Austrian Economics Overview

This work of six years of labor appeared in 1940. It was the predecessor to Human Action published nine years later. Epistemology and value theory were the two central problems.

Mises’ socialist calculation argument reshaped the debate about socialism. It was not true that socialism could work and could use the same techniques as capitalism. The book Socialism had a decisive impact on Hayek and other rising economists.

There are two main branches of the sciences of human action: praxeology and history.

Mises states that the fundamental logical relations are not subject to proof or disproof.

Why?

The Universidad Rey Juan Carlos now offers a Masters degree in economics, under Jesus Huerta de Soto, with a focus on the Austrian School.

The WSJ blogs about a revival o

In the history of money, bartering was awkward because wants were not divisible. Direct exchange depended upon a double coincidence of wants. Demand for a medium of exchange grew until a general medium of exchange emerged, like gold and silver.

Competition can mean rivalry or freedom. All firms must serve the preferences of consumers in order to exist. Monopoly has historically been an artificial privilege granted by the state.

Time preference says that individuals prefer satisfaction now to later, present to future. This explains the loan market. In the structure of production, the capitalist pays wages now, despite the fact that he himself does not get paid until the final stage when the product actually comes to market.

Causal-realist analysis allows imaginary constructs like the ERE — Evenly Rotating Economy — in order to isolate certain factors like interest.  There would be no profit or loss in the ERE, because those can only exist under conditions of uncertainty.