institute.

 

I am also a fan of Ron Paul and have watched you tube videos of and read articles from Peter Schiff.