10 Free Books for Understanding the Economy Today

If you want to learn how we have gotten to where we are today, then you've landed at the right spot. 

These books were some of the first books I ever read on economics. 

They were preceded only by "The Alpha Strategy" (My Most Visited Post! Free Download! A great book for today in these inflationary times), the Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism, The Gold Wars (free download), Economics in One Lesson (free download), Meltdown, End the Fed, and Crash Proof 1.0.

I gotta be honest. I read all the way up to Modern Money Mechanics and didn't finish the rest of the list. But even half the books below and the books above will give you a working economic knowledge for life. 

Any citizen will be an economically literate citizen even if he or she reads only half of these books.

These economics books are free for downloading. Read them in this order.

Gary North, Inherit the Earth

Gary North, Honest Money

Murray Rothbard, What Has Government Done to Our Money?

Gary North, Mises on Money

Murray Rothbard, The Case Against the Fed

Murray Rothbard, The Mystery of Banking

Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Modern Money Mechanics

Gene Callahan, Economics for Real People

Robert P. Murphy, Lessons for the Young Economist

Murray Rothbard, Man, Economy, and State; Robert P. Murphy, Study Guide for Man, Economy, and State

Source: Ten Free Economics Books for Understanding What Is Going On Today | Specific Answers 

I hope you enjoy the books! 

Next up will be books that will help you become a functional Christian.

Eight Presentations You Will Never Hear From Bernie Sanders, Clinton, Et al.

Many financial experts believe that a financial downturn is coming. All agree a recession is guaranteed. Some go as far to say that we in the United States are going to experience a depression.

Some call it a "Great Reset" or "Great Default." Others believe we will experience a "credit crisis." Some believe we are going to believe to experience a deflationary depression.

The Bible teaches that "Without consultation, plans are frustrated, But with many counselors they succeed." (Proverbs 15:22).

These are your multiple counselors.

They all agree on the central premise that the Federal Reserve's money printing policies and artificially low interest rates have done serious damage to the economy.

They paint slightly different scenarios of how their scenarios come to be.

How will all of this come about?

Watch these videos to find out.

David Stockman-Debt Markets Unstable and Tottering


The Great Deformation | David Stockman




Bill Bonner: Cash Shortage to Hit U.S.


Jim Rickards: Coming Economic Depression


Exclusive Interview: Jim Rickards and Peter Schiff Discuss Global Gold Mar...



Ron Paul - From Stansberry Research



Economic Collapse Coming - Rep. Ron Paul [Mirrored]



David Stockman The Global Economy Has Entered The Crack Up Phase

Video: Bill Bonner: Cash Shortage to Hit U.S.

Bill Bonner delivers a dire message in the calmest tone.

This is the most important story in the United States you have never heard of.

I sat through this entire thing.

It is worth it.

I promise.

Protect yourself.

Protect your family.

Watch the video.

Video: The Truth About Bernie Sanders

Get a free E-book on Bernie Sanders here.

[Editor's Note: Regular readers of this blog should this is part of the"Why You Should Not Vote For Bernie Sanders" series. 

The reason I am doing this is because a number of my (young) friends are falling for the rhetoric and promise of Democratic Socialism. It (often rightly) rails against big business.  It (almost) never rails against the government framework which made big business possible. 

It is embodied in the persons of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Unfortunately, they're both wrong.

My posts will be informed by the Thomas Woods' new E-book Bernie Sanders is Wrong, other informed economic articles, and my personal reflection, except in cases where I find good videos, as was the case with the second post above.

This is Part 2 of many…and I mean many.]

Put the economic crisis in perspective

Put the economic crisis in perspective:

The government has been using stimulus to thwart a recession since I was 13.

I'm 27 now. They've been pushing off a recession for over half of my lifetime.

They've been using stimulus since 2001 and what do have they to show for it?

If stimulus worked so well, then why are there 2 million breadwinner jobs -- $50k a year -- less than 2000? Why are wages still declining?

By pushing off the recession with stimulus, they make the inevitable correction even worse.

What if we had one bad recession in 2001 and then that was it? What if we all had to toughen it out for one bad year when the economy was much stronger?

What happens now that the crisis is still forthcoming and people don't have the incomes and savings to brace for it?

Imagine if all of the people who went to college from 2001 to 2015 -- including myself -- had to make decisions to go to school based upon real price sensitivity, based upon what they could actually afford, versus enrolling in federal student loan programs? How financial freer would those people be?

The solution is to drastically cut spending, preferably Ron Paul 2012 presidential platform style by $1 trillion, end local, state, and federal bureaucracies, drastically lower taxes (no regressive flat tax, conservatives), and end the American Empire overseas and at home. Oh, and of course, End the Fed.

There's also other things that could be done but that's for another blog post. But for starters, we could legalize capitalism.

How to Prepare for the Coming Economic Crisis or the Next Great Depression

Via David Stockman's Contra Corner:

David Stockman, architect of President Reagan’s economic turnaround known as ‘Morning in America’, warns of the looming collapse of free market prosperity and the destruction of American wealth. Plus: Emergency actions viewers can take now to protect themselves from the crisis.

Watch the video.

As I've said previously, the recession is not over. In 2011, I remember posting an article on Facebook from Lew Rockwell talking about America entering another great depression.  It drew the ire of skeptics.

In fact, my motivation for starting The Goins Report in 2009 was precisely because I began to understand free-market economics, and I knew that the president's stimulus plan, and all other forms of violent economic intervention into the markets, was not going to save us...period.

My friends very incorrectly even thought I was a George Bush supporter because I came of age intellectually at the end of 2008 and opposed Obama's policies from the beginning. But if I had come of age a year earlier, or two years earlier, I would have been just as vocal about George W. Bush.

So I went on the intellectual warpath and began to warn friends about the intrinsic shortcomings of government economic policy.

And I proceeded to prepare myself for the downturns and dollar crises that I thought would come.

But now I want to share a link with you to help you, while there is still time.

Since 2010, I have had a page with links to movies that warned that the economic crisis is not over.

Since 2009, I have provided a free-book warning on how to protect yourself from the Federal Reserve's disastrous inflationary policies. In fact, it is my most visited blog post with over 1,000 hits.

Time and again, the true free-markets economists have warned that the current economy "recovery" is no recovery at all. While I can not say when, or where, or what will cause the next economic bubble to pop -- and indeed no good free-market economist tries -- I know that the ball is up in the air, and it is being continuously hit upwards by government and central bank policies. But every volley ball game has to end. The ball must come down eventually.

But it doesn't have to come down on you or your side of the court.

You can be on the winning team.

"The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it." Proverbs 22:3 (ESV)

That is the Bible's wisdom for our day.

Don't be simple; be prudent. Watch the video.  Download this free book. Prepare.

Again, watch the video.

Video: Ron Paul gives trenchant foreign policy analysis in "The State of Liberty 2015"

If you are short on time, begin at the 30-minute mark. Dr. Paul gives an excellent analysis of foreign policy.

Near the beginning, he also touches on Ferguson and police militarization and police culture.

Where I went wrong in my last post

"He knows better than that."

I do.

So I'll make a correction. The U.S. got out of the Great Depression by drastically cutting spending; so implementing that very Christian policy brought relatively prosperous times. We eventually had the #1 economy.  But it was temporary.

Christian Policy? Yes.

Christians are urged not to get into debt and the government is prohibited from stealing property--money in this case--for their own uses. Cutting spending is the economic equivalent of the King stealing less property and allowing it's citizens to freely do business.  As Douglas Wilson once put it, "Free markets are the economic expression of the apostolic teaching that we are to serve one another in love."

Even if you couldn't find any exegetical wiggle room to interpret the commandment as applying to the government, thou shalt not covet would still apply to the individual; therefore, and individual king (president) could not covet it's constituents properties.

Imitation of Christians -- a form of behavior modification that doesn't get to the root cause of social ills -- even when secularists don't realize they are imitating Christians, in political policy or personal ethics, will only bring a temporary fix. But it will be a fix.

Lasting prosperity will come when there is a sustained spiritual revival combined with a return to God's law in economic policy. Imitations of it will be temporary. But at least it will work for a while.

That's the part I missed out in my last post. So if you wanted to poke the ultimate hole in my last post, you could easily have pointed out that there was no spiritual revival, I think, or at least another "Great Awakening" in the mid-1940s in the United States.

The Books I Used To Write the Second-Longest Paper I Ever Wrote

When I was a senior in college, I wrote the second-longest essay of my life -- and it wasn't for a class. It was for a cash prize of $5,000.

In December 2009, I heard about the Atlas Sound Money Project Essay and, broke as the economy, I jumped for the cash prize. I did not win the first prize. A kid from Dartmouth did, if my memory serves me correctly. I also did not win the one of the two second prizes ($1,000), or one of the three third prizes ($500).

I had to choose between the following topics:

Essay Topics:

- “Money and the Free Society: Can Money Exist Outside of the State?”
- “The Ethical Implications of Monetary Manipulation”
- “Monetary Policy and the Rule of Law in the United States”

I choose the last one.

But cleaning up my desk this evening (how it surfaced to my desk 4 years later, I have no idea), I decided to discard the paper I had notes on and preserve the memory through this blog post.

Here are the books I used to write the 20-page essay, which was supposed to be "accessible to the educated laymen, but rigorous enough as to be used in college and university courses." That had my writing style written all over it.

Economics Reading List for Sound Money Essay 

-The Alpha Strategy

-How the Fed Works (50 pages)

-Essentials of Economics

-Gold Wars

-Honest Money (Esp. Biblical Monetary System)

-Housing Boom and Bust

These aren't the only sources I used. I also completed Robert P. Murphy's "Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism," some excerpts from some newsletters I was receiving at the time, and more. Besides the Murphy book, only other books I read in their entirety for this essay was "The Alpha Strategy" (which I have offered free of charge since November 2009), "Gold Wars," "Honest Money." I skimmed through the Sowell Book. I probably didn't cite the Faustino Ballve book nor the How the Fed Works book.

I also have some handwritten notes on this paper, such as "banks are good - fractional reserve isn't," "sell back gold to the public," "FDIC out of commission," "FED = Insurance Agency," "prevent recessions," "prices of goods will fall," "gov = tax in gold," " = pay in gold," and "no government mandate for gold-only. Gold is standard, but other metals are usuable (sic)." Corresponding page numbers were in parentheses next to these notes.

The Atlas Foundation's original blog post announcing the competition was published on December 2, 2009. The deadline to submit the essay was January 15, 2010.  You can read the blog description here.

I'll publish the essay on a later date. 

Video: Stefan Molyneux says "there will be no economic recovery"

I agree.

30 years, 8,269 laws, and none prevented our current state of economic affairs

This should give you some pause the next time a politician advocates passing a law for the benefit of the American people.

According to a 2012 report from USA Today, Congress passed only 61 laws at the time of the article's publication (August 14-15, 2012), and could possibly be the least productive congress since 1947.

Here's a chart and following it is my take on those numbers:

Fewer laws have been passed by this Congress than by any other in the last 65 years. Number of laws passed each year by Congress since 1947:

2012: 61; 2011: 90; 2010: 258; 2009: 125; 2008: 280; 2007: 180; 2006: 313; 2005: 169; 2004: 300; 2003: 198; 2002: 241; 2001: 136; 2000: 410; 1999: 170; 1998: 241; 1997: 153; 1996: 245; 1995: 88; 1994: 255; 1993: 210; 1992: 347; 1991: 243; 1990: 410; 1989: 240; 1988: 473; 1987: 240; 1986: 424; 1985: 240; 1984: 408; 1983: 215; 1982: 328; 1981: 145; 1980: 426; 1979: 187; 1978: 411; 1977: 223; 1976: 383; 1975: 205; 1974: 404; 1973: 245; 1972: 383; 1971: 224; 1970: 505; 1969: 190; 1968: 391; 1967: 391; 1966: 461; 1965: 349; 1964: 408; 1963: 258; 1962: 484; 1961: 401; 1960: 417; 1959: 383; 1958: 620; 1957: 316; 1956: 638; 1955: 390; 1954: 492; 1953: 288; 1952: 339; 1951: 255; 1950: 481; 1949: 440; 1948: 511; 1947: 395

Source: House Clerk's Office

30 years, 8,269 laws passed, and none of them prevented the housing crisis, the decline of the dollar, gave us Federal Reserve transparency, undid the money monopoly at the Fed, prevented war, limited executive power. (I start counting 30 years at 1977 and end at 2007--when the housing crisis was really evident.)

Will any law passed in 2012 and beyond the article's publication date prevent the next crisis? Limit executive power? Decentralize economic power?

Ron Paul: 'Long Term Solutions" to U.S. Economy 'Involve Some Short Term Pain'

From Rep. Ron Paul's weekly column:

The truth is the long term solutions to our economic quagmire involve some short term pain.  Re-evaluating the economic role of an institution as insidious and behemoth as the Federal Reserve will inconvenience some people, and those people happen to have a lot of power.  Similarly, the idea of ending government programs and closing down superfluous departments will always upset someone because it means someone will stop getting a government check. 

Again:

Not all of the unemployed are counted in the BLS unemployment numbers.  This is no secret.  In 1994 government statisticians came up with the term "discouraged worker" to remove entire swaths of people from the unemployment statistic.  Now all the government has to do to improve the unemployment numbers is discourage people from looking for a job.

Keeping Up Statistics Appearances || Rep. Ron Paul

Free Beacon Reminds Us about Obama's Economic Forecasts--and Their Failures

The Washington Free Beacon reminds of the promises of economic recovery:

In January 2009, before Obama took office, his future economists Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein released a report projecting the effects of the incoming President’s proposed stimulus package. In the forecast, Romer and Bernstein predicted that the stimulus would prevent the unemployment rate from ever hitting 8 percent. If Congress didn’t adopt the President’s plan, the unemployment rate would rise to 9 percent but fall back down to 6 percent by the third quarter of 2012, they argued. In reality, Obama’s massive stimulus package was adopted and the unemployment rate rose to 10 percent in October 2009 and currently sits at 8.1 percent—a number achieved only because millions have given up looking for work altogether.
In June 2010, the Obama Administration claimed the “Summer of Economic Recovery” had arrived. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner welcomed Americans to the recovery in August 2010. But as of summer 2012, “Americans [were] still waiting for the recovery,” according to Sen. John Thune (R., S.D.). The economy has yet to recover. Unemployment remains above 8 percent and the economy consistently adds less than 100,000 jobs per month.

Obama's Forecast Failures || The Washington Free Beacon

The Return Of The Great Depression?

Christian Mensan Vox Day talks to Sean Hannity about his book The Return of the Great Depression.

Two Charts That Show Obama Is Amongst the Worst of Job Creators

Don't worry, a Bush is down there, too.

 From Freedom Outpost.

From Reason's Hit & Run Blog.

And here is a related essay refuting the Obama campaign's claims that Obama's recovery is greater than Reagan's recovery.

Unemployment Rate Drops Because 522,000 Give Up Jobs Search

About 45,000 fewer jobs were added in April than economists expected, and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.1 percent due to more than a half million people giving up the job search. CNN Money reacted with the headline “hiring fizzles.”

University of Maryland Economist Peter Morici wrote in response the jobs report, “The economy added 115,000 jobs in April - much less than expected and not enough to keep up with natural population growth. The unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent because another 522,000 adults quit looking for work and are no longer counted.”

Unemployment Rate Drops Because 522,000 Give Up Jobs Search | Media Research Center

VIDEO: The Truth Behind the Unemployment Numbers + Stimulus vs Austerity

Main Points:

"This is the weakest recovery on record, despite the most amount of stimulus ever applied.

Instead of coming to the logical conclusion that the stimulus isn't working, they instead conclude that it's just not enough."

Yes, Virginia, There Will Be Another Recession Soon

I've been following the Economic Cycle Research Institute ever since Gary North introduced me to it. Lakshman Achuthan, co-founder and Managing Director of the ECRI is predicting another recession this year.

Those familiar with The Goins Report Facebook group page will see that I posted various links of people predicting a recession in 2012, back in late 3rd quarter/early 4th quarter 2011.

One of those links was Achuthan predicting a recession for this year. Again, that was back in 2011.

Now he's at it again. Check out the video.

Obama's Forward: A Cartoon and Commentary

Commentary:

Forward With Obama || FrontPageMag.com

U.S. Manufacturing Activity Unexpectedly Expands At Faster Rate

(RTTNews) - Activity in the U.S. manufacturing sector unexpectedly expanded at a faster rate in the month of April, according to a report released by the Institute for Supply Management on Tuesday, with the index of activity in the sector rising to a ten-month high.

The ISM said its purchasing managers index climbed to 54.8 in April from 53.4 in March, with a reading above 50 indicating an expansion in manufacturing activity. The increase surprised economists, who had expected the index to edge down to a reading of 53.0.

With the unexpected increase, the purchasing managers index rose to its highest level since coming in at 55.8 in June of 2011.

U.S. Manufacturing Activity Unexpectedly Expands At Faster Rate || RTT News