The “Liberty Fund Rules” For Seminars and Discussions

Introduction

I am currently in a reading group on the Leo Strauss book On Tyranny, which also features essays by Alexandre Kojève. We just wrapped our first online discussion of the book, and it inspired me to write this post.

One of my fondest memories as a student was attending more than a dozen invite-only seminars on economic and political theory, which ranged from an afternoon to a full week. These were times when I got to spend time with some of the smartest students and scholars from around the world, to spend hours and delving deep into specific books, articles, and other intricacies of thinking, writing, and debate.

Continue reading “The “Liberty Fund Rules” For Seminars and Discussions”
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Study Guide to the Jordan Peterson – Robert Murphy Podcast

This week, Jordan Peterson released an interview titled, “Is Property Theft?”, with Austrian economist Robert Murphy. The conversation was fast and exciting, with a lot of references to books, articles, and other ideas from Austrian economics thrown in.

Since this is likely to be the first introduction to Austrian economics for many people, I am taking it upon myself to release a “study guide” of sorts for this interview. Here I will give citations, references, and other explanations for that may have gone by too quickly for the audience.

As a table of contents, I will use the time stamps from the original video as they appear on YouTube. Almost all of the links will take you to a free book, article, or lecture. That’s one of the great things about Austrian economics: there are a lot free learning resources.

A word of warning: the first few sections are much longer than others, as they provide a lot of necessary background information. Feel free to skim the information as needed on a first pass, and come back to it later for more details.

Continue reading “Study Guide to the Jordan Peterson – Robert Murphy Podcast”

The Collected Works of Ludwig von Mises

MisesLibrary.jpgIt always struck me as strange that such a great and important thinker as Ludwig von Mises, whose last posthumous work was published in 2012, did not have a dedicated and comprehensive anthology. Since I personally have a significant interest in “what Mises said” on this or that topic, it also frustrated me that there was no simple online resource available where I could do this—despite so much of Mises’s works being available online.

Thus, I’ve used my time during the COVID-19 lockdown to create this compendium: over 8600 pages, 36 separate volumes, 200 megabytes.

Find it under the Free eBooks section of this website, or simply click here. This version was last updated May 12th, 2020. 

The list of titles of the collected works include:

Title

CTRL+F

Pages of the PDF

A Critique of Interventionism

KZ01

4-143

Bureaucracy                                                                                

KZ02

144-272

Economic Freedom and Intervention                                                     

KZ03

273-585

Economic Policy: Thoughts for Today and Tomorrow                                  

KZ04

586-682

Human Action (Scholar’s Edition)

KZ05

683-1635

Interventionism: An Economic Analysis                                               

KZ06

1636-1764

Liberalism                                                                                  

KZ07

1765-1973

Liberty and Property                                                                    

KZ08

1974-2028

Marxism Unmasked                                                                       

KZ09

2029-2154

Memoirs                                                                                     

KZ10

2155-2303

Money, Method, and the Market Process                                            

KZ11

2304-2658

Nation, State, and Economy                                                             

KZ12

2659-2883

Notes and Recollections, with the Historical Setting of the Austrian School         

KZ13

2884-3068

Omnipotent Government                                                                 

KZ14

3069-3421

Planned Chaos                                                                            

KZ15

3422-3465

Planning for Freedom (and other essays)

KZ16

3466-3658

Profit and Loss                                                                             

KZ17

3659-3718

Selected Works Vol I                                                                     

KZ18

3719-4151

Selected Works Vol II                                                                    

KZ19

4152-4608

Selected Works Vol III                                                                   

KZ20

4609-4929

Socialism: An Economic Analysis                                                           

KZ21

4930-5524

The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality                                                          

KZ22

5525-5613

The Clash of Group Interest and Other Essays                                       

KZ23

5614-5650

The Free Market and Its Enemies                                                       

KZ24

5651-5769

The Theory of Money and Credit                                                       

KZ25

5770-6306

The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science                                         

KZ26

6307-6451

On the Manipulation of Money and Credit                                                                       

KZ27

6452-6676

The “Austrian” Theory of the Trade Cycle                                                                          

KZ28

6677-6689

Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth                                                     

KZ29

6690-6780

Money and Inflation                                                                                

KZ30

6781-6874

Epistemological Problems of Economics

KZ31

6875-7123

Entries for the Encyclopedia Britannica

KZ32

7124-7134

Theory and History

KZ33

7135-7529

Human Action (Liberty Fund Edition, volumes 1-3)

KZ34

7530-8442

A Critique of Bohm-Bawerk’s Reasoning

KZ35

8443-8451

Glossary (“Mises Made Easier”)

KZ36

8452-8602

If Famous Economists Were Bodybuilders

Imagine if all your favourite economists were also bodybuilders, power lifters, or just generally into fitness. What would their names be?

John Maynard Gains (famous for his Gainsian Crossfit)
Milton Frieweights
Ludwig von Mirin
Murray Rothbuff
Friedrich Biyek
Thomas Swole
Ben Bulknanke
Pump Krugman
Joseph Stigliftz
Alan Growspan
Janet Flexen
Elinor Ostrong
David Ricardio
Adam “invisible gains” Smith Machine

Gravity, Alternative Physics, and the Force in Star Wars

With all the hype about the new Star Wars movie, I’ve been becoming more interested in the franchise. Specifically, I’ve become more interested in the concept of the Force.

According to Wikipedia, the Force ” is a binding, metaphysical, and ubiquitous power in the fictional universe of the Star Wars galaxy created by George Lucas…. can enhance natural, physical, and mental abilities, including strength (such as during a “Force jump” or to slow a fall from an otherwise dangerous height) and accuracy… other Force powers are demonstrated in the film series including telekinesis, telepathy,levitation, deep hypnosis, enhanced empathy, reflexes, precognition, and enhanced speed.”

So the Force isn’t just the ability to control objects at a distance, it’s something that seems to permeate the entire being of a person possessed with it, including their emotions. Sounds pretty mysterious, right? It’s almost like magic. At least, I always thought so. And others in the Star Wars Universe seem to think so as well.

But what if there was a non-mysterious, rational, and physical explanation for the Force, as opposed to mysterious metaphysical magic? Continue reading “Gravity, Alternative Physics, and the Force in Star Wars”