Making a book illustrating Austrian Economics. Need some help!

Economics Economics Questions
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Hello everyone. I’m a Graphic Designer graduating this year and I’m really trying to make my portfolio the best it can be. Because of this, I have an idea of creating a book which lays out economic laws and theories, accompanied by illustrations which culminate in the end of the book to describing the Austrian Theory of the Business Cycle.

Now one thing that I want to avoid is going into heavy detail concerning the theories and laws themselves. Basically what I want this to be is a summarized and concise booklet of easy to understand visuals to help myself and others “get it” quicker. Low on type, heavy on the illustrations.

I figure I can hopefully make a lasting impression with this project on potential employers, while at the same time helping myself and others understand Austrian economics better through visual illustrations. (I’m a very right brain thinker.)

I’ve read Man Economy and State, Economics in one lesson, as well as plenty of other works to the point where I feel confident that I have a fairly solid foundation in which to support such an endeavour.

With all that said, I’ve come up with these topics so far. I was thinking of splitting the book into three sections:

Part One: The Basics

-Human Action
-Scarcity
-Saving, Consumption (Decision making), Time Preference
-Marginal Utility
-Supply and Demand, Water Diamond Paradox
-Prices / Influences on
-Structure of Production (Inter-temporal emphasis)

Part Two: Freedom and Economics

-Banking in a Free Society
-How banking would operate in a free society. (Rothbardian approach)
-Banking / Interest Rates

Part Three: How Economics works today

-Contemporary Banking / Business Cycle Theory
-How banking operates today
-Business Cycle (Very large list of subtopics to cover so I wont type out here)

The most important thing I’m trying to accomplish by splitting the book into sections is to supply the reader with the appropriate prerequisite knowledge before giving them the ABCT. Also by illustrating things like the structure of production, I think, if I can dot it well, will really be an eye opener for some.

So my questions to you are:

-What areas / topics should I add / apply greater emphasis on? (I have plenty of time to work on this)

-Do any of you have any suggestions on reading / listening material that may help me with this project?

-What do you think of the whole idea in general?

Hopefully with the help of you wonderful folks I can refine and solidify this project to really make something great!

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Here is this by Lilburne: http://anthropica.blogspot.com/2009/10/introducing-human-action-comics-by.html

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Thanks Daniel. I enjoy those comics immensely!

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I wouldn’t aim for too much initially. It may be smarter to try your hand at one of the topics first and see how that goes. Get some feedback, etc.

I’m assuming you’ve seen Peter Schiff’s new book?

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Good idea. I’m going to begin illustrating one topic. I’ll post it up here when I’m done.

Yeah I’ve skimmed through it. Looks interesting, almost like a childrens book.

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Cool!

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Great idea! Not sure I have much to contribute in terms of specific suggestions, but as someone still new to Austrian economics I would benefit greatly from a book like this. Do you plan for it all to be about general theory, without historical allegories like in the Peter Schiff book?

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Lee -

I wasn’t considering going into much Economic history, apart from the contempary situation we face today (enough to explain our current “crisis”)

I’m glad you’re interested in this, it makes me excited! =D