I already have an introduction but now that Ive been here for a month or two i would love to give my take on all of this and how I have gotten to the point where I am today.
Well I am a highschool student but we do not have duel credit Economics class so I decided Id take Macro at a local DII college here…During that period, the election process was taking place and I was leaning towards Obama (very ignorantly), I thought that we just had to go with the opposite of what we had the last 8 years, little did I know Obama is just Bush on steriods..Anyways, I learned a little bit in my Macro class, we talked alot about Keynesian’s theory and to me it just never made any real sense. Economics just wasnt making sense to me as whole. During all of this time, I was really getting into Ron Paul. I bought his book but didnt quite get to the part where he mentioned Austrian Economics. Some how or another my conscience would just not let me vote Obama (despite me still not being familiar with Austrian economics), and I could not vote for McCain either. I ended up writing in Baldwin (yes I know hes anything but libertarian, but like I said I was still ignorant and he was much better than the other two)..I then came across an article about from Ron Paul that was titled “The Austrians Were Right”. I had no idea what he was talking about when he said ‘Austrians’ so I started googling and it led me to this site along with many videos of Peter Schiffs predictions that I was amazed by…
Since then, I have visited this site every single day. I have learned more about economics then I could have ever in a semester of a college class. Economics has never made so much sense to me and all I want to do is continue to learn about the Austrian theory. I honestly do not understand how anyone can choose other economic theories over this if they would just spend a month studying. I am now reading ‘Meltdown’ and I plan one ordering Hazlett’s ‘Economics in One Lesson’ as soon as I finish ‘Meltdown’. Now that I actualy somewhat understand our current financial crisis I literally thank God every day that I didnt vote Obama, aswell am I so thankfull for this site.
Yes, my introduction to Austrian thought is a lot like that.
Basically, I was introduced to Ron Paul who said a lot of things that made sense to me, as opposed to Giuliani who I’d been supporting previously, simply because I believed his rhetoric about conservative values and that nonsense. Upon reading Paul’s wikipedia page it seemed he was far more of a consistant conservative than Giuliani (who, now I realise, is not a conservative at all).
I don’t remember how I came across LvMI but I think it was in my search for books my Mr Paul.
In any case, I’d still advise learning about other schools of economics. It’s useful to understand opposing views, if for no other reason than that it makes reading the Austrian refutation far easier. As a side note, have you read Economics for Real People by Gene Callahan?
No I have not, ‘Meltdown’ is really the first economic book Ive actually bought and, Ron Pauls Manifesto was as close to an economic book that ive read before buying ‘Meltdown’. Do you suggest “Economics for Real People”?
I can’t speak for Giles, but I would. Also, Dr. Block’s Defending the Undefendable isn’t reallly an economics book per se but it’s easy to read and will shore you up on a lot of basic economical and political insights. Fore example, his chapter on the counterfeiter containst what is, to my knowlege, the most concise and easy-to-read explanation of the FRB/Central Bank/fiat money system I’ve seen that’s under 15 pages.
For politics you have to read For A New Liberty, no if ands or buts about it.
My first taste of real economics was a book that came out in about '84, when I was 19, that was called something like “Libertarianism”, but the most memorable was my Libertarian uncle giving me “That which is seen and that which is not seen” and “The Law” by Bastiat. Then in '96 or so, I came across Economics in One Lesson. All good stuff.
An Intro Into Economic Reasoning (I believe that’s what it is called) was great too. I’m only 3 books into Giles list he posted in this thread… I'm new to libertarian thought. Can someone recommend me some reading? but so far I’ve been very happy with it. (It’s about the 6th post down)