History of the Austrian School of Economics

Quite unlike the Christian view, Hegelian and Marxist thought depends on the idea of a universe in which a cosmic blob  of "humanity" is reunited with God through the "dialectic."

Once public opinion is convinced that the increase in prices will continue, everybody becomes eager to buy as much as possible and to restrict his cash holding to a minimum size. 

We wrap up our look at Murray Rothbard's sprawling two volume An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought with Dr. Joe Salerno, Rothbard's friend and colleague. 

Was Rothbard's harsh criticism of Adam Smith justified, or was Smith actually an early and valiant proponent of laissez-faire? Hunter Hastings and Jonathan Newman join Jeff Deist to discuss. 

Many insights of Menger are nowadays part of standard economics. Many more are preserved in the distinct school of Austrian economics. This applies particularly to the notions of foresight and the role of uncertainty.

Gary North shows how Rothbard always had the ability to go to the central issue in a debate. He wrote clearly. He wrote continuously. He wrote for almost anyone who would give him an opportunity to put an idea in print.

Bruno Leoni's Freedom and the Law can be the starting-point for a more "classical" understanding of libertarian natural law actually rooted in the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition. 

The only relevant thing is that indirect exchange and money exist because the conditions for their existence were and are present.

That gold was used as money in the past is merely a historical fact. But the fact that gold was a form of private money, and thus not easily manipulated for government schemes, made it a target of countless intellectual and governmental assaults.

When the subjective theory was formulated in the 1870s, it suffered from the defect of wrongly thinking that economic calculation could occur without prices. This defect gave socialists help in making their case.