by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

Recently
by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.: Greenbackers
Smear Ron Paul

The past several
years have seen a revival of interest in the Austrian School of
economics. (For some background on the Austrian School, read this
essay and this
essay.) I’ve assembled this resource list to help beginners
embark on a program of self-education in the Austrian School. I
have marked a few titles with ** to indicate their importance.

Many of the
books and audiobooks, in addition to all of the articles, that appear
on the list below are available to read or listen to online.

An
Introduction to Economic Reasoning
These books, all relatively short and available online or for purchase,
are an excellent starting point for an education in sound economics.

**Economics
in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt; online here
and here
(.pdf)
Essentials
of Economics by Faustino Ballve; online here
(.pdf)
An
Introduction to Austrian Economics by Thomas C. Taylor;
online here
and here
(.pdf)
Lessons
for the Young Economist (for younger readers) by Robert
P. Murphy; online here,
here
(.pdf) and here
(ebook)

Another easy-to-understand
introduction to economic reasoning is Peter Schiff’s book How
an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes.

A useful companion
to Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson is this
series of videos, recorded in July-August 2008, in which various
professors comment on each of the book’s chapters – explaining the
argument, elaborating on it, and applying it to present conditions.
(Need Windows Media Player.)

Video 1: The
Lesson
Video 2: The
Broken Window
Video 3: Public
Works Mean Taxes
Video 4: Credit
Diverts Production
Video 5: The
Curse of Machinery
Video 6: Disbanding
Troops and Bureaucrats
Video 7: Who’s
Protected by Tariffs?
Video 8: “Parity”
Prices
Video 9: How
the Price System Works
Video 10: Minimum
Wage Laws
Video 11: The
Function of Profits
Video 12: The
Assault on Saving

Here’s an even
easier way to watch these videos.

Additional
Introductory Reading in Economics
The
Concise Guide to Economics by Jim Cox; online here
and here
(.pdf)
Making
Economic Sense by Murray N. Rothbard
Free
Market Economics: A Reader by Bettina Bien Greaves
Free
Market Economics: A Syllabus by Bettina Bien Greaves
The
Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism by Robert P.
Murphy
The
Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy
by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
Whatever
Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard J. Maybury (great for
homeschoolers)
The
Revolution: A Manifesto by Ron Paul, ch. 4

Money
**What
Has Government Done to Our Money? and The Case for a 100 Percent
Gold Dollar by Murray N. Rothbard;
mp3 audio
**The
Ethics of Money Production by Jörg Guido Hülsmann (should
be read after the title above); .pdf
here
Gold,
Peace, and Prosperity (.pdf) by Ron Paul; mp3
audio
“Money,
Banking, and the Federal Reserve” (documentary, via Google Video)
The
Case for Gold by Ron Paul and Lewis Lehrman
Money:
Sound and Unsound (advanced) by Joseph T. Salerno; online
here
(.pdf) and here
(ebook)
The
Case Against the Fed by Murray N. Rothbard (.pdf
here; audiobook)
End
the Fed by Ron Paul
The
Revolution: A Manifesto by Ron Paul, ch. 6 (audiobook)
The
Gold Standard: Perspectives in the Austrian School, ed.
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.; .pdf
here
A
History of Money and Banking in the United States by Murray
N. Rothbard; .pdf
here
“The
Myth of the ‘Independent’ Fed” by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
Did
Greenspan Deserve Support for Another Term? (.pdf) by Joseph
T. Salerno (mp3
audio)
“The
Path to Sound Money” (mp3 audio) by George Reisman
“The
Economics of Inflation” (mp3 audio) by George Reisman

The
Business Cycle
**The
Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays (online
here;
audiobook here).
Meltdown
by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
America’s
Great Depression, 5th ed. (html here,
.pdf here)
by Murray N. Rothbard
Time
and Money: The Macroeconomics of Capital Structure by Roger
W. Garrison
“Business
Cycle Primer” by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
“My
Reply to Krugman on Austrian Business Cycle Theory” by Robert
P. Murphy
“Sound Money
and the Business Cycle” by John P. Cochran
“Who
Predicted the Bubble? Who Predicted the Crash?” (.pdf) by Mark
Thornton
“Mises
vs. Fisher on Money, Method, and Prediction: The Case of the Great
Depression” (.pdf) by Mark Thornton
“Predicting
Booms and Busts” (mp3 audio) by Mark Thornton
“Banking
and the Business Cycle” (mp3 audio) by Joseph T. Salerno

Deflation
Articles and Monograph:
“Deflation
and Depression: Where’s the Link?” by Joseph T. Salerno
“Apoplithorismosphobia”
(.pdf) by Mark Thornton. (Thornton coined the term to refer
to the fear of deflation.)
“An
Austrian Taxonomy of Deflation – With Applications to the U.S.
by Joseph T. Salerno
Deflation
and Liberty by Jörg Guido Hülsmann; audiobook

Audio
(in mp3 audio):
“On
Deflation” by Joseph T. Salerno
“The
Economics of Deflation” by Jörg Guido Hülsmann
“The
Gold Standard in Theory and Myth” by Joseph T. Salerno

Advanced
Texts in Austrian Economics
Man,
Economy, and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles by
Murray N. Rothbard
This version also contains the book Power and Market, which
had originally been intended as the concluding section of Man,
Economy, and State but was released in 1970 as a separate title.
The entire text is also available online here.
A study guide is available for
purchase and online
(.pdf).

Human
Action: A Treatise on Economics (read
online) by Ludwig von Mises
Mises’ magnum opus. A study guide is available for
purchase and online
(.pdf). I recommend reading Man, Economy, and State
first, though some disagree with me.

Money,
Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles (.pdf)
by Jesús Huerta de Soto
A sweeping and historic contribution to the literature of the Austrian
School, showing how monetary freedom avoids the disadvantages of
fiat money, including inflation, business cycles, and financial
bubbles.

Foreign
Aid and Development Economics
Equality,
the Third World, and Economic Delusion by Peter Bauer
From
Subsistence to Exchange and Other Essays by Peter Bauer
“The
Marshall Plan: Myths and Realities” (.pdf) by Tyler Cowen
The
Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures
in the Tropics by William Easterly
“The
History of Foreign Aid Programs” (mp3) by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
(These critiques of development aid are not specifically Austrian,
but may be of use to those interested in Austrian economics.)

Additional
Readings in Austrian Economics
The
Economics and Ethics of Private Property by Hans-Hermann
Hoppe
A
Theory of Socialism and Capitalism (read
online) by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Economic
Science and the Austrian Method (read
online) by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Praxeology
and Understanding: An Analysis of the Controversy in Austrian Economics
(read
online) by George Selgin

Introduction
to Austrian Economic Analysis: A Ten-Lecture Course
This course with Professor Joseph Salerno of Pace University, courtesy
of the Ludwig
von Mises Institute, is available in both video and
mp3 audio at the links below. Recommended supplemental reading follows
each lecture.

Lecture
1: Scarcity, Choice, and Value – Audio
and Video
Percy L. Greaves, Jr., Understanding
the Dollar Crisis, pp. 1-20, 27-54
Milton M. Shapiro, Foundations
of the Market-Price System, pp.
81-113
Thomas C. Taylor, An
Introduction to Austrian Economics, pp. 40-51 (ch. 4)

Lecture
2: Exchange and Demand – Audio
and Video
Shapiro, pp.
31-58, 115-78
Taylor,
pp. 12-39 (chs. 2-3)
Leonard Read, “I,
Pencil”

Lecture
3: The Determination of Prices – Audio
and Video
Greaves,
pp. 65-91
Shapiro, pp.
179-233
Taylor,
pp. 52-62 (ch. 5)
Murray N. Rothbard, The
Mystery of Banking, pp. 15-27 (online pp. 14-23)

Lecture
4: Price Controls: Case Studies – Audio
and Video

Lecture
5: Profit, Loss, and the Entrepreneur – Audio
and Video
Taylor,
pp. 74-89 (ch. 7)
Ludwig von Mises, “Profit
and Loss,” in Mises, Planning
for Freedom and Sixteen Other Essays and Addresses, pp.
108-30

Lecture
6: Pricing of the Factors of Production and the Labor Market – Audio
Henry N. Sanborn, What,
How, For Whom: The Decisions of Economic Organization,
pp.
112-85
Taylor,
pp. 63-73 (ch. 6)
Greaves,
pp. 105-32
Murray N. Rothbard, “Restrictionist
Pricing of Labor,” in Rothbard, The
Logic of Action Two

Lecture
7: Capital, Interest and the Structure of Production – Audio
Shapiro, pp.
235-60
Mark Skousen, The
Structure of Production, pp. 133-49
Richard Fink, “Economic
Growth and Market Processes,” in Fink, ed., Supply-Side
Economics: A Critical Appraisal, pp. 372-94

Lecture
8: Competition and Monopoly – Audio
Shapiro, pp.
319-72
Sanborn, pp.
62-65
Hans Sennholz, “The
Phantom Called ‘Monopoly,'” in Bettina B. Greaves, ed., Free
Market Economics: A Basic Reader, pp. 162-69
Sudha R. Shenoy, “The
Sources of Monopoly,” in New
Individualist Review, pp. 793-96

Lecture
9: Money and Prices – Audio
Greaves,
pp. 141-67
Rothbard, What
Has Government Done to Our Money? pp. 1-96 (online,
chs. I-III; online
.pdf, pp. 7-48).
Rothbard, The
Case Against the Fed, pp. 29-69 (or Rothbard, The
Mystery of Banking, pp. 77-177; online, pp. 52-108)

Lecture
10: Banking and the Business Cycle – Audio
Ludwig von Mises, et al., The
Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays, Read:
Garrison, Introduction and Summary; Mises’s essay and Rothbard’s
essay.
Taylor,
ch. 8 (pp. 90-95)

Additional
Introductory Lectures in Austrian Economics
The Mises University, the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s week-long
summer instructional program in Austrian economics, amounts to a
crash course on the subject. Consult the Mises University audio
archive for many additional lectures.

Reprinted
with permission from TomWoods.com.

December
20, 2011

Thomas
E. Woods, Jr. [send him
mail; visit
his website], a senior fellow of the Ludwig von Mises
Institute, is the author of eleven books, most recently Rollback:
Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse and
Nullification:
How to Resist Federal Tyranny in the 21st Century, as well
as the New York Times bestsellers Meltdown:
A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy
Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse and
The
Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. He is
also the editor of five other books, including the just-released
Back
on the Road to Serfdom.

©
2011 TomWoods

The
Best of Thomas Woods