So Peter Cresswell posted something about economics, and he included links to where you could read Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson and Gene Callahan's Economics for Real People, online and free. Not long after that, Diana Hsieh asked for some recommended books on economics.
In fact, Peter has an additional post, in which he includes some of what I'm linking to here, plus a few surprises. Of course, I have things here which he doesn't have...guess that's the (transplanted) Texan in me. But you'll still want to check out his post just the same.
Well, I thought, why not ask Henry Hazlitt himself what books he recommends? He'll tell you, in "A Note on Books" at the end of Economics in One Lesson.
The first one he recommends is Faustino Ballve's Essentials of Economics, which appeared on the Recommended Bibliography at the end of Capitlaism: The Unknown Ideal. Hazlitt describes it as "an excellent short book....which briefly summarizes principles and policies." I own this book, and I quite concur. Highly recommended.
Next on Hazlitt's list is Percy L. Greaves' Understanding the Dollar Crisis. It's a series of lectures delivered by Professor Greaves in Buenos Aires and, like Hazlitt and Ballve, is quite readable. I own this one as well, and it gets another recommendation from me.
If you go to the Wikipedia entry on Henry Hazlitt , you can find The Failure of the 'New Economics: An Analysis of the Keynesian Fallacies,, the Hazlitt-edited anthology The Critics of Keynesian Economics, and the short and again quite readable What You Should Know About Inflation. Failure is Hazlitt's own line-by-line critique of Keynes' General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, and Critics is an collection of short pieces by prominent conservative/right wing economists, many of whom -- years ago -- used to advocate free market policies. The Hazlitt short book on inflation is relevant in that I fear we are about to see some serious inflation come our way.
Nor is that all. Hazlitt also recommends Human Action by Ludwig von Mises, which is available online with commentary here, and Murray Rothbard's Man, Economy, and State, which is available online here.
Finally, if go here, you can find George Reisman's Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics, along with a syllabus, study questions, and an illiminating bibliography.
All free, and what could be more economical than that which is freely obtained? Of course, this is all nothing but proof of how exploited we all are under a capitalist and hideously oppressive regime.
Get 'em while you can.
Posted by Craig Ceely at December 3, 2008 08:37 PM