Many find economics difficult, often blaming themselves. However, the problem lies within the flawed Keynesian and mathematical economics prevalent in universities. Austrian economics offers a contrasting, more intuitive perspective, akin to the difference between astronomy and astrology. This guide offers an introduction to understanding Austrian Economics and its relationship to Bitcoin.
While writing The Bitcoin Standard, I used Austrian economic principles to explain Bitcoin in a simplified way. This sparked many requests for further reading on Austrian economics. This guide provides an annotated bibliography of key works in the Austrian school.
For a quick overview of economics from an Austrian perspective, Henry Hazlitt’s Economics In One Lesson is excellent. Hazlitt simplifies complex ideas with clarity and insight.
For a comprehensive and systematic approach, Murray Rothbard’s Man, Economy, and State and its sequel, Power and Market, are unparalleled. Their combined 1,500 pages provide a deep understanding of essential economic questions.
Ludwig von Mises’ Human Action is another valuable resource. Although shorter than Rothbard’s work, Mises’s writing, while fluent in English, can be less intuitive due to his German thought processes.
Carl Menger’s Principles of Economics is a foundational text but can be challenging for modern readers due to its age.
For understanding money, Murray Rothbard’s What Has Government Done to Our Money? provides a concise introduction.
Rothbard’s more technical article, The Austrian Theory of Money, is also essential reading.
Jesus Huerta de Soto’s Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles offers a detailed treatment grounded in legal theory and history.
Menger’s essay, On the Origins of Money, is the foundational work on this topic within Austrian economics.
Mises’s The Theory of Money and Credit, completed at a young age, remains remarkably insightful, with few additions of comparable value in the century since its publication.
Ferdinand Lips’s Gold Wars, a monetary history, significantly influenced my understanding of the topic. Its relative obscurity is surprising.
Friedrich Hayek’s Monetary Nationalism and International Stability offers a compelling explanation of the transition of money from a free market institution to government control and insightfully predicts the associated problems. It is arguably Hayek’s least known work.
Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Democracy: The God That Failed is an excellent book on political economy and philosophy, featuring the best treatment of time preference I have encountered.
Murray Rothbard’s The Ethics of Liberty lays the philosophical groundwork for Anarcho-capitalism.
Rothbard’s For a New Liberty offers a more popularized treatment of the same topic.
Hoppe also edited The Myth of National Defense, a collection of essays exploring security and defense without government intervention.
The Austrian theory of the business cycle, linking it to interest rate manipulation, is a significant contribution. Rothbard’s essay Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure offers a concise overview.
Rothbard’s America’s Great Depression offers a more thorough examination, refuting alternative theories. Its critiques remain relevant despite being written in the 1960s.
Jesus Huerta de Soto’s Money, Bank Credit, and Economic Cycles also provides an excellent treatment of business cycles and their monetary causes.
Hayek’s work is valuable for understanding markets as emergent phenomena.
His paper The Use of Knowledge in Society is insightful and worth rereading.
Hayek’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, The Pretense of Knowledge, dismantles the scientific pretensions of Keynesian economics.
Vernon Smith’s work, particularly his distinction between constructivist rationalism and ecological rationalism, is crucial. His Nobel Prize speech, Constructivist and Ecological Rationality in Economics, summarizes this distinction. Understanding this difference is essential for understanding markets and rejecting top-down planning.
Hayek’s The Counter-revolution of Science: Studies on the Abuse of Reason challenges assumptions and builds resistance to science by press release.
His volumes Studies in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and New Studies in Philosophy, Politics, Economics, and the History of Ideas contain insightful essays. These works relate to socialism and the failure of central planning, a topic extensively covered by Austrians, starting with Mises’s 1920 book Socialism.
Rothbard’s paper The End of Socialism and the Calculation Debate Revisited offers an excellent summary of the debate.
This guide provides a starting point for exploring Austrian economics and its relevance to understanding Bitcoin. It is not exhaustive, and further exploration is encouraged.
