Newbies

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

John James — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:49:28 GMT

Is...is that supposed to be a joke?

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

Prashanth Perumal — Mon, 07 May 2012 11:46:54 GMT

I had the same question for Tom Woods sometime back, and he recommended two books:

1. "The Economics of Money, Banking, and Financial Markets" by Frederic Mishkin.

2. "Financial Markets for the Rest of Us" by Robert Hashemian.

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

John James — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:33:30 GMT

Marginal Interest:
Money, Banking and Financial Markets by Frederic Mishkin. Great stuff.

I just came across this thread again after reading the Mises Daily review of this very book. Hilarious in light of this comment (but I guess it should be no surprise considering who it came from.)

The Sad State of Financial Economics Teaching

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

Marginal Interest — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 13:14:17 GMT

Well you were confused about why I was suggesting something mainstream... There was no generalisation. It was making the point that this shouldn't be just a site for one specific kind of thinking that goes unchallenged.

Firstly, that's clearly a ridiculous position to hold. Such a blatant disregard, and embrace, of an ad homenim is not becoming of a person who would try to claim that their model is grounded in any sort of reality. Rather it's the position of somebody who pursues ideological biases rather that proper understanding.

Second, "claiming that the market cannot function without it"? The textbook containts positive statements, not normative ones. If this is your perception then you should probably take the time to actually learn what you're criticising (summarily dismissing?).

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

Jargon — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:59:32 GMT

My views are not necessarily representative of this site, how did you make that generalization? But yes, however uncouth it sounds I will admit, I won't listen to State bankmen. I've read enough to understand that state banking is the game of history's greatest crooks. The appendages which extend from it, advocating it, claiming that the market cannot function without it, are sources I don't trust.

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

Marginal Interest — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:28:41 GMT

What, is this site its own little bubble, impermeable to any sort of contribution from anybody on the outside? With that kind of attitude, where rather than listen to and understand any sort of challenging or complementary ideas from anybody on the outside you just ignore them, since their name is mud, it sounds more like this site is about a religion rather than a serious attempt to explain economic phenomenon.

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

Jargon — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:11:50 GMT

You're on a Mises board recommending a textbook written by a Federal Reserve Governor, Research Director, and Vice President, and consultant to the World Bank and IMF, not to mention a senior fellow at the FDIC. Clearly this man represents the interests of the State. I'm more confused than angry as to why you posted him here.

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

Marginal Interest — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:06:39 GMT

Oooh well since you call him names he must be an idiot. Grow up.

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

Jargon — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 12:02:33 GMT

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Frederic_Mishkin%2C_Federal_Reserve_photo_portrait.jpg

You mean this clown? IMF and FED stooge.

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

Marginal Interest — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:49:27 GMT

Money, Banking and Financial Markets by Frederic Mishkin. Great stuff.

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

John James — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 19:24:27 GMT

As a beginner, I would definitely get through at least two of those top three on that picture list. (Of course I also recommend a healthy dose of political philosophy as well, that's why the list is set up that way. An economics book and a liberty book.) If I had to pick one from each, I'd say Liberty Defined and Lessons for the Young Economist. (You can purchase the former here (look for the Mises Store link at the bottom of the page), and Lessons can be purchased in hard copy, or downloaded for free at the resources link here.) If you get through that, you'll understand the subject better than virtually anyone on TV (or in Washington). (And it's super easy to get through. Murphy is just awesome. His blog is here btw).

After that, if you'd still like to stick to a general treatment (instead of getting to more advanced theory) you could move to those others on the picture list, or I would also recommend Applied Economics by Thomas Sowell.

And to get farther into Austrian economics, there are quite a few options. Of course there's the top 10 list in order of difficulty here. But there's also other media...

You might first check the list at the Mises Wiki. That's the most comprehensive, and includes all the relevant links on what Austrian economics is, and places to learn. Included in that list is the Mises Classroom, which is possibly best place to start. You can download the lectures for the Home Study Course here, and nearly all the texts used in the course can be downloaded for free (in audio and digital text) on the Mises.org site (to see what those are, the lesson plan & study guide is here (PDF). And for more advanced study, the Mises Academy offers plenty of excellent courses.

There are also plenty of lectures available free online. The LvMI site hosts all the media from past events here (I would use the "categories" menu). One important series that isn't included in the Mises.org collection is this set of almost a dozen lectures given by Austrian scholars Hans-Hermann Hoppe and Guido Hülsmann.

But before you do anything, you might go ahead and view these. That's the best intro. View those, then start on Lessons for the Young Economist.

(I realize this is a lot of stuff, but I figure if you have all these links compiled here it will make for easy reference in the future).

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

Jas0n — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:51:37 GMT

Thank you fbc91, will look into that one.

John - Wow, your posts are extremely informative and helpful, I might spend some time tracing out some of your older posts for more of this great information, thank you very much!!

Please feel free to recommend other books/textbooks perhaps.

Thanks.

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

John James — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:44:38 GMT

Okay, so yeah. Just looking for some basics.

For finance I would actually recommend something like the Dummies series. They have literally scores of titles on the subject, because they have entire books dedicated to specific topics, such as Bond Investing for Dummies and Commodities for Dummies, but they also have more general titles like Personal Finance and Investing. (In fact they actually combined those two into a single volume for convenience). Check out the list here.

That's really a good start. That series is popular for a reason. They do a great job because the authors are specific to each subject, but the format of the book is done to maximize beginner comprehension. (Notice they also have foreign editions of some titles, like this one here is a UK edition...so you might see if they have one closer to home for you.)

If you get through a couple of those, that should give you a good enough foundation to follow what is being said on financial news. If you have a question about something specific, these sites should be able to help:

www.fool.com
www.investopedia.com (there is a great dictionary of finance terms here. Here's an example)
www.teachmefinance.com

As for economics in general, see here. (at that link, you can click most of those images and be taken to a place to either download the book and/or purchase it. If it's not obvious, look for the phrase "resources page")

But be sure to check out these lists:

Reading lists

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

fbc91 — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:14:04 GMT

Why Stocks Go Up (and Down) by William Pike is a great intro to stock and bond markets.

Re: Looking for a good Finance textbook!

Jas0n — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:08:18 GMT

Sorry I haven't been more clear. Financial modelling is probably much too advanced for me at this stage, I also have to do some considerable brushing up on my math skills. What I am looking for is understanding the financial world in terms of banking, institutions/corporations etc.

I am 18 years of age and am intrigued with Austrian economics. However I find that I must acquire some basic knowledge about the structure of the financial system to clear some things up when I try to understand the concepts of fractional reserve banking, the trickle down effects of inflation etc.

Also, from my understanding of Austrian economics so far I can see that our financial system is in for some serious trouble but I am not able to easily follow those guys on bloomberg when they talk about all these financial concepts like margin calls, short selling, leverage etc, I would like to learn about those!

So yeah. looking to start from the very basics and would defninetly enjoy some recommendations for also more advanced books about investing etc.

Once again, thank you for the help!