I understand both Peter Schiff and Jim Rogers are big fans of the Austrian School, and both are pretty important name in finance, even though both are ignored to an extreme degree. I’m just wondering why their books are not in the store, as both have done interviews with Rockwell on his podcast, and for those of us (including myself) that found the Mises Institute indirectly as a result of seeing people like Schiff, Rogers, and Ron Paul on TV, it would only make sense that their literature was available on the site also.
Off topic, does anyone know the total value of Schiff’s EuroPac assets are? I imagine his business must be growing big time with all his mainstream media exposure and his consistently correct predictions about the state of American/World economic affairs.
I’m just wondering why their [=Rogers & Schiff] books are not in the store
I obviously cannot read the minds of Jeff Tucker and his pals, but I’ll do the best I can… If just take one look at what mises.org sells, you’ll notice that there are practically no book about how to gain huge fortunes. That is partly because (in contrary to other topics) there is almost no consencus in the Austrian community about what is the most viable investment strategy in these strange days, and partly because mises.org seems to avoid giving any kind of investment advice (I’ll admit that there is some pro-gold tendencies).
[Schiff and Rogers] have done interviews with Rockwell on his podcast.
That is correct. But both Schiff and Rogers are bullish on commodities and bearish on dollar, so featuring their books would be like giving more credibility for their views (which I actually think are correct) over the views of deflationistas. Lewrockwell.com has also featured many of them, such as Frank Shostak, Gary North [who has revised some of his views] and Mike Shedlock. Although I do think that most of the people affiliated with mises.org tend to favor Schiff and Rogers, for tactical reasons it is wise not to praise their work too much.
And the final word: although this year was horrible for commodity investors, I do believe that ”Crash Proof”, ”Hot Commodities” and ”Little book of bull moves in bear markets” are worth of reading. One slightly neglected but very good book about investing by Austrian economist who is affiliated with mises.org is ”Invest Like a Dealmaker” by Christopher W. Mayer. Although this year was hard for his ”Capital & Crisis” subscribers also, I wouldn’t be too negative on someone who noticed the housing bubble already in August 2003.
Thanks, first for the answer, and second for recommending Mayer’s book. My interest in Schiff and Rogers comes from a combined interest in Austrian Economics as well as global finance. I can see how it is in the Mises Institute’s best interest not to “endorse” any particular financial view, but at the same time still agree with the ideas of “Austrian finance experts”, or whatever one would like to call them.
I was surprised how many Austrian investment advisors there actually is. I was also personally a little bit disappointed when I found out that most of the economic advisors of Austrian background apply misesian tools only very little into their field. So their books and articles are filled with stories about Warren Buffett, Philip Fisher and Joel Greenblatt and this same mainstream advice about about free cash flows, P/E-ratios and P/B-ratios. You are not going to find anything like ”YOY changes in MZM generate bubbles of asset class B if interest rates decline”-kind of geeky advice
But here is a small list of additional financial advisors from our perspective.
Agora Financial has a team of investment advisors, of which many come from Austrian perspective (such as Chris Mayer). They have published many interesting books that make couragely near-future predictions. These are worth of reading, especially the ones written by Addison Wiggin and Bill Bonner. But they have published also some theoretically flawed volumes, such as ”Gold: Once and Future Money” by Nathan Lewis. Catchy title for a goldbug, but its attempts to discredit ABCT are simply ridiculous.
Mark Skousen, whose many earlier works I admire, has his investment newsletter Forecasts & Strategies (I actually ordered a couple of numbers of this newsletter). He has also written a simple book ”Investing in One Lesson”. He is very optimistic about the American economy, maybe partly because he respects very much Jeremy Siegel.
Paul Mladjenovic has written many books on investing, such as two titles to the famous ”For Dummies”-series.
And there are of course quasi-Austrians like James Grant (author of many good books), John Mauldin and Marc Faber. They have done maybe most to make Austrian ideas famous, because even mainstream publications really respect them.
Milton Friedman said once that there are ”no Austrian and non-Austrian economists, but just good and bad economists”. That applies even more to the investment world. Just being ”Austrian” doesn’t necessary mean that you can neglect fundamental analysis. Just read these words by Mark Skousen about the investment record of Murray N. Rothbard:
[H]e has suffered an incredibly bad luck in the stock market, according to his own account… [I]n 1956, he bought shares in Shell Oil, only to see the value of the stock plummet when Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal the very next day. On another occasion, he bought some cheap ”junk” bonds, only to see them delisted the following week. Investment advisor Douglas R. Casey says that he once called Rothbard in the mid-1970s and tried to talk him into buying South African gold shares, which at the time were selling at bargain prices, but he wasn’t interested. (Skousen in Walter Block & co: Man Economy and Liberty, p. 152)
I think you are familiar of many of these things, but maybe some other Austro-investors find something new here
