What if economics began with people?

Choice is an essential feature of the human condition. Every time we embark on a given plan of action, big or small, we make a choice. Whereas many economists model people's behavior using idealized assumptions, economists of the Austrian School don't. The Austrian School of Economics takes people as they are and constructs economic theories by examining the logical structure of the choices they make.

This book explains the Austrian School's insights on a wide range of economic topics and introduces some of its key thinkers. It also explains the relationship between the Austrian School and mainstream economics and delves into the criticisms that Austrian School economists have mounted against communist and socialist economic thought.

If you've never read an Akashic Noir book, Twin Cities Noir is a fine place to start. --San Francisco Book Review/Sacramento Book Review

Akashic Books continues its groundbreaking series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each story is set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the city of the book.

Brand-new stories by: John Jodzio, Tom Kaczynski, Peter Schilling Jr., David Housewright, Steve Thayer, Judith Guest, Mary Logue, Bruce Rubenstein, K.J. Erickson, William Kent Krueger, Ellen Hart, Brad Zellar, Mary Sharratt, Pete Hautman, Larry Millett, Quinton Skinner, Gary Bush, and Chris Everheart.

From the introduction by Julie Schaper & Steven Horwitz:

St. Paul was originally called Pig's Eye's Landing and was named after Pig's Eye Parrant--trapper, moonshiner, and proprietor of the most popular drinking establishment on the Mississippi. Traders, river rats, missionaries, soldiers, land speculators, fur trappers, and Indian agents congregated in his establishment and made their deals. When Minnesota became a territory in 1849, the town leaders, realizing that a place called Pig's Eye might not inspire civic confidence, changed the name to St. Paul, after the largest church in the city . . . Across the river, Minneapolis has its own sordid story. By the turn of the twentieth century it was considered one of the most crooked cities in the nation. Mayor Albert Alonzo Ames, with the assistance of the chief of police, his brother Fred, ran a city so corrupt that according to Lincoln Steffans its 'deliberateness, invention, and avarice has never been equaled.' As recently as the mid-'90s, Minneapolis was called 'Murderopolis' due to a rash of killings that occurred over a long hot summer. Every city has its share of crime, but what makes the Twin Cities unique may be that we have more than our share of good writers to chronicle it. They are homegrown and they know the territory . . .

Scholars within the Hayekian-Austrian tradition of classical liberalism have done virtually no work on the family as an economic and social institution. In addition, there is a real paucity of scholarship on the place of the family within classical liberal and libertarian political philosophy. Hayek's Modern Family offers a classical liberal theory of the family, taking Hayekian social theory as the main analytical framework. Horwitz argues that families are social institutions that perform certain irreplaceable functions in society. These functions change as economic, political, and social circumstances change, and the family form adapts accordingly, kicking off the next wave of developments in the social structure. In Hayekian terms, the family is an evolving and undesigned social institution. Horwitz offers a non-conservative defense of the family as a social institution against the view that either the state or the village is able or required to take over its irreplaceable functions.

In the past, Austrian economics has been seen as almost exclusively focused on microeconomics. Here, Steven Horwitz constructs a systematic presentation of what Austrian macroeconomics would look like. This original and highly accessible work will be of great value and interest to professional economists and students.

Scholars within the Hayekian-Austrian tradition of classical liberalism have done virtually no work on the family as an economic and social institution. In addition, there is a real paucity of scholarship on the place of the family within classical liberal and libertarian political philosophy. Hayek's Modern Family offers a classical liberal theory of the family, taking Hayekian social theory as the main analytical framework. Horwitz argues that families are social institutions that perform certain irreplaceable functions in society. These functions change as economic, political, and social circumstances change, and the family form adapts accordingly, kicking off the next wave of developments in the social structure. In Hayekian terms, the family is an evolving and undesigned social institution. Horwitz offers a non-conservative defense of the family as a social institution against the view that either the state or the village is able or required to take over its irreplaceable functions.

The US housing bubble and the ensuing financial crisis and recession, as well as the ongoing slow recovery, have prompted a renewal of interest in the business cycle theory associated with the Austrian school of economics. Over the last thirty years, Austrian economists have extended and refined that theory while also deploying Austrian insights in other areas of monetary theory and macroeconomics. In this volume, a number of macroeconomists influenced by the Austrian school demonstrate its explanatory power by applying those ideas to a variety of historical and contemporary issues. Several of the papers focus on the differences between the US and Canadian experiences during the early 21st century, while other contributors offer critical extensions of Austrian monetary and business cycle theory. The volume also includes empirical applications to the housing boom and bust, and several papers consider the place of Austrian macroeconomics within the school's approach to political economy and public policy more generally. Studies in Austrian Macroeconomics shows the breadth and depth of modern macroeconomics in the Austrian tradition.

This book deals with the origin and functions of money and banking, emphasizing the role both play in the promotion of economic order. Developing the insights of Hayek and others of the Austrian tradition, Professor Horwitz argues that an appreciation of the spontaneous evolutionary processes that produce and maintain our monetary institutions shou

In the past, Austrian economics has been seen as almost exclusively focused on microeconomics. Here, Steven Horwitz constructs a systematic presentation of what Austrian macroeconomics would look like. This original and highly accessible work will be of great value and interest to professional economists and students.

This book emphasizes the role of money and banking in the promotion of economic order. It argues that an appreciation of the spontaneous evolutionary processes that produce and maintain monetary institutions should make skeptical of attempts to plan or regulate the production of money.

In almost every corner of our private and public lives we rely on experts to advise us. This important species of labor is getting increasing attention from economists, who are beginning to learn how to apply their tools and assumptions to the problem of expertise. Under what conditions of supply and demand are experts likely to give us good advice? When is expert failure more likely? Do entrepreneurs challenge existing expertise? Are they experts themselves? And if economists are themselves experts, what happens when we turn the skeptical gaze of economic theory on the economist themselves? This volume publishes papers given at the third biennial Wirth Institute Conference on Austrian Economics. It brings together a heterogeneous collection of thinkers, some Austrian and others not, to critically engage the problem of experts. While mostly agreeing that there is a problem of experts, the papers collected here approach the issue from a variety of often-complementary perspectives.

This book brings together emerging and established scholars to explore the insights that can be gleaned from applying Austrian economics to a range of different topics and a variety of related disciplines, from history to politics to public policy.

Leading scholars consider Austrian economics from several perspectives such as characteristic themes of entrepreneurship and uncertainty, scientific methods such as mathematical complexity theory and experimental economics, and historical contexts such as pre-war Vienna and post-war France. Placing Austrian economics in these multiple contexts helps to reveal the rich texture of the Austrian tradition in social thought and its multiple connections to current research in diverse fields. Applications to the theory of the trade cycle and to foreign intervention suggest that the Austrian tradition contains possibilities not yet full explored and exploited. The volume gathers together papers presented at the second biennial Wirth conference on Austrian economics, held in October 2008 when the crisis of Fall 2008 was still new and shocking. This coincidence of timing makes policy issues and crisis management a kind of leitmotif of the volume. If, as keynote speaker David Colander argues, Austrians have a comparative advantage in political economy, then its stock should rise in times of crisis and political uncertainty. The volume provides evidence in favor of this view. Contributors include David Colander, Richard Wagner, Jeffery McMullen, J. Barkley Rosser, Jr., Steve Horwitz, Richard Ebeling, Chris Coyne, and Peter Boettke.