# Think Tank > Austrian Economics / Economic Theory >  Introduction to Austrian Economics

## Omphfullas Zamboni

Introduction to Austrian Economics (2009 Video Series)
http://fee.org/intro-to-austrian-economics/

EDIT 12/17/2009:  It appears the lecture series has relocated to a new URL:

http://fee.org/videos/?speaker=&semi...rian+Economics

EDIT 06/10/2010 The URL has moved, again.  Here is the correct link:

http://fee.org/videos/?speaker=&semi...rian+Economics

Unfortunately, the lectures are listed out of order. In the original link, I do know that, "Austrian Economics Today" appeared first, followed by, "Austrians and the Other Schools." Those two pieces should set beginning learners along the right path.

Have a great day.

Sincerely,
Omphfullas Zamboni

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
*Requires iTunes or other software compatible with RSS feeds...*
Austrian Economics Seminar -- 89 Lectures (2008):
http://www.fee.org/podcast/aes.xml

Austrian Economics Seminar -- 50 Lectures (2009):
http://www.fee.org/podcast/rss.xml
*
Requires a torrent client, such as uTorrent...*

Download the latest torrents of Mises.org (Free and legal.)

*On the Web...*

Mises Audio/Video Catalog (Free.)

*Home Study Curriculum from the Mises Institute...*

Description:
The coursework is divided into 52 lessons to cover 52 weeks, a complete year of study that can be pursued at home. With the Home Study Course, you can stick to the schedule or go at your own pace.

The year-long course is prepared by Professor Robert Murphy (PhD, NYU) in consultation with Mises Institute staff and other faculty.

Each week covers one topic, and is tied to an hour-long lecture and related readings. It includes study questions to guide your learning and research. The audio lectures are selected from among hundreds of hours of lectures so that you are given access to the best of the best, with lectures by great Austrian economists ranging over 30 years. (See pricing and further details.). 

By searching on the Mises.org website, Liberty Forest user, "farrar" was able to find free downloadable PDF's of the materials comprised within the Home Study Curriculum.  Thanks, farrar! Link.

*Textbooks...*

Lessons for the Young Economist:
2010 edition of Robert Murphy's introduction to economics textbook _Lessons for the Young Economist_.  Intended for the middle school/high school age brackets.  Licensed via Creative Commons and distributed freely through the Mises Institute.  (PDF).


*Beginner's Economics lectures, (provided by The Teaching Company...)
*
Thinking about Capitalism:
_Thinking about Capitalism_ provides a historical study of the contributions and potential pitfalls that capitalist theory brings to the human experience. Upon completion, the listener will likely possess an improved understanding of the nuances in the ideas purveyed by economics' most known thinkers.  




> Course Lecture Titles
> 
> 1.	Why Think about Capitalism?
> 2.	The Greek and Christian Traditions
> 3.	Hobbes's Challenge to the Traditions
> 4.	Dutch Commerce and National Power
> 5.	Capitalism and Toleration—Voltaire
> 6.	Abundance or Equality—Voltaire vs. Rousseau
> 7.	Seeing the Invisible Hand—Adam Smith
> ...


Purchase here, (items are discounted on occasion), or search eBay or iOffer.com.

Legacies of Great Economists
Who are history's most notable economists? In what ways do their ideas echo across the modern landscape? This series is brief, compared to _Thinking about Capitalism_ but it is still useful for helping one see what these thinkers were trying to accomplish.



> 1.	 Before Economics—Mercantilists and Physiocrats
> 2.	Adam Smith and the Birth of Economics
> 3.	The Dismal Science—Thomas Robert Malthus and David Ricardo
> 4.	John Stuart Mill and Utilitarianism
> 5.	Karl Marx and Socialism
> 6.	Alfred Marshall and Marginalist Thought
> 7.	The Socialist Calculation Debate***
> 8.	Joseph Schumpeter and Entrepreneurialism
> 9.	John Maynard Keynes and the Keynesian Revolution
> 10.	Milton Friedman and the Rebirth of Classical Economics


Purchase here, (items are discounted on occasion), or search eBay or iOffer.com.

_* Indicates That Lecture Discusses Austrian Economics_

Happy learning!

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## sevin

Whoa, this looks very educational. Thanks!   bookmarked

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## mtj458

If you look on the main page they have intermediate and advanced videos too. I haven't watched them yet but I plan on doing it eventually. I met the president of FEE last week and he's a really good guy who's very passionate about liberty. Most people here probably look to the Mises Institute first but FEE is a great resource too.

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## Omphfullas Zamboni

Hi,

Could you please post the direct link for the intermediate and advanced material?

Cheers,
Omphfullas Zamboni

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## mtj458

http://fee.org/advanced-austrian-economics/

It looks like there is no intermediate actually.

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## hugolp

I have watched all the Youtube videos of the Mises Institute and they should do the same as this guys. Put some of the videos in form of a lesson.

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## Omphfullas Zamboni

> I have watched all the Youtube videos of the Mises Institute and they should do the same as this guys. Put some of the videos in form of a lesson.


Agreed.  If I knew anything about economics, I would organize some links to Mises videos into a lesson/curriculum and post it here.

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## youngbuck

Looks pretty sweet.  I've have to watch them when I get the time sometime.

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## ClayTrainor

> Introduction to Austrian Economics (2009 Video Series):
> 
> http://fee.org/intro-to-austrian-economics/


This looks like an absolutely amazing resource, thank you!

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## Omphfullas Zamboni

You're welcome.

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## SimpleName

This looks amazing. I have been struggling with economics for some time now. This could be quite a resource. Thanks a ton!

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## Omphfullas Zamboni

> This looks amazing. I have been struggling with economics for some time now. This could be quite a resource. Thanks a ton!


You are all very welcome.  I was thinking about downloading the MP3 versions of the lecturers and seeding them into a torrent file, just in case the site goes down or the videos are made unavailable...

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## Carson

> This looks amazing. I have been struggling with economics for some time now. This could be quite a resource. Thanks a ton!


I think Austrian economics and free enterprise in general have been struggling at the hands of the vampires in the government that have been sucking the life out of our currency for decades.

I'm hearing some saying the models are obviously failures. The thing that hasn't been so oblivious has been the counterfeiting that has devalued the currency. Many have been aware but for me I was a frog in a pot of water that the heat was being turned up on.  

Look at this chart based on the consumer price index. You can see where we strayed away from money based on silver or gold and printed up fake money in times of war. The little bumps are the value falling.



It would take counterfeiting the whole money supply at least ten time to recreate the devaluation that has occurred in the last few decades.

Even a business model based on lemons and sugar from Mom is going to struggle trying to operate using the currency we can no longer bank on.

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## Austrian Econ Disciple

> I think Austrian economics and free enterprise in general have been struggling at the hands of the vampires in the government that have been sucking the life out of our currency for decades.
> 
> I'm hearing some saying the models are obviously failures. The thing that hasn't been so oblivious has been the counterfeiting that has devalued the currency. Many have been aware but for me I was a frog in a pot of water that the heat was being turned up on.  
> 
> Look at this chart based on the consumer price index. You can see where we strayed away from money based on silver or gold and printed up fake money in times of war. The little bumps are the value falling.
> 
> 
> 
> It would take counterfeiting the whole money supply at least ten time to recreate the devaluation that has occurred in the last few decades.
> ...


_"An ‘automatic’ gold currency is part and parcel of a laissez-faire and free-trade economy. It links every nation’s money rates and price levels with the money-rates and price levels of all the other nations that are ‘on gold.’ It is extremely sensitive to government expenditure and even to attitudes or policies that do not involve expenditure directly, for example, to foreign policy, to certain policies of taxation, and, in general, to precisely all those policies that violate the principles of [classical] liberalism. This is the reason why gold is so unpopular now and also why it was so popular in a bourgeois era. It imposes restrictions upon governments or bureaucracies that are much more powerful than is parliamentary criticism. It is both the badge and the guarantee of bourgeois freedom—of freedom not simply of the bourgeois interest, but of freedom in the bourgeois sense. From this standpoint a man may quite rationally fight for it, even if fully convinced of the validity of all that has ever been urged against it on economic grounds. From the standpoint of etatisme and planning, a man may not less rationally condemn it, even if fully convinced of the validity of all that has ever been urged for it on economic grounds."_ -- *Joseph Schumpeter*

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## Saquire

Here's a great new video made for a 3 minute film contest about aspects of Austrian Economics:
Check it out!

YouTube - Letting Be

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## Omphfullas Zamboni

Hello,

Is the _Introduction to Austrian Economics_ link broken?  I can no longer see any videos on the page:

http://fee.org/intro-to-austrian-economics/

Regards,
Omphfullas Zamboni

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## Saquire

Foundation for Economic Freedom (FEE) have a great facebook group everyone should check out

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## Omphfullas Zamboni

> Hello,
> 
> Is the _Introduction to Austrian Economics_ link broken?  I can no longer see any videos on the page:
> 
> http://fee.org/intro-to-austrian-economics/
> 
> Regards,
> Omphfullas Zamboni


*EDIT:* It appears the lecture series has relocated to a new URL:

http://fee.org/videos/?speaker=&semi...rian+Economics

Unfortunately, the lectures are listed out of order.  In the original link, I do know that, "Austrian Economics Today" appeared first, followed by, "Austrians and the Other Schools."  Those two pieces should set beginning learners along the right path.

Have a great day.

Sincerely,
Omphfullas Zamboni

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## K466

Wow, there's plenty of material to keep me busy for months.

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## NightOwl

> I have watched all the Youtube videos of the Mises Institute and they should do the same as this guys. Put some of the videos in form of a lesson.


Joe Salerno has already given an introductory course on Austrian economics, so I think your wish is already fulfilled.  The order of the lectures and recommended reading are here.

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## slamminshaun

That video link is great.  But I'm not convinced you can learn Austrian economics on videos alone.   If you're like me, you need at least some reading materials and books to go along with the lectures.  

Check out this 52-week home study course for Austrian economics, presented by the Mises Institute.  I'm in the middle of this program right now actually.  

http://mises.org/store/Mises-Institu...mics-P211.aspx

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## Omphfullas Zamboni

Bump for updated links and additional content in the original post.

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## mtj458

I just went to this seminar. If the lecture on capital structure is posted I'd recommend you all watch it. It's a very distinguishing part of Austrian economics that I think most amateurs who claim to be Austrians do not fully understand. It's essential for understanding Austrian business cycle theory as well.

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## Omphfullas Zamboni

> I just went to this seminar. If the lecture on capital structure is posted I'd recommend you all watch it. It's a very distinguishing part of Austrian economics that I think most amateurs who claim to be Austrians do not fully understand. It's essential for understanding Austrian business cycle theory as well.


Hi,

Is this the sort of lecture to which you are referring:

Capital and Its Structure by Peter Lewin.  (This is the 2008 version.)

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## Sonny Burnett

Take a look at this YouTube Video it should give you the basic Austrian principals.

YouTube - How an Economy Grows and Why It Doesn't (by Irwin Schiff)

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## Jim Casey

> This looks amazing. I have been struggling with economics for some time now. This could be quite a resource. Thanks a ton!


It might help to compare this introduction with the introduction to a resource based economic model.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...economic-model

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## ahall12

> You are all very welcome.  I was thinking about downloading the MP3 versions of the lecturers and seeding them into a torrent file, just in case the site goes down or the videos are made unavailable...


Is there any chance you could do, or if anyone has already done, that? I tend to plug audio lectures books and essays into my mp3 player while I work. I consider my job school time, a great deal of the time.

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## Jim Casey

> Is there any chance you could do, or if anyone has already done, that? I tend to plug audio lectures books and essays into my mp3 player while I work. I consider my job school time, a great deal of the time.


Have you heard any lectures about how much the $4 trillion/day currency trading market provides so much productivity within societies?
http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...=1#post3173340

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## JohnLVT

The Rockefella organization funded the Austrians for vested-interest reasons.  100 years ago they distorted economics by excluding unique LAND merging it into CAPITAL, creating neo-classical economics which we go by today - and results in boom & busts and crash after crash!.  I have read a lot of their wild mumblings and consider they are detached from the real world. Rothbard?  Wow!  He has no understanding of land and its resources. Austrian economics is a recipe for disaster.

Economist Fed Harrison....

*The Queen Could not be Told the Truth*

When the Queen of England visited the London School of Economics (LSE). She asked a simple question about the looming economic disaster, "why did no one notice it coming?".  Professor Garicano replied, "at every stage everyone was relying on someone else, and all thought they were doing the right thing".  As modern economists use a collection of mangled economics the Queen could not be told the truth.

*Economists 100 Years Ago Colluded to Distort Economics*

A century ago a group of influential economists: John Bates Clark, Frank Knight, Francis Walker, Edward Seligan and Richard Ely, colluded to manipulate the building blocks of classical economics. They had an ideological agenda.  The future they shaped is our reality. Their mission was clear to protect the vital interests of the privileged few. To do so they had to conceal the unique qualities of the classical factors of production -* LAND*.

A century of economic disasters followed that literally messed with our lives.  Economics has been a tool for contorting our collective consciousness. The current economic crisis as an example to the pathetic state to which economics has been reduced.

*Modern Economist are Confused*

We handsomely reward economists to fine tune to the economy to keep it stable. When boom turns to bust they escape into mysticism. They claim, "occasional slow downs are natural and necessary features of a market economy".  The people we trust to keep the economy on an even keel have no idea what makes an economy explode. Take the central bankers, they pontificated, moving interest rates up and and manipulating the money supply.  They didn't know what they were doing - it was all an illusion. 

The problem lies in some of the theories invented by encomists. They do not reflect the real world. They are fictions invented to explain an imaginary market economy.  When the economy overheats the imaginary equations turn out to be useless.

*Economists Admit Their Economic Models Do Not Work*

The Daddy of all central bankers was Alan Greenspan, of the US Federal Reserve. He said, _"the models do not forecast recession because the parameters are dominated by what happens in normal times when the economy is growing_". 

As the economy crumbled, He said to the US congress, _"I discovered a flaw in the model which I perceived as a critical function structure which defines how the world works, I was shocked"_.  Greenspan's victims are more than shocked, they are traumatised losing their homes and jobs. 

In failing to raise the warning flags, Greenspan was not alone, economists at the Bank of England also failed to forecast the end of the business cycle. They confessed their economic models break down when the going gets tough. Rachel Lomax, deputy governor of the Bank of England confessed, _"When it comes to quantifying the changes in credit conditions, our workhorse economic models still cannot help us very much"_.

If you were caught by surprise when the bottom fell out of the credit market, don't worry, you were in good company. Leading economist at places like the LSE were also shocked. Professor Sir Charles Woodhart, served on the Bank of England monetary policy committee, he now admits that standard forecast economic models are "effectively pretty useless".

Here is an example of the nonsense that can be produced by economic theory. According to the British governments Property Valuation office in Jan 2008, land values will continue to rise until 2013.  Six months later the economy had broken down.  The graph has been erased from their web site. 

*Land Speculators Are the Biggest Gainers*

Who gains from this intellectual mess?  One groups of people reap spectacular rewards, property developers, land speculators all reap windfall gains from one asset that sustains us all, LAND.  

In the good times when people go mad buying and selling properties, we lionise these developers. Yet all they doing is cashing in the on the land values others create. Take the case of a cluster of flats adjacent to a prime brownfields site. Their presence gives value to the adjacent site, yet the thousands of residents of the flats will not share in the increased values they help create.

*Banks Fuelled The Property/Land Bubble*

Bankers around the world played their part in the economic crisis pumping up credit to fuel the property bubble.  As land values rose bankers even created more money.  This was a self inflated bubble of hot air. It had to burst.

*Economists Who Know The Answers Are Supressed*

For the past century economist have messed with our minds.  All is not lost.  A few economists have been stewards of the precious knowledge of how the economy works. The Nobel prize winning economist Bill Vickry and the California professor, Mason Gaffney. All voices of reason that have been suppressed. 

*We Need To Force Through ChangeTo Eliminate Vested Interests*

With all the global crisis's converging, mass unemployment, poverty, terrorism. It is time to make up our minds and stop playing the game that was rigged 100 years ago. If we do not challenge the vested interests that exploit people, all of us, the environment and future generations will pay the ultimate price. We have to oblige our elected leaders to deal with the realities on the ground. 

In the end it is up to everyone to assume personal responsibility and restore common sense in the way we govern society.

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## Freedoms

I've found this webpage to be very useful and informative - 

Economics in One Lesson
http://www.fee.org/library/books/eco...in-one-lesson/

Original Poster - please add this to the original post if you agree!

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