A Short Course in Economics

The pages listed below explain the basics of (Austrian school) economics.


Contents


CHAPTER I: THE AXIOM OF HUMAN ACTION

1. Ends and Means
2. The Subjective Theory of Value
3. Crusoe Economics

CHAPTER II: DIRECT EXCHANGE

1. Violence
2. Voluntary Exchange
3. Property Rights
4. The Division of Labor
5. Prices
6. The Determination of Prices

CHAPTER III: INDIRECT EXCHANGE

1. Money
2. Income and Expenditure
3. The Purchasing Power of Money
4. Profits and Interest
5. Allocating Factors of Production
6. Monopoly and Competition
7. The Money Supply and Inflation

CHAPTER IV: GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION

1. Economics in One Sentence
2. Types of Intervention
3. Government Requires Taxation
4. Taxation
5. Spending
6. Price Controls
7. Regulations

CHAPTER V: BANKING

1. The Concepts of Banking
2. Loan Banking
3. Deposit Banking
4. Fractional Reserve Banking
5. Limits to Fractional Reserve Banking

CHAPTER VI: CENTRAL BANKING

1. The Bank of England (1694-1844)
2. The Peel Act Structure (1844-1922)
3. The International Bankers
4. The First Three US Central Banks (1781-84,1791-1811,1816-36)
5. The National Banking System (1865-1913)
6. The Federal Reserve System (1913-)
7. The Abolition of the Gold Standard (1933,1945,1971)
8. The fiat Federal Reserve System (1971-)
   

CHAPTER VII: INFLATION AND BUSINESS CYCLES


APPENDIX

• The Failures of Mainstream Economics

Sources

The following books are the main sources used in this course:

• "Man, Economy and State" - Murray Rothbard
• "Economics in One Lesson" - Henry Hazlitt
• "Economics, the Social Order and the Ron Paul Revolution" - Jorge Besada
• "The Case Against The Fed" - Murray Rothbard
• "The Mystery of Banking" - Murray Rothbard