Monday, January 4, 2010

More On Ebeling's New Book

Richard Ebeling posts at Mises.org:


Routledge has just published a new book of mine with the title, Political Economy, Public Policy and Monetary Economics: Ludwig von Mises and the Austrian Tradition.

It is available from Amazon in Great Britain.

And it may be pre-ordered from Amazon in the United States for February delivery.

Ludwig von Mises, was one of the most original and controversial economists of the 20th century, both as a defender of free-market liberalism and a leading opponent of socialism and the interventionist-welfare state. He was both the grant designer of a political economy of freedom and a trenchant, detailed critic of government regulatory and monetary policies in the first half of the 20th century.

I offer an exposition and analysis of Mises' ideas on political economy, public policy and monetary economics in the historical context of his time, particularly during the interwar period when he was a senior economic analyst for the Vienna Chamber of Commerce, and after his arrival in the United States in the 1940s during the Second World War.

I discuss the cultural currents of anti-Semitism in Austria before and after the First World War that Mises confronted as an Austrian Jew; his analysis of Austria-Hungary's establishment and management of a gold standard before World War I; Mises' multi-sided activities in the years after the World War I in stemming a hyperinflation, opposing government fiscal mismanagement, and resisting misguided policies during the Great Depression; and his analysis of how Europe plunged into World War II and the policies to restore freedom and prosperity in the post-World War II period. I also discuss the confrontation between the Austrian Economists and the Keynesians over the causes and cures for the Great Depression, as well as how Mises' "Austrian" approach to money and the business cycle contrasted with both the ideas of Joseph A. Schumpeter and the Swedish Economists of the interwar period.

Table of Contents
Inroduction
1. Austrian Economics and the Political Economy of Freedom
2. Ludwig von Mises: Political Economist of Liberty
3. Ludwig von Mises and the Vienna of His Time
4. Austria-Hungary's Economic Policies in the Twilight of the "Liberal" Era: Ludwig von Mises' Writings on Monetary and Fiscal Policy Before World War I
5. The Economist as the Historian of Decline: Ludwig von Mises and Austria Between the Two World Wars
6. Planning for Freedom: Ludwig von Mises as Political Economist and Policy Analyst
7. The Austrian Economists and the Keynesian Revolution: The Great Depression and the Economics of the Short Run
8. Two Variations on the Austrian Monetary Theme: Ludwig von Mises and Joseph A. Schumpeter on the Business Cycle
9. Money, Economic Fluctuations, Expectations, and Period Analysis: the Austrian and Swedish Economists in the Interwar Period
10. Human Action, Ideal Types, and the Market Process: Alfred Schutz and the Austrian Economists

I know the book is a bit "expensive," but I would suggest not waiting for the "movie version." For some reason Hollywood has not contacted me, yet. Go figure!

1 comment:

  1. I think I'm going to buy this book just for Ch. 8. I read all of Schumpeter prior to reading Mises and have had difficulty in reconciling the two. I think the major source of difference between them arises in their views on money. I know Mises money view (from his amazing treatise written in 1912), but I have never really found much besides semi-muddled expositions of Schumpeter's view. (I remember reading somewhere that Schumpeter scraped a book on money when he couldn't work his way through his entire theory.)

    This book looks like a must have. But $140 for a book is a lot...

    ReplyDelete