INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. 11. Intro to Micro: The Structure of Production As factors of production, supply and demand of labor, land and capital will determine how much the producer will get out of this process. This process occurs in different stages. In the earlier or higher stages, producers' goods must be produced that will later cooperate in producing other producers' goods that ...
Dec 22, 2016•59 min
INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. 10. Intro to Micro: Government Cartels The only cartels that have lasted have been government cartels. There is no essential difference between a cartel and an ordinary corporation or partnership. Not even the De Beers cartel is all powerful. The South African government nationalizes all land upon which diamonds are discovered. The government only licenses De...
Dec 21, 2016•58 min
INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. 9. Intro to Micro: Monopoly and Competition The words monopoly and competition have been changed. Competition meant rivalry or competing, either active or potential. Businesses do not like this. Monopoly meant a grant of privilege by the government. It now means a falling demand curve. Government creates crazy regulations and the market works to get around th...
Dec 21, 2016•56 min
INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. 8. Intro to Micro: The Firm Business men must make sure they can cover their costs by incoming revenue. The production function will yield a certain quantity of a product. The firm considers marginal costs and average costs to weigh where along the demand curve production is. Average revenues less average costs multiplied by quantity will reflect profits (or ...
Dec 19, 2016•53 min
INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. 7. Intro to Micro: Mid-Term Review and The Theory of the Firm The objective of the corporate firm is to maximize profits and avoid losses - the same objective of the free market. But the costs are paid out before the income comes in. Stockholders will sell stock to shake up the managers. Government firms - agencies - do not have shareholders and there are no ...
Dec 18, 2016•1 hr 17 min
INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. 6. Intro to Micro: Government Licensing of Industry and Minimum Wage The peanut butter crunch was in 1980. Crop acreage and production was cut down by 45% by government price support, import quotas, and cartelizing of the industry. The price of peanuts more than tripled. Farm price supports also keep cheese prices above market levels. The minimum wage law imp...
Dec 16, 2016•1 hr 2 min
INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. 5. Intro to Micro: Minimum Price Controls Thou shalt not sell a certain product or service below a certain price, e.g. wheat, cotton, corn, cheese, sugar. This will result in an artificial unsold permanent surplus, as it does in the American farm situation. Initially resources are attracted into the field, but the artificially high price discourages buyer dem...
Dec 15, 2016•43 min
INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. 4. Intro to Micro: Price Controls in the Oil Industry The disappearance of oil has been forecast every decade. Prices were overlooked. When the price is high it is more profitable to look for oil. Total reserves on the ground are higher than they were in 1890. Treating demand as a fixed quantity, the oil industry tried to control production and prices. Gas ra...
Dec 14, 2016•1 hr 8 min
INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. 3. The Determination of Prices Price is determined by the equilibrium price and the equilibrium quantity. If your good is not selling, you lower the price. If your goods fly off the shelves you are selling too cheaply and you raise prices. Demand changes constantly, e.g. the shift to white wines away from dark hard liquor. Prices will fall when demand falls. ...
Dec 12, 2016•1 hr 11 min
INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. 2. Intro to Micro: Value Why is it that things like bread and water which have high use values are cheap while on the other hand luxury items like diamonds are very expensive? This paradox was not solved until it became understood that people choose only a marginal unit - this loaf or this diamond. Value can be attached to a good only by individuals' desires ...
Dec 09, 2016•35 min
INTRODUCTION TO MICROECONOMICS Presented by Murray N. Rothbard in 1986 at New York Polytechnic University. Recorded by Hans-Hermann Hoppe. 1. Intro to Micro: Demand and Supply Micro means dealing with the individual action. Macro deals with larger pictures of business cycles. Macro is screwed up. Micro is in pretty good shape. Study it first. Every individual has goals they wish to achieve.You use means to achieve goals. Economic theory is based on this deductive fact that the individual wants t...
Dec 06, 2016•1 hr 2 min
ECONOMICS 101 Murray Rothbard's Economics 101 series 8. Mises in One Lesson Austrian economics has nothing to do with the economics of Austria. Austrian Economics (AE) began with Carl Menger in 1871. It is based on an analysis of individual action, not aggregates or groups. Economics predated Adam Smith. The British classical economics school could not solve the value paradox. It also embraced the labor theory of value. Another big fallacy was a focus on long-run equilibrium. Additionally, they ...
Dec 02, 2016•1 hr
ECONOMICS 101 Murray Rothbard's Economics 101 series 7. Banking and the Business Cycle One of the most difficult things to understand about banking is how money is created out of thin air. Current commercial bank liabilities are immediate. The banks do not have the reserves to redeem all demand notes. Thus, banks are inherently insolvent. But, government has eliminated runs on banks. Banks are not allowed to fail when they are mismanaged. Central banks are sold to the public as restraining infla...
Nov 30, 2016•1 hr 39 min
ECONOMICS 101 Murray Rothbard's Economics 101 series 6. Conservation and Property Rights Free markets shift resources from where they are less valued to where they are most valued, benefiting consumers. When private property and free markets are allowed to operate, a natural conservation of resources occurs. Nothing is a resource unless it is useful to man. Governments do not own anything and are not interested in preservation or maintenance. The conservation movement since 1900 simply closed of...
Nov 28, 2016•55 min
ECONOMICS 101 Murray Rothbard's Economics 101 series 5. Labor and Unions Rothbard covers the principles of demand and supply curves. Prices are at the seat of the whole system. Use the logic of reality. The most mobile labor force is teenagers. Over time, capital equipment per laborer increases. Real wage rates increase. Consumer prices decrease. Unions cannot determine wage rates without putting companies out of business and causing unemployment. They attempt to control the labor market by rest...
Nov 23, 2016•1 hr 28 min
ECONOMICS 101 Murray Rothbard's Economics 101 series 4. Labor Minimum wage laws force unemployment up. All of those with few skills looking for an entry position will be denied because they cannot add enough value to the business labor field to be paid minimum wage. Unemployment follows minimum wage hikes. Marginal workers are being denied the labor market. There were workers in canning businesses making thirty cents an hour who were disemployed when a forty cents minimum wage was enacted. By ch...
Nov 21, 2016•51 min
ECONOMICS 101 Murray Rothbard's Economics 101 series 3. Capital, Interest, and Profit Profit is total revenue minus total costs. Ours is not just a profit system, it is a profit and loss system. Losses are a sign that you wasted land, labor, or capital, yet those who make profits are criticized. Entrepreneurship is an art not a course you can learn. Labor earns wages. Land earns rent. Capital earns interest. Confusingly, the word capital means both the machines used to produce goods and the fund...
Nov 15, 2016•55 min
ECONOMICS 101 Murray Rothbard's Economics 101 series 1. Demand and Supply, Consumer Goods, Prices and Exchange Micro economics starts with the basic fact that each person has short term and long term goals, like buying a ham sandwich and graduating from college. People act in the world to accomplish something. Human action is purposive. You employ different means to achieve certain goals. Rothbard begins with the simple situation of Crusoe – one laborer- on an island. Capital is everything used ...
Nov 07, 2016•1 hr 16 min
ECONOMICS 101 Murray Rothbard's Economics 101 series 2. Money and Prices Many believe that if governments would just issue greater quantities of money then all problems would be solved. In truth that would create unsurmountable problems by lowering the purchasing power of each money unit. Money is the one good that is not made better by increasing its supply. Rothbard discusses how money originates. Products are originally merely exchanged between people. This is the barter system and it is base...
Nov 03, 2016•56 min
Introduction to Economics: A Private Seminar with Murray N. Rothbard Deficits are equal to expenditures minus taxes. Reagan spoke of cutting government spending, but meant only cutting the rate of growth of government spending. Stagflation appeared in 1957-58. Inflation during a recession was not supposed to happen. It happened again in 1973-75. The file stops at 7:01 and unfortunately the rest of the lecture is lost. Part seven of seven from Introduction to Economics: A Private Seminar with Mur...
Nov 01, 2016•25 min
Introduction to Economics: A Private Seminar with Murray N. Rothbard What causes business cycles? Keynesians say the cycles happen because the free market economy does not spend enough. Thus, pump spending in. Additionally, Keynesians say that animal spirits cause these cycles. Government must fix things. Nobody could understand Keynes' General Theory. What was simply obscure was wrongly considered deep. Keynes linked national income with employment, by assuming wage rates are fixed downward. Al...
Nov 01, 2016•46 min
Introduction to Economics: A Private Seminar with Murray N. Rothbard The entrepreneur is the major risk bearer. Business return on capital is long run profits or losses. Real rate of interest is determined by time preferences. Government contracts are cost plus. Medical costs are higher because supply is so restricted by government intervention. Who benefits?[by government action]. Rockefeller families are heavily invested in drug companies. Cartelism. Monopolies. Yet, free market productivity c...
Nov 01, 2016•46 min
Introduction to Economics: A Private Seminar with Murray N. Rothbard Costs are always ex ante. There are no such things as social costs or social benefits. Costs are determined by how much entrepreneurs think consumers will pay. Costs are not determined by supply and demand. Nobody waits for costs to raise prices. Rothbard does not believe in cost curves. Antitrust suits are often filed by one set of competitors trying to eliminate another set. Additionally, antitrust suits are money making rack...
Nov 01, 2016•46 min
Introduction to Economics: A Private Seminar with Murray N. Rothbard Rothbard considers how prices are determined by supply and demand on the free market. All long shortages are caused by government interventions. Forecasting is not possible. Economics is not an objective science. Part three of seven from Introduction to Economics: A Private Seminar with Murray N. Rothbard. This lecture as on YouTube: https://youtu.be/CLyrvIKY2N4 Sourced from: https://mises.org/library/introduction-economics-par...
Nov 01, 2016•47 min
Introduction to Economics: A Private Seminar with Murray N. Rothbard Rothbard continues the Crusoe analogy. He covers subjectivity of value, and the concept of marginal utility. Part two of seven from Introduction to Economics: A Private Seminar with Murray N. Rothbard. This lecture as on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VAMY6qLH1nU Sourced from: https://mises.org/library/introduction-economics-part-2 We are not endorsed or affiliated with the above. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/le...
Nov 01, 2016•46 min
Introduction to Economics: A Private Seminar with Murray N. Rothbard Starting with Crusoe economics, Rothbard builds the economic concepts which can be developed by this analogy.These concepts are the axiom of human action. Among them are: man acts, man acts by virtue of his existence, man acts with purposeful behavior, man prefers present to future actions, resources are means to achieve ends, scarcity exists, actions take time, life is uncertain, and the theory of value is subjective. Part one...
Nov 01, 2016•46 min
Austrian Economics: An Introduction, presented at New York Polytechnic University in 1972. 4. Price Controls Price controls - triangular interventions - occur when an intervener (generally government) either compels a pair of people to make an exchange or prohibits them from making an exchange. Although ludicrous, price controls are instituted because a product appears to be in short supply, e.g. oil - while price controls create artificial shortages of the product. The conservation movement tie...
Oct 26, 2016•2 hr 13 min
Austrian Economics: An Introduction, presented at New York Polytechnic University in 1972. 3. Advertising Advertising has always had bad press with economists, but consumers discover that a product either works and works well, or it doesn't. Consumer wants are not artificially created by business itself. Advertising as a selling cost seemed evil. The free market benefits every participant. But intervention benefits one group at the expense of another. Political advertising - propaganda - gets a ...
Oct 26, 2016•1 hr 5 min
Austrian Economics: An Introduction, presented at New York Polytechnic University in 1972. 2. Supply and Demand In this lecture in 1972, supply and demand concepts included: preferences of consumers, prices, quantity, quality, elasticity, equilibrium, marginal utility, present goods, and production processes. On YouTube: https://youtu.be/EtpHzP6VLV8 Sourced from: https://mises.org/library/2-supply-and-demand We are not endorsed or affiliated with the above. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Oct 26, 2016•1 hr 20 min
Austrian Economics: An Introduction, presented at New York Polytechnic University in 1972. 1. Scarcity and Choice Economics begins with the concepts of scarcity and choice. If there was no scarcity it would all be free. Resources like time and materials need to be allocated to economically feasible uses. This will depend on the consumers' demand for the final product. On YouTube: https://youtu.be/bZZjytf2lBo Sourced from: https://mises.org/library/1-scarcity-and-choice We are not endorsed or aff...
Oct 25, 2016•11 min
