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

The origin and evolution of money and the contemporary monetary system: from barter to media of exchange, to gold and silver commodity money; 100 percent reserve banking and fractional reserve banking; standard money, fiduciary media, and fiat money. Central banking: the Federal Reserve System and its powers of money creation. The quantity of money, the demand for money, and the business cycle.

READINGS

The origin and evolution of money and the contemporary monetary system: from barter to media of exchange, to gold and silver commodity money; 100 percent reserve banking and fractional reserve banking; standard money, fiduciary media, and fiat money. Central banking: the Federal Reserve System and its powers of money creation. The quantity of money, the demand for money, and the business cycle.

READINGS

Orientation/review. The dependence of the division of labor on money. The vital connection between money making and productive activity in a division-of-labor society. Money-making and the distinction between production and consumption, productive expenditure and consumption expenditure, capital goods and consumers’ goods. The quantity theory of money. The increase in the quantity of money as the cause of rising prices.

READINGS

1. To provide the student with a comprehensive knowledge of the operations of a free-enterprise, division-of-labor society, with special emphasis on the phenomena of money, production, real wages and the productivity of labor, profit, saving and capital accumulation, and economic progress. The consequences of government intervention with respect to these phenomena will be considered in depth.

2. To teach the student to think of economic phenomena in terms of their long-run effects on all groups, not merely their short-run effects on those directly concerned.

OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE

The course will focus on the current or recent problem areas of the banking system, unemployment, economic stagnation, budget and trade deficits, and inflation, in the light of the contrasting analyses of the Keynesian and “Classical” schools (the latter including the Chicago and Austrian schools). Policy solutions to these problems will be explored—in particular free-market wage rates, balanced budgets with low taxes, and limitation of money-supply growth versus expansionary fiscal and monetary policy.

Two leading themes of the course will be 1) The possibility of continuous capital accumulation and economic progress based on the combination of economic freedom, private ownership of the means of production, division of labor, saving, and technological progress. 2) The ethical implication of the harmony of the rational self-interests of all men under these conditions.

BOOKS FOR THE COURSE

The division of labor and the concept of productive activity. Exposition and critique of the Marxian exploitation theory. The productivity theory of wages. Labor unions and labor legislation. A reinterpretation of modern economic history. The productive functions of businessmen and capitalists, of retailing, wholesaling, and advertising.

READINGS

The division of labor and the concept of productive activity. Exposition and critique of the Marxian exploitation theory. The productivity theory of wages. Labor unions and labor legislation. A reinterpretation of modern economic history. The productive functions of businessmen and capitalists, of retailing, wholesaling, and advertising.

READINGS

The monopoly question. The political versus the economic concept of monopoly. Capital requirements and entry “barriers.” The alleged tendency toward universal monopoly. The predatory-pricing doctrine. Marginal revenue and marginal cost. The pure-and-perfect-competition, oligopoly, and monopolistic-competition doctrines.

READINGS

Economic inequality and economic competition. Equality of opportunity. The law of comparative advantage and the pyramid-of-ability principle. Free international trade. Population growth and the freedom of immigration.

READINGS

Universal price controls and de facto socialism. The chaos of socialism. Understanding the collapse of Soviet Russia and the communist bloc on the basis of price theory. The tyranny of socialism.

READINGS

The free market’s efficiency in responding to economic change. Factor prices. Price controls, shortages, and economic chaos. Illustrations from the energy crisis and rent controls. From partial price controls to universal price controls.

READINGS