The Capitalist Professor with George Reisman, Ph.D. - Free College Courses on Capitalism George Reisman

Inflation. Exposition and critique of alternative theories of rising prices, leading to the conclusion that the quantity theory of money is the only valid explanation. The meaning of inflation. Its roots in deficits, the welfare state, and the unemployment and easy money arguments.

Further effects of inflation: a. growth in government, including wage and price controls; b. the redistribution of wealth and income; c. the undermining of saving and capital accumulation and the productivity of labor; d. how inflation sets the stage for depression and deflation—why it is not a cure for unemployment or a source of capital; e. why inflation tends to accelerate to the point of destroying credit and ultimately money itself.

The current state of inflation.

READINGS


Reisman: Chapter 19
Hazlitt: pp. 164-176 (chap. XXIII)
Ludwig von Mises, “Wages, Unemployment, and Inflation” and “The Gold Problem” in Supplementary Readings
in Macroeconomics [Ludwig von Mises, Planning for Freedom, pp. 150–160, 185–194]
Library reading: Ludwig von Mises, Human Action, pp. 466-478.
Samuelson, Chapter 13

Keynesianism and Neo-Keynesianism. Exposition and critique of the Keynesian analysis: the unemployment-equilibrium doctrine and the IS curve; the consumption and savings functions; the diminishing marginal efficiency of capital; liquidity preference and the liquidity trap; compensatory fiscal policy and the multipliers. The economic consequences of Keynesianism.

READINGS


Reisman: Chapter 18

Samuelson: Chapters 6–8 (to p. 142)

Optional: Samuelson, Chapter 15

Ludwig von Mises “Stones Into Bread, The Keynesian Miracle” and “Lord Keynes and Say’s Law” in Supplementary

Readings in Macroeconomics. [Ludwig von Mises, Planning for Freedom, pp. 50–71]

Optional: Adam Smith, “Of Public Debts” in Supplementary Readings in Macroeconomics. [Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, Book 5, Chapter 3]

Relationship of the net-consumption/net-investment theory to the time-preference and productivity theories. The alleged problems of underconsumption and lack of “investment opportunities.” How the demand for capital goods and labor can permanently exceed the demand for consumers’ goods and the rate of profit be positive. More on why savings cannot outrun the need for savings; the automatic adjustment of the rate of saving to the need for capital.

READINGS


Reisman: pp. 787–797, 838–85

Capital accumulation and its causes. The role of saving. The role of technological progress and the productivity of capital goods. The role of economic freedom. Critique of the secular-stagnation doctrine. National income and consumption.

READINGS


Reisman: review of 622–642
Optional: Samuelson, pp. 326–333.

Capital accumulation and its causes. The role of saving. The role of technological progress and the productivity of capital goods. The role of economic freedom. Critique of the secular-stagnation doctrine. National income and consumption.

READINGS


Reisman: review of 622–642
Optional: Samuelson, pp. 326–333.

The role of saving in spending and income payments. Saving versus hoarding. Saving and aggregate economic accounting: the national income/net national product identity. J. S. Mill’s proposition that demand for commodities is not demand for labor and the issue of double counting.

READINGS


Reisman: pp. 673–699, review of 441–447, then 699–715
Hazlitt: pp. 177-190 (chap. XXIV)
Samuelson: Chapter 5; Optional: Samuelson, Chapter 11
Ludwig von Mises, “Capital Supply and American Prosperity” in Supplementary Readings in Macroeconomics.
[Ludwig von Mises, Planning for Freedom, pp. 195–214]