Choice

"Government intervention in the institutions of money and banking sowed the seeds of the worldwide asset bubble in the early and mid-2000s, which could only result in a giant crash according to this line of thought. Once the crash had occurred, the recession was prolonged by yet more government intervention in the form of massive deficits, expansion of unemployment payments, and ever more regulations on businesses in the private sector. Only by returning to a genuinely free market, based on the classical liberal notions of private property, civil liberties, and peace among nations, can we return to the prosperity and steady improvement of living conditions that we had come to take for granted. Those who endorse the Austrian analysis believe it is crucial to spread this message, not just to academics, but to the intelligent layperson as well. That is the primary function of the present volume. It provides an introduction and an invitation to the most important work of arguably the most important Austrian economist"--