READINGS: “Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth”, Ludwig Von Mises; Chapter 10 of “Economics for Real People”, by Gene Callahan; Chapters 2 and 3 of Thomas Taylor’s “An Introduction to Austrian Economics”. 1) For Mises, what is the defining characteristic of socialism? Community ownership of the means of production, that is: factories, capital goods, etc. […]
WorldSys: Austrian Home Study Course, Week 30
READINGS: “The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays” by Mises et al., Chapter 8 of Thomas Taylor’s “Introduction to Austrian Economics”, Chapter 13 of Gene Callahan’s “Economics For Real People” 1 Is the business cycle a natural feature of the market economy? No, it is a result of credit expansions from financial […]
WorldSys: Austrian Home Study, Week 29
READINGS: Selections from Henry Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson; Chapter 12 of Gene Callahan’s Economics for Real People 1 What is a price control? Some kind of government-mandate change made to a market price. The State may establish a price floor below which a price may not be allowed to fall, a price ceiling above […]
WorldSys: Austrian Home Study Course, Week 28
READINGS: “Middle-of-the-road Policy Leads to Socialism” by Ludwig Von Mises, Chapters 11 and 12 of Gene Callahan’s “Economics for Real People” 1 What is interventionism? A third-way system meant to stand equidistant between communism and capitalism, retaining the advantages and avoiding the pitfalls of each. Interventionism essentially calls for having a market and a State, […]
Polyprofundis: June, 2018
I READ THE FOLLOWING 9 BOOKS IN JUNE –“Matriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsory”, Anne Edwards. This lively examination of one of Great Britain’s famous modern queens at once humanizes the great lady while detailing the consequences, good and bad, of her astonishing devotion to the monarchy. She took her duty as a […]
WorldSys: Austrian Home Study Course, Week 27
READINGS: Various articles on patent law from Gene Callahan 1 Describe Amazon.com’s patent. Amazon patented the idea of buying items on the internet with a single mouse click. 2 What did British Telecom announce as its patented innovation? Hyperlinks (!) 3 Why does Callahan challenge Gleick’s statement that “[patent law] fueled industrial progress in the […]
WorldSys: Austrian Home Study Course, Week 26
READINGS: “Private Security” in Bob Murphy’s Chaos Theory. 1 What is anarcho-capitalism? The most thorough possible endorsement of private property rights and free markets. Anarcho-capitalists believe that infrastructure, healthcare, police, armies, and everything else should be provided by the private sector. 2 Are all Austrians anarcho-capitalists? Today, it definitely seems that way, but historically many […]
