Bob Murphy and I deal with Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman every week on the Contra Krugman podcast. William Nordhaus was named one of the winners of the Nobel Prize for 2018. Will he get his own Murphy/Woods podcast?
Of course not. But:
I’ve got something almost as good.
Starting in 1985, Nordhaus was added as a second author of Economics, Paul Samuelson’s bestselling college textbook. Samuelson was an influential popularizer of Keynesianism in America, and his textbook warped the brains of generations of students.
I asked a professor friend of mine: can you create a course that goes through this textbook chapter by chapter and critiques it from a free-market, Austrian School perspective?
So he did. It’s called “What’s Wrong With Textbook Economics.”
It flattens Nordhaus and Samuelson.
And I give it away as a bonus to Supporting Listeners of the Tom Woods Show, at the Silver level and above.
Topics:
Is there a distinctive economic way of thinking?
What is the proper role of the state in the economy?
How do prices coordinate social interaction?
How useful is demand and supply analysis?
Homo Economicus or homo agens?
Is the business firm merely a production function?
Is cost merely the monetization of a production function?
Need competition be perfect?
Is competition everywhere imperfect?
Is regulation necessary?
Is risk distinct from uncertainty?
Are income and wealth equitably distributed?
Are wages deserved?
Do we exploit the environment?
Are interest and profit really necessary?
Where do we draw the line between the state and the market?
How do we help the poor?
How should we treat foreigners?
What is macroeconomics?
Are there any useful macroeconomic statistics?
Which is more important, consumption or investment?
What causes business cycles?
How does money affect production?
Is monetary policy stabilizing or destabilizing?
What causes economic growth?
Why is economic growth uneven?
What determines the pattern of international trade?
How does an open-economy operate?
What causes unemployment?
What causes inflation?
What are the consequences of government debt?
While everyone else bends the knee to the new Nobel Prize winner, you and I will know the truth: