Austrian Economics Overview

This week Jeff is solo with very special guest Jimmy Rogers, the famed investor, Alabama native, and fan of Austrian economics.

Austrian economics begins with logical deductions made from what we know about human action, not data sets that are subject to change.

"Let's celebrate the prodigious life of Lu Mises, a life in which he fused crowning insight on how the world tackles the law of scarcity, with lifelong moral courage."

Modern economics claims that quantitative methods are central to understanding economic analysis. Mises demonstrated why this belief is untrue.

Mainstream academic economists believe that we advance economics by "testing" theories. Austrian economists believe economics is about understanding human action and does not have to be subjected to constant tests.

Sometimes people—even other economists—are incredulous that the Austrians deny the possibility of interpersonal utility comparisons.

Menger's was an analytical method that began with the smallest empirical phenomena and proceeded logically from there. He called this the "empirical method."

Sometimes people—even other economists—are incredulous that the Austrians deny the possibility of interpersonal utility comparisons.

One must not forget that the scale of values or wants manifests itself only in the reality of action. These scales have no independent existence apart from the actual behavior of individuals.

The field of our science is human action, not the psychological events which result in an action. It is precisely this which distinguishes the general theory of human action, praxeology, from psychology.