Economics for Self-Defence

Regular readers will already be familiar with the regular Tuesday night ‘Economics for Real People’ sessions—an introduction to basic economic concepts that are unlikely to be covered at school.

So I’m thrilled to be able to tell you we’re going to add a regular Sunday Morning Economics Programme, in conjunction with our weekly Tuesday seminars, so that real people can learn and integrate all the pro-capitalist economic knowledge they will ever need.

This course is the most comprehensive and integrated course of economics available and will be invaluable to any student of economics—especially to help debunk knowledge that just isn’t so—or to any intelligent person who would like to learn the subject of market economics for the first time. (No prior economic knowledge is assumed. There is no maths.)

These seminars will take place every Sunday morning. (And what else would you be doing apart from recovering from your hangover?) The course takes the form of an audio lecture from Professor George Reisman after which we will discuss the material presented.  Professor Reisman is no slouch.

"Reisman's exposure of modern mercantilist fallacies takes its place alongside that of Adam Smith."
            - James Buchanan, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 1986

High praise indeed!

Professor Reisman completed his PhD under the direction of Ludwig von Mises and is the author of the magnum opus entitled Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics—subtitled A Complete and Integrated Understanding of the Nature and Value of Human Economic Life. That subtitle is no understatement.

We will be using this book as the framework for our course.  Its author is, in our view, the world's greatest living economist.

"Every commentator on current affairs who is not a fully trained economist ought to read George Reisman's book if he wants to talk sense. I know no other place where the crucial issues are explained as clearly and convincingly."
            - F.A. Hayek, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 1974

The primary course book is online and the PDF version can be found here. However, we strongly suggest that you purchase a copy for your own library. It will prove a very useful resource as you further your studies.

Professor Reisman’s great accomplishment is to integrate the achievements of the Austrian school of economics (he studied under the Dean of Austrian economists, Ludwig Von Mises, so has a direct intellectual lineage to Carl Menger) with the accomplishments of the British Classical School, including Adam Smith—and with the moral base given to capitalism by Ayn Rand.

In particular, he repairs the many errors of the Classical School that eventually undermined them.

If you are interested in attending please let us know (or just turn up) by calling Julian on 021 305199 or email UOAEconGroup@gmail.com. We hope that you will take the opportunity to listen to and hear from one of the great economists of the 20th Century.

First Seminar: Nature and Value of Economics, Readings: Pages 1-12 of Capitalism.

Please meet outside the main entrance to the ASB Tower each Sunday morning at 10.25am, and we will enter building. If you are late, please text Julian on 021 305 199 and we will let you in.

Summarising the programme, Professor Reisman suggests “the essential and principal themes of the program are

1. the individual pursuit of material self-interest under freedom is the foundation of the development of capitalist institutions and of economic progress and prosperity;
2. the economic institutions of a capitalist society—among them private ownership of the means of production, division of labour, saving and capital accumulation, economic competition and economic inequality, and the profit motive and the price system—make possible continuous economic progress and continually rising living standards for all;
3. the material self-interests of all men are harmonious under capitalism, and that the extension of economic freedom, and thus the progressive movement toward logically consistent, laissez-faire capitalism, is the solution for all the leading political-economic problems of our time, such as mass unemployment and depressions, inflation, shortages, economic stagnation and decline, monopoly, and international and domestic economic conflict.

“Consistent with its themes and with the axiomatic nature of the value of human life and well-being, the program is unreservedly pro-capitalist in every respect…”  That will not surprise any readers of this blog.

What this program offers—what makes it a program— is the organisation and integration of all the very vital and extensive material one needs to know in order to defend capitalism competently and effectively.

Come and join us on this intellectual adventure!

Please meet outside the main entrance to the ASB Tower each Sunday morning at 10.25am, and we will enter building. If you are late, please text Julian on 021 305 199 and we will let you in.