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The Government Against the Economy
THIS BOOK IS A DEMONSTRATION BOTH OF THE ECONOMIC PLANNING AND ORDER THAT PREVAIL UNDER CAPITALISM AND OF THE CHAOS AND TYRANNY THAT PREVAIL UNDER SOCIALISM.
Originally published in 1979, and later incorporated into the author’s magnum opus, Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics as Chapters 6-8, this is a powerful and convincing book which explains the essential principles of free-market price theory along with leading applications of those principles. Again and again, it illustrates the economic coordination of a free economy by contrasting it with the chaos produced by price controls and, as the ultimate culmination of price controls, socialism.
Written for the intelligent layman who may have no previous knowledge of basic economic theory, this book not only shows where government policy went wrong in imposing price controls, it also shows how free-market prices are essential to the success of our economic system in producing for the benefit of everyone. Included are explanations of: how a free market would progressively reduce the cost of energy, along with that of all other goods; why the Arab oil embargo would not have been a threat to a free economy; how price controls actually raise prices; how partial price controls lead to universal price controls; how universal price controls represent de facto socialism; why Nazi Germany was a socialist country; and why socialism, rather than representing any kind of genuine economic planning, is in fact chaotic and necessarily tyrannical.
For those who want to understand how a free-market economy really works and how price controls and socialism create chaos and poverty, this book is mandatory reading.
Here is what two of the most famous advocates of the free market have said about this book:
“Every commentator on current affairs who is not a fully trained economist ought to read this book if he wants to talk sense. I know no other place where the crucial issues are explained as clearly and convincingly as in this book.” - F. A. Hayek, Nobel Laureate, in Economics for 1975
“This is one of the most powerful and convincing books I know. Its explanations are brilliantly clear; its analyses are lethal; it is uncompromising. Readers who come to it without any previous knowledge of basic economic theory will find it a luminous introduction. If any book can slow down the economic destructionism of our age, this could be it.” - Henry Hazlitt, Economist, Author, former Newsweek columnist and New York Times financial editor
Originally published in 1979, and later incorporated into the author’s magnum opus, Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics as Chapters 6-8, this is a powerful and convincing book which explains the essential principles of free-market price theory along with leading applications of those principles. Again and again, it illustrates the economic coordination of a free economy by contrasting it with the chaos produced by price controls and, as the ultimate culmination of price controls, socialism.
Written for the intelligent layman who may have no previous knowledge of basic economic theory, this book not only shows where government policy went wrong in imposing price controls, it also shows how free-market prices are essential to the success of our economic system in producing for the benefit of everyone. Included are explanations of: how a free market would progressively reduce the cost of energy, along with that of all other goods; why the Arab oil embargo would not have been a threat to a free economy; how price controls actually raise prices; how partial price controls lead to universal price controls; how universal price controls represent de facto socialism; why Nazi Germany was a socialist country; and why socialism, rather than representing any kind of genuine economic planning, is in fact chaotic and necessarily tyrannical.
For those who want to understand how a free-market economy really works and how price controls and socialism create chaos and poverty, this book is mandatory reading.
Here is what two of the most famous advocates of the free market have said about this book:
“Every commentator on current affairs who is not a fully trained economist ought to read this book if he wants to talk sense. I know no other place where the crucial issues are explained as clearly and convincingly as in this book.” - F. A. Hayek, Nobel Laureate, in Economics for 1975
“This is one of the most powerful and convincing books I know. Its explanations are brilliantly clear; its analyses are lethal; it is uncompromising. Readers who come to it without any previous knowledge of basic economic theory will find it a luminous introduction. If any book can slow down the economic destructionism of our age, this could be it.” - Henry Hazlitt, Economist, Author, former Newsweek columnist and New York Times financial editor
- GenresEconomics
225 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 1, 1979
About the author
George Reisman
35 books39 followersGeorge Reisman, Ph.D., is Pepperdine University Professor Emeritus of Economics, and the author of Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics (Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson Books, 1996; Kindle Edition, 2012), The Government Against the Economy; Warren Buffett, Class Warfare, and the Exploitation Theory; The Benevolent Nature of Capitalism and Other Essays; Labor Unions, Thugs, and Strom Troopers; and, most recently, Piketty's Capital: Wrong Theory/Destructive Program. His website is capitalism.net. His blog is georgereismansblog.blogspot.com. See his Amazon.com author's page and follow him on Twitter @GGReisman.
Dr. Reisman is married to Edith Packer, J.D., Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, with whom he lives in Laguna Hills, California.
He was personally a student of Ludwig von Mises, whose NYU seminar he attended for eight years and under whom he obtained his doctorate in economics in 1963. He is the translator of von Mises's Epistemological Problems of Economics (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1960). From1957 until her death in 1982, he was an associate of Ayn Rand.
Dr. Reisman is married to Edith Packer, J.D., Ph.D., a clinical psychologist, with whom he lives in Laguna Hills, California.
He was personally a student of Ludwig von Mises, whose NYU seminar he attended for eight years and under whom he obtained his doctorate in economics in 1963. He is the translator of von Mises's Epistemological Problems of Economics (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1960). From1957 until her death in 1982, he was an associate of Ayn Rand.
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February 8, 2015
Книга является развернутым объяснением того, почему экономисты столь сурово относятся к регулированию цен. Речь не просто об одном из видов государственного вмешательства, а о разрушении экономической системы в качестве системы. Учитывая, что координация в экономике обеспечивается изменением цен в сочетании с мотивом прибыли, вмешательство в ценовой механизм можно сравнить с отпиливанием в автомобиле руля. Так может поступить только сумасшедший!
Книга начинается как "экономическая": автор объясняет, почему важны тенденция к выравниванию нормы прибыли между отраслями, тенденция к установлению единой цены на товар в каждый момент времени (силы "арбитража") и тенденция к выравниванию цены товара во времени (силы "спекуляции"). Однако шаг за шагом становится видно, что всё это имеет очень широкое значение для потребителя. Ему придется вспомнить свой печальный опыт в секторах естественной монополии с ценами, которые уже регулирует государство, и осознать, что при возникновении дефицита его опыт станет еще более горьким: ведь у монополиста всё же нет "запасных" потребителей, а в отраслях с дефицитом недовольного потребителя без всяких потерь можно заменить следующим. Ценность такого потребителя равна нулю, и он это почувствует.
Автор также показывает, что рост благосостояния поставщиков товаров -- это то, что потребитель должен желать. Ведь он же не предполагает, что его будут обслуживать голыми руками?
Наконец, благодаря книге становится видна абсурдность ограничения цен на социально-значимые товары. На языке экономике эта мера означает: ограничивай производство социально-значимых товаров, наращивай производство второстепенных; меньше молока и хлеба, больше игры и шампанского!
В нынешней российской ситуации очень актуальная книга.
Книга начинается как "экономическая": автор объясняет, почему важны тенденция к выравниванию нормы прибыли между отраслями, тенденция к установлению единой цены на товар в каждый момент времени (силы "арбитража") и тенденция к выравниванию цены товара во времени (силы "спекуляции"). Однако шаг за шагом становится видно, что всё это имеет очень широкое значение для потребителя. Ему придется вспомнить свой печальный опыт в секторах естественной монополии с ценами, которые уже регулирует государство, и осознать, что при возникновении дефицита его опыт станет еще более горьким: ведь у монополиста всё же нет "запасных" потребителей, а в отраслях с дефицитом недовольного потребителя без всяких потерь можно заменить следующим. Ценность такого потребителя равна нулю, и он это почувствует.
Автор также показывает, что рост благосостояния поставщиков товаров -- это то, что потребитель должен желать. Ведь он же не предполагает, что его будут обслуживать голыми руками?
Наконец, благодаря книге становится видна абсурдность ограничения цен на социально-значимые товары. На языке экономике эта мера означает: ограничивай производство социально-значимых товаров, наращивай производство второстепенных; меньше молока и хлеба, больше игры и шампанского!
В нынешней российской ситуации очень актуальная книга.
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