Do you need to take an economics class to understand anything here?

Miscellaneous General
1

I have no experienced or knowledge of the subject of Economics whatsoever, I often don’t know what people are talking about when they debate The Austrian Business Cycle.

My background of libertarianism comes from most of the social issues. I’m in favor of abolishment of The Federal Reserve, and the free market, however, I have very little understanding of most terms and the Austrian theory.

I believe in individualism, self ownership, free love, self-reliance, natural law, and most of the things said by Heinlein, Locke, Thoreux, and Emerson.

Henry David Thoreau was the one to introduce me to the whole concept, I was intrigued by his philosophies of individuality when we read some of his writings in high school English class. From there I got into Ron Paul, Von Mises, Peter Schiff, Adam Smith, Andrew Jackson, Jacksonian Democrats, and Ayn Rand.

However, Ron Paul was pretty much the first to get me interested in the Mises institute because I became more interested in him during is candidacy in 2008 from watching his interviews and reading his articles, then I eventually got his book.

Economic Freedom is an interesting idea, and so is the free market and natural law. However, I’ve never taken an economics class, and usually get destroyed in debates where the other person thinks there should be more regulation in the economy.

2

You don’t need to take an economics class, but your life will be richer for learning economics.

Be patient. Read along. Ask thoughtful questions.

If you want to get started on learning more about the FED and ABCT, watch this.

You’d probably do well to get started by reading the LewRockwell.com daily articles (top half of the listings) and the daily articles at the C4L site. That will get your feet wet in some basic austrian and free market economic theory.

This is not hard stuff to pick up, and once you do, it will get easier and become more intriguing.

3

I have an account at C4L.

The thing about the articles is there, is that a lot of them are uninformed. I saw one by an owner of a private Bank saying how the CRA was responsible for the economic mess, which is just a debunked myth.

4

Ok, maybe I underestimated how much you know. You made it sound like you didn’t understand very much and I didn’t want to talk over you.

Read everything by Gary North on money and banking. He’s like Peter Schiff, without the TV appearances and a broader repretoire.

Rothbard, of course

http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard-lib.html

And then substitute the Mises Daily Articles, for the C4L. Out of the 3 Mises Daily Articles, at least one will be at a layman’s level of understanding (I am a layman).

Give it a couple weeks. Join in some discussions here. Add some folks to your friends list. Get some people you can ask private questions from, if you aren’t comfortable posting what you think are basic questions, in public discussion. Like I keep saying, build relationships. It’s the most important thing you can do for yourself in the short term and in the long term.

5

Or, better yet, take a stiff drink and ask in public anyway, so the discussion can help out other beginning sods who are embarrassed to post beginner’s questions, like me. [:)]

6

This is where your journey begins…

7

That depends on what you mean be “class”. I learned everything about economics from LvMI, beginning 6 year ago. Never had a problem. Although ABCT will be the last thing you understand, after you learn everything else about AE. I find that people educated in mainstream are incapable of comprehending it.

8

library of liberty and economics has some of the best stuff for the layman and they even have an archive of economics books that go way back to the 1600s. Also, if you’ve read adam smith, read him again. He was an economist but he is hard to understand to someone who is a first-time learner so read him about 4-5 times, that’s how I did it.

9

I disagree. I think that many people educated in mainstream don’t want to understand it, but my professors have actually been fairly open to my “unorthodox” opinions. I guess I’ve been getting pretty lucky.

10

It seems to me that economics professors see Mises as a laughing matter. check out this topic.

11

You have access to the most amazing free library ever here. Remember that and search the site if you get confused. Gold is a good way to start. It’s really fun especially if you buy some.

12

To be fair, most professors probably don’t know who Mises is. But, so far, professors have been positively receptive to my comments on the Federal Reserve’s role in credit expansion, and the role of credit and interest in resource allocation. It makes sense; I guess that I don’t really argue it by saying, “Well Mises said this, or Hayek said that.”

13

Very little in my econ classes has helped me understand Austrian econ or even economics more generally. I find the approach of the Austrians is far more conducive to actually understanding, from the most basic elements to more complex theories, and actually helps me understand the econ classes better and not vice versa.

14

From my experience, college professors who teach Econ majors are generally “serious” businessmen who see ideology such as Laissez-Faire a laughing stock, and that the Austrian school is mostly elitist kids similar to the Marxists.

Don’t forget a lot of businessmen, economic professors, and majors hate Ron Paul.