And this would be a nice question too:
What would the system for payments and reimbursements between banks look like without a central bank?
Mises Daily author Benjamin C. Richards said, “Economics is a science in the same sense that mathematics and logic are sciences. Its claims are based on logical deduction from indisputable axioms, and may be illustrated historically, but never verified or falsified experimentally. In the same way, we do not ask for experimental verification that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points on a two-dimensional plane.”
If interest rates are lowered by a central bank, the money supply is expanded, but a recession never occurs to liquidate alleged malinvestments, not because of government intervention, but because the economy seems fine, does this not raise doubt about Austrian business cycle theory? Does not Austrian economics try to separate itself from reality with its neither-falsify-nor-verify methodology?
Well, a good learning session has a lot of interaction, it is not supposed to be a monolog, although a lot of lectures admittedly are. You would be missing out on being part of that interaction. And I would guess there is a lot of learning interaction outside of sessions. You would be missing out on that too.
I have made a presentation giving a mathematical proof of the fractional reserve banking money multiplier.
You can find it here.
Please let me know what you think:
- Is it useful? Or just plain nerdy?
- Is it comprehensible?
- Are there points where I explain too much?
- Are there points where I explain too little?
- Am I “reinventing the wheel?”
- Am I guilty of any misunderstandings?
- Any other comments?
Thanks!
(this was also posted in a sticky thread on fractional reserve banking, but I posted it here as well as I thought it might be particularly interesting to those of you attending the 2010 Mises University, and it might also be interesting to see what the lecturer on money and banking thinks of it)
@J.K. Baltzersen
can you repost the link
The link has been repaired in the previous post now.
@ J.K., very nice; clear reproduction of simple proof of geometrical series plus how it relates to credit expansion through FRB.I think this will be useful for beginners.
Thank you, sir!
Another question that would be great to hear the answer to is:
Is it not so that Austrian economics is a value-free science, providing tools for analyzing how the world works, whereas libertarian political economy/philosophy is about how the world should work? Why is it then so that the Austrian School of Economics so commonly is referred to as libertarian?
I’ll be there, coming from Kalifornia. E-mail is aspiringaustrian@gmail.com, stoked to be going. I just made a Prezi presentation, if any of you geniuses want to check it out and critique/slander/praise it, you’re more than welcome to say whatever it is you want. It’s the American dream!
I really hope some Eddie Izzard fans will be attending…just saw him in LA. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp69rg6Hdlo
I’m here, at Auburn right now; but I’m a little early today. Its 1:30PM over here righ now.
If anyone wants to meet, how about the library of the Mises Institute after registration?
“Is it not so that Austrian economics is a value-free science, providing tools for analyzing how the world works, whereas libertarian political economy/philosophy is about how the world should work? Why is it then so that the Austrian School of Economics so commonly is referred to as libertarian?”
Once you imbue austrian economics with the values “I want what’s best for people” then you get libertarianism. But if you imbue austrian economics with the values “I hate people” , then Austrian Economics tells you how you could accomplish that too (statism), were you in power.
It’s a shame I’m not there. 
Have fun, people!
looking for a way to go to Mises U 2011. A bit put off by the price tag ($1,800 and that doesn’t even include housing). As part of my new job I get $8,000 a year in tuition assistance, has anyone had any luck in trying to get their employer to pay for their Mises U ‘tuition’?
Some were there last year that had their employeer pay. They were stressed that they pass the exam though, to make sure they get something to show for it. You may also want to look into haveing them pay for classes at the Mises Academy
So the exam is not only for students?
I thought member observer participants are not allowed to do the exam.