Our most recent course — our eleventh! — is already being downloaded by our members: “What’s Wrong With Textbook Economics?”
I consider the idea for this course to be among the ten best ideas I have ever had.
Until now, there has been no systematic Austrian response to a mainstream economics text. The major Austrian treatises do not touch upon many of the concepts that students will encounter in their classroom texts. We need a resource that sifts out what is correct from what is incorrect or confused in the mainstream text. And now we have it.
Professor Jeffrey Herbener has taken the highly popular Samuelson/Nordhaus Economics textbook and subjected it to a chapter-by-chapter critique. (See the topics below.) It is the tool we Austrians have been waiting for.
Save yourself lots of trouble and agony by hearing the Austrian reply to what is routinely presented to students. Learn how to respond to typical claims by non-Austrians. Deepen your knowledge and understanding of Austrian economics.
Not to mention: ask the professor all the questions you like, in our discussion forums. And for this month’s live Q&A session we’ll bring on Professor Herbener and you can ask your questions live!
Of course, we have ten other courses, too, in both video and audio, for easy listening on the go.
Haven’t yet joined us? Now’s a great time: take 50% off a year’s subscription with coupon code DISCOUNT (all caps). Click here to learn more, and to join!
Lecture topics (each lecture corresponds to the same Chapter number in Samuelson’s book):
1. Is there a distinctive economic way of thinking?
2. What is the proper role of the state in the economy?
3. How do prices coordinate social interaction?
4. How useful is demand and supply analysis?
5. Homo Economicus or homo agens?
6. Is the business firm merely a production function?
7. Is cost merely the monetization of a production function?
8. Need competition be perfect?
9. Is competition everywhere imperfect?
10. Is regulation necessary?
11. Is risk distinct from uncertainty?
12. Are income and wealth equitably distributed?
13. Are wages deserved?
14. Do we exploit the environment?
15. Are interest and profit really necessary?
16. Where do we draw the line between the state and the market?
17. How do we help the poor?
18. How should we treat foreigners?
19. What is macroeconomics?
20. Are there any useful macroeconomic statistics?
21. Which is more important, consumption or investment?
22. What causes business cycles?
23. How does money affect production?
24. Is monetary policy stabilizing or destabilizing?
25. What causes economic growth?
26. Why is economic growth uneven?
27. What determines the pattern of international trade?
28. How does an open-economy operate?
29. What causes unemployment?
30. What causes inflation?
31. What are the consequences of government debt?