Iam first of all indebted to Mr. and Mrs. Quintin E. Ward, whose
Generous support made this book possible. Mr. Ward’s career and
Achievements exemplify the free market in action.
For very helpful comments on the manuscript, Ithank Hans
Hoppe, Jeffrey Herbener, Joseph Salerno, and Mark Thornton.
They bear no responsibility for any remaining mistakes.
At the Mises Institute, Judy Thommesen and Kathy White handled
Editorial work in the manuscript with great skill. I thank Mises
Institute Member Richard Perry for preparing the index. Pat
Barnett, as always, was a constant source of encouragement. She
Also provided me with helpful comments and corrections. The president
Of the Mises Institute, Lew Rockwell, not only commissioned
The project: he nudged it along through gentle prodding. To all of
These, many thanks.
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………..i
1 THE METHOD OF ECONOMICS………………………………………………….1
2 ACTION AND PREFERENCE, PART 1…………………………………………15
3 ACTION AND PREFERENCE, PART 2…………………………………………35
4 DEMAND AND SUPPLY………………………………………………………….55
5 THE LABOR THEORY OF VALUE………………………………………………83
6 PRICE CONTROLS………………………………………………………………103
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7 MINIMUM WAGES AND WAGE CONTROL…………………………………117
8 MONEY, PART 1………………………………………………………………..131
9 MONEY, PART 2………………………………………………………………..147
10 THE GOLD STANDARD………………………………………………………..161
CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………175
GLOSSARY……………………………………………………………………….177
RECOMMENDED READINGS…………………………………………………185
INDEX…………………………………………………………………………….187
Why, indeed? A good short answer is that you can’t get away
From it. Almost everything you do involves economics. Why
Do people have to earn a living? Why do some people – heavyweight
Boxers, rock stars, and movie producers, for example – earn
Vastly more than bus drivers or policemen? What determines the
Price of a Big Mac, or, for that matter, a Mack truck? Whenever you
Have to deal with money or prices, you are talking about economics.
To paraphrase Monsieur Jourdain, a character in a play by the
Seventeenth-century French writer Molière, you have been speaking
Economics all your life.
But granted the pervasiveness of economics questions, why
Study them systematically? After all, we are all governed by the law
Of gravity – try jumping off a cliff sometime if you don’t think so –
But does it follow that we have to study physics?
If people don’t understand the basic laws of economics, we are
Headed for disaster.
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