TomWoods.com | These books, all relatively short and available online or for purchase, are an excellent starting point for an education in sound economics.
**Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt; online here and here (.pdf)
Essentials of Economics by Faustino Ballve; online here (.pdf)
An Introduction to Austrian Economics by Thomas C. Taylor; online here and here (.pdf)
Lessons for the Young Economist (for younger readers) by Robert P. Murphy; online here, here (.pdf) and here (ebook)
Another easy-to-understand introduction to economic reasoning is Peter Schiff’s book How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes.
A useful companion to Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson is this series of videos, recorded in July-August 2008, in which various professors comment on each of the book’s chapters – explaining the argument, elaborating on it, and applying it to present conditions.
There are 12 videos in this playlist
Video 1: The Lesson
Video 2: The Broken Window
Video 3: Public Works Mean Taxes
Video 4: Credit Diverts Production
Video 5: The Curse of Machinery
Video 6: Disbanding Troops and Bureaucrats
Video 7: Who’s Protected by Tariffs?
Video 8: “Parity” Prices
Video 9: How the Price System Works
Video 10: Minimum Wage Laws
Video 11: The Function of Profits
Video 12: The Assault on Saving
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3B179BC0E24CB2B7
Additional Introductory Reading in Economics
The Concise Guide to Economics by Jim Cox; online here and here (.pdf)
Making Economic Sense by Murray N. Rothbard
Free Market Economics: A Reader by Bettina Bien Greaves
Free Market Economics: A Syllabus by Bettina Bien Greaves
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism by Robert P. Murphy
The Church and the Market: A Catholic Defense of the Free Economy by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard J. Maybury (great for homeschoolers)
The Revolution: A Manifesto by Ron Paul, ch. 4
Money
**What Has Government Done to Our Money? and The Case for a 100 Percent Gold Dollar by Murray N. Rothbard; mp3 audio
**The Ethics of Money Production by Jörg Guido Hülsmann (should be read after the title above); .pdf here
Gold, Peace, and Prosperity (.pdf) by Ron Paul; mp3 audio
“Money, Banking, and the Federal Reserve” (documentary, via Google Video)
The Case for Gold by Ron Paul and Lewis Lehrman
Money: Sound and Unsound (advanced) by Joseph T. Salerno; online here (.pdf) and here (ebook)
The Case Against the Fed by Murray N. Rothbard (.pdf here; audiobook)
End the Fed by Ron Paul
The Revolution: A Manifesto by Ron Paul, ch. 6 (audiobook)
The Gold Standard: Perspectives in the Austrian School, ed. Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.; .pdf here
A History of Money and Banking in the United States by Murray N. Rothbard; .pdf here
“The Myth of the ‘Independent’ Fed” by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
Did Greenspan Deserve Support for Another Term? (.pdf) by Joseph T. Salerno (mp3 audio)
“The Path to Sound Money” (mp3 audio) by George Reisman
“The Economics of Inflation” (mp3 audio) by George Reisman
The Business Cycle
**The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays (online here; audiobook here).
Meltdown by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
America’s Great Depression, 5th ed. (html here, .pdf here) by Murray N. Rothbard
Time and Money: The Macroeconomics of Capital Structure by Roger W. Garrison
“Business Cycle Primer” by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
“My Reply to Krugman on Austrian Business Cycle Theory” by Robert P. Murphy
“Sound Money and the Business Cycle” by John P. Cochran
“Who Predicted the Bubble? Who Predicted the Crash?” (.pdf) by Mark Thornton
“Mises vs. Fisher on Money, Method, and Prediction: The Case of the Great Depression” (.pdf) by Mark Thornton
“Predicting Booms and Busts” (mp3 audio) by Mark Thornton
“Banking and the Business Cycle” (mp3 audio) by Joseph T. Salerno
Deflation
Articles and Monograph:
“Deflation and Depression: Where’s the Link?” by Joseph T. Salerno
“Apoplithorismosphobia” (.pdf) by Mark Thornton. (Thornton coined the term to refer to the fear of deflation.)
“An Austrian Taxonomy of Deflation – With Applications to the U.S. by Joseph T. Salerno
Deflation and Liberty by Jörg Guido Hülsmann; audiobook
Audio (in mp3 audio):
“On Deflation” by Joseph T. Salerno
“The Economics of Deflation” by Jörg Guido Hülsmann
“The Gold Standard in Theory and Myth” by Joseph T. Salerno
Advanced Texts in Austrian Economics
Man, Economy, and State: A Treatise on Economic Principles by Murray N. Rothbard
This version also contains the book Power and Market, which had originally been intended as the concluding section of Man, Economy, and State but was released in 1970 as a separate title. The entire text is also available online here. A study guide is available for purchase and online (.pdf).
Human Action: A Treatise on Economics (read online) by Ludwig von Mises
Mises’ magnum opus. A study guide is available for purchase and online (.pdf). I recommend reading Man, Economy, and State first, though some disagree with me.
Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles (.pdf) by Jesús Huerta de Soto
A sweeping and historic contribution to the literature of the Austrian School, showing how monetary freedom avoids the disadvantages of fiat money, including inflation, business cycles, and financial bubbles.
Foreign Aid and Development Economics
Equality, the Third World, and Economic Delusion by Peter Bauer
From Subsistence to Exchange and Other Essays by Peter Bauer
“The Marshall Plan: Myths and Realities” (.pdf) by Tyler Cowen
The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists’ Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics by William Easterly
“The History of Foreign Aid Programs” (mp3) by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
(These critiques of development aid are not specifically Austrian, but may be of use to those interested in Austrian economics.)
Additional Readings in Austrian Economics
The Economics and Ethics of Private Property by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism (read online) by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Economic Science and the Austrian Method (read online) by Hans-Hermann Hoppe
Praxeology and Understanding: An Analysis of the Controversy in Austrian Economics (read online) by George Selgin
Introduction to Austrian Economic Analysis: A Ten-Lecture Course
This course with Professor Joseph Salerno of Pace University, courtesy of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, is available in both video and mp3 audio at the links below. Recommended supplemental reading follows each lecture.
Lecture 1: Scarcity, Choice, and Value – Audio and Video
Percy L. Greaves, Jr., Understanding the Dollar Crisis, pp. 1-20, 27-54
Milton M. Shapiro, Foundations of the Market-Price System, pp. 81-113
Thomas C. Taylor, An Introduction to Austrian Economics, pp. 40-51 (ch. 4)
Lecture 2: Exchange and Demand – Audio and Video
Shapiro, pp. 31-58, 115-78
Taylor, pp. 12-39 (chs. 2-3)
Leonard Read, “I, Pencil”
Lecture 3: The Determination of Prices – Audio and Video
Greaves, pp. 65-91
Shapiro, pp. 179-233
Taylor, pp. 52-62 (ch. 5)
Murray N. Rothbard, The Mystery of Banking, pp. 15-27 (online pp. 14-23)
Lecture 4: Price Controls: Case Studies – Audio and Video
Lecture 5: Profit, Loss, and the Entrepreneur – Audio and Video
Taylor, pp. 74-89 (ch. 7)
Ludwig von Mises, “Profit and Loss,” in Mises, Planning for Freedom and Sixteen Other Essays and Addresses, pp. 108-30
Lecture 6: Pricing of the Factors of Production and the Labor Market – Audio
Henry N. Sanborn, What, How, For Whom: The Decisions of Economic Organization, pp. 112-85
Taylor, pp. 63-73 (ch. 6)
Greaves, pp. 105-32
Murray N. Rothbard, “Restrictionist Pricing of Labor,” in Rothbard, The Logic of Action Two
Lecture 7: Capital, Interest and the Structure of Production – Audio
Shapiro, pp. 235-60
Mark Skousen, The Structure of Production, pp. 133-49
Richard Fink, “Economic Growth and Market Processes,” in Fink, ed., Supply-Side Economics: A Critical Appraisal, pp. 372-94
Lecture 8: Competition and Monopoly – Audio
Shapiro, pp. 319-72
Sanborn, pp. 62-65
Hans Sennholz, “The Phantom Called ‘Monopoly,’” in Bettina B. Greaves, ed., Free Market Economics: A Basic Reader, pp. 162-69
Sudha R. Shenoy, “The Sources of Monopoly,” in New Individualist Review, pp. 793-96
Lecture 9: Money and Prices – Audio
Greaves, pp. 141-67
Rothbard, What Has Government Done to Our Money? pp. 1-96 (online, chs. I-III; online .pdf, pp. 7-48).
Rothbard, The Case Against the Fed, pp. 29-69 (or Rothbard, The Mystery of Banking, pp. 77-177; online, pp. 52-108)
Lecture 10: Banking and the Business Cycle – Audio
Ludwig von Mises, et al., The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays, Read: Garrison, Introduction and Summary; Mises’s essay and Rothbard’s essay.
Taylor, ch. 8 (pp. 90-95)
Additional Introductory Lectures in Austrian Economics
The Mises University, the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s week-long summer instructional program in Austrian economics, amounts to a crash course on the subject. Consult the Mises University audio archive for many additional lectures.
