Making Economic Sense [Paperback]

Murray N. Rothbard (Author), Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr. (Preface)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 16, 2006

Do you ever watch the business news and think: what would Murray Rothbard say about this? He remained a news junky all his life, even while working on his grand scholarly treatises. He was no academic snob; he believed, like Mises, that economics was the business of everyone. It is in this book that you find his running commentary on all the economic issues that vexed the world between 1982 and 1995. They are the same issues in the headlines today! The goal of this hefty tome (551pp) by this master economist is to communicate with the public about economic theory and policy, in the form of articles that appeared in the Mises Institute's monthly . This is the new and expanded Second Edition, and it includes a much better softcover binding and 117 articles--several additional ones that were left out of the original. It includes "Taking Money Back," a 25-page populist case for the gold standard, his famous "Protectionism and the Destruction of Prosperity," along with a new essay on fixed-exchange rates, and an obituary of Ludwig von Mises. It also has a new introduction by Robert Murphy. For this reason, it is nearly 100 pages longer. No economist has ever written so clearly about subjects usually wrapped in mystery. Even when discussing exchange rates, interest rates, and central banking, Rothbard is clear and persuasive. That's what makes this book so wonderful, and so dangerous to the purveyors of economic fallacy and those who enforce their ideas on the public. Robert Murphy has written that it was this book that is most likely to get people interested in economic issues. Rothbard's prose is witty and strong, and his logic is compelling at every step. "Divided up topically, the book touches upon almost every important policy issue that has been before the public during the last decade... Reading through these over 100 articles reminded me just how deep my intellectual debt to him really was, and how richer the cause of freedom has been because of his writi

Product Details

• Paperback: 516 pages
• Publisher: Ludwig Von Mises Institute; 2nd edition (March 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0945466463
• ISBN-13: 978-0945466468
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #605,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice overview of the Austrian perspective as applied to a diverse array of economic and political issues, April 8, 2010

By 

Joel Barnes - See all my reviews

This review is from: Making Economic Sense (Paperback)

Making Economic Sense is a large (~500 pages) compendium of articles by Murray Rothbard that were originally published in the 1980s and 1990s by the Ludwig Von Mises Institute in their newsletter, The Free Market.

The 100+ articles in the book are relatively brief and deal with a broad range of economic and political issues. The uniqueness of this compendium is the decidedly Austrian economic perspective of the writer, which emphasizes liberty, free markets, and private property.

Although an economist, Rothbard writes very well and very honestly as he critiques the government's enfringment on liberty and private enterprise. He makes a lot of sense and much of what he says is echoed by the few lone voices calling out for freedom in the political wilderness (e.g., Ron Paul) today.

Making Economic Sense is a great, non-technical introduction to Austrian Economics, providing a nice overview of the Austrian perspective as applied to a diverse array of economic and political issues.