At the moment I’m reading an insane amount of journal articles on the transition in Europe from the European Monetary System to the Economic and Monetary Union, i.e., the European Central Bank.
Who got off thinking that you could have a single monetary policy for almost two dozen countries with radically different fiscal policies, but all sharing the same currency?
It’s madness, I say. I’m really starting to deeply understanding the panic of the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain).
Would you mind providing me with some links to those journal articles? I would highly appreciate it if you do.
I second this.
Borders declaring bankruptcy means store closings and blow-out sales. Wandering around the Park Avenue store, I picked up:
The Fatal Conceit by FA Hayek.
The Politics of Freedom by David Boaz. Stumbled upon it and after looking through the table of contents, felt it was worth the $9.
The Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates published by Signet Classic.
And, as a ridiculous guilty pleasure, Final Fantasy and Philosophy.
I found but passed on de Tocqueville’s The Old Regime and the Revolution and Woods’s Rollback. My whole purpose for going there was to get Schumpeter’s Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy at 60% off, but apparently someone got their last copy before me. Or it’s hidden in the Romance section or something.
I can’t help but start reading The Fatal Conceit, though I still have a good 200 pages in Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism. It’s quite an achievement by Hülsmann; my biggest problem is that every time he addresses one of Mises’s works, I want to put his book down and pick up the corresponding work by Mises.
Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics by Nick Herbert
The Crazy Wisdom of Ganesh Baba by Eve Baumohl Neuhaus
How Quantum Activism Can Save Civilization by Amit Goswami
Unfortunately I can’t give you direct access to the articles because my college has directly negotiated access to them–it costs money per article otherwise.
I can, however, upload one right now that I thought was incredibly useful in analyzing the geo-political motives for Germany’s (puzzling) decision to join the EMU in light of its monetary dominance through the Bundesbank.
Also, I can’t recommend enough Philipp Bagus’ book The Tragedy of the Euro. It’s absolutely top notch.
I am not reading anything at this time. But yeah last time i gonna enjoy Vampire Diaries book series storyline. Actually after enjoy the brilliant storyline of Vampire Diaries season 1 episodes, i’ve a good time to go for enjoy it’s book.
I’m reading this, and my girlfriend’s expressions. : /
I miss book learnings.
The only thing I’m reading into/learning for fun or even a little more seriously is ABM and econ. I’m just getting to know a few different software platforms for ABM. It’s fun. 
I listened to audiobooks covering the German Historical and American Institutional schools of economics. After learning about the positions of such shallow thinkers, listening to an audiobook on Alfred Marshall was a cool breath of fresh reason. And I just finished listening to an audiobook on Adam Smith’s ideas. People here weened on Rothbard need to learn about Smith from other sources too. Judging, not just from the audiobook author’s interpretations, but the actual quotes of Smith, Rothbard’s characterization of Smith in Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought was altogether a skewed and ungracious misreading of a great man, a great thinker, and one of the most important champions of liberalism who ever wrote and taught. It’s a shame, because APHET was the first Austrian treatise I ever read, and I loved it. But now seeing how off-base were Rothbard’s characterizations of Bacon, Hume, and now Smith, it really casts a pall of doubt over his readings of other major thinkers in that expansive work. Some day I’m going to write up a defense of both Hume and Smith.
I also finally finished Hume’s splendid Essays, Moral, Political, Literary. Now I’ve read all of Hume’s major philosophical works, except for his works on religion.
Especially because my Nook is still out of commission, and I have precious few physical books here in Taiwan, I’m going to take a break from whole-tome reading, and instead focus on writing.
I am listening to Garret G. Fagan’s excellent 3 lecture series’ from the Teaching Company: Great Battles of the Ancient World, The History of Ancient Rome and Emperors of Rome. I am currently re-reading the Pauline epistles and a lot of strategy guides for Rome: Total War.
I’m reading a book on job-hunting as a side job for the local Career & Technical School:
What Color is Your Parachute?
It basically just rehashes what anyone should know through common sense. But it’s been out since hte 70s and constantly updated and known as one of the best job hunting books, so… some people must be getting some benefit out of it.
I have a stupid question and I don’t want to make a new topic for it, so I’ll just present my question here.
How many books have you guys read in total? How many books have you read about libertarianism? I don’t need exact answers, approximations are good enough.
Halfway through Ethics of Liberty by Rothbard by now.
Answering the question above, I only started reading books and essays since about last year, so I haven’t read much, considering the fact, that I am only reading e-books on my 17" monitor which is not very comfortable way to read.
So far I have read about 5 books (I mean here on libertarian philosophy) and from ten to twenty essays (not speaking about countless articles and audio/video lectures).
I also read books on psychology and other philosopical spheres, not just political (which are only meant to be for my own educational purpose).
Almost finished “That which is seen, and that which is not seen” by Frederick Bastiat. I must say that Hazlitt’s “Economics in one lesson” was more interesting to read for me.
This reminds me of the guy in Metropolitan (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100142/) who dislikes Jane Austin’s novels but has never read any of them, claiming, “You don’t have to have read a novel to have an opinion on it. I prefer good literary cristicism.”
Economic Controversies by Murray N. Rothbard. I’m over 200 pages in, and I’m certain now that I can never be an Austrian (seriously, his arguments for free will are a joke, right?).
Must not be enough pictures for you.
Didn’t you with this post of yours prove him right? Performative contradiction? Non-falsifiable statement?
Didn’t you with this post of yours prove him right? Performative contradiction? Non-falsifiable statement?
The determinist v free will debate would have ended a long time ago if that were the case.
The economic/sociological debate over free will is different to the metaphysical debate. One can hold complete determinism and yet support the Austrian position. For the Austrians, all that matters is that we cannot account for the causes of human choice - not that physical causes do not exist. If we could account for them, just maybe mathematics would be of some use in economics.