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Faustino Ballvé
ESSENTIALS
OF ECONOMICS: A BRIEF SURVEY OF PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES
Publisher: General Books LLC. 2010. Paperback.
ISBN-10: 1153475073
reviewed by Patrick Killough (1) biblio.com 11/04/2010 Would you recommend this book to other readers? * * * * Probably. review: "Compressed." "Compact." "An outline." Words like those come to mind for Faustino Ballve's ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS: A BRIEF SURVEY OF PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES. First published in Spanish in 1956, ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS has been available in English since 1963. My paperback copy was published by the Ludwig von MIses Institute in Auburn, Alabama in 2008. After only 99 pages of presentation and argument come three pages of Notes on the ten chapters, then seven pages of name Index. As I said: "Compressed." "Compact." "An outline." The little book is aimed at the general reader rising toward leadership positions in society, with either no or only the fuzziest notions of "the dismal science," economics. The reader should be able, after familiarizing himself with any national economic context (say, Germany's or America's) to predict future results of current trends. To do this he or she is first empowered to understand such basics as "the general and constant forms of man's economic activity," why economics revolves around a market, how an entrepreneur behaves differently in a market from a mere consumer and much more. I read ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS because it is being discussed once a month, chapter by chapter, in a small circle of local conservative Christian businessmen and women that I finally accepted an invitation to sit in on. The leader hands out for discussion a page of highlights of the chapter, e.g. III: "The Role of the Entrepreneur," then reads or highlights an article about a Virginia family whisky distillery and finally invites contributions from the floor. Participants then criticize concepts of entrepreneurship or tell stories of their own capitalistic risk-raking, successful or not. Such a "book club" procedure is like adding water to author Ballve's dried potato flakes: very necessary for digestion of the book. This book, though dry and jejune, is sound and covers all the bases. It invites fleshing out through concrete examples. -OOO- http://www.biblio.com/used-book/essentials-of-economics -faustino-ballv~10c616~348517618 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (2) lunch.com 11/05/2011 name of review: In economic theory, everybody is both producer and consumer rating: * * * * review: I have recently accepted an invitation to meet once a month for two hours after supper with the Asheville, NC Ludwig von Mises Club. At each meeting attendees currently dissect one chapter of Faustino Ballve's ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS: A BRIEF SURVEY OF PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES. First issued in Spanish in 1956, and available in English since 1963, my paperback copy was published by the Ludwig von MIses Institute in Auburn, Alabama in 2008. After only 99 pages of presentation and argument come three pages of Notes on the ten chapters, then seven pages of name Index. In other words, ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS is short and compressed. Ideally, at least for the way in which I personally learn, I would prefer not to read ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS until after I have heard a full semester's lectures on each of its meaty topics, including Chapter 4: Capital, Labor, and Wages, Chapter 8: Nationalism and Socialism and Chapter 10: What economics is not about. The little book by Professor Ballve would then function as a kind of Cliffs Notes pulling together the highlights of an oral presentation perhaps eight times as long. But in my monthly meetings with the von Mises Club, the proceeding is the reverse. A leader first distributes a one-page summary, then adds to, fleshes out, decompresses, unfolds a tightly compressed chapter by way of a 10-minute case study. He then throws the floor open to attendees for clarification, questions, objections and more concrete examples from their own entrepreneurial or consumer experience. Here from Chapter 4: is a sample to help you make up your mind whether and under what ideal conditions to read Faustino Ballve's little book. The concept is "disutility": To have acquired cash you have done so
by "some disutility, by the
expenditure of some kind of effort." In exchange for a
disutility you receive "a utility
(i.e., a commodity) ... in the market in what is called a production.
That is the physical and mental exertion needed to place a commodity at
the disposal of the consumer.
In this sense, we are all producers, just as we are all consumers."
My only recommendation is: do not try to learn basic economics from this book all by itself. Take a course for which it is the textbook. Or discuss it once a month in a small circle of like-minded friends. -OOO- http://www.lunch.com/Reviews/d/Faustino_Ballve _ESSENTIALS_OF_ECONOMICS -1651762.html =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (3) bn.com 11/06/2010 title of review: "The dismal science" built up lucidly but tersely one element at a time rating: * * * * review: In 1956 Professor Faustino Ballve issued, in Spanish, ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS: A BRIEF SURVEY OF PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES. Arthur Goddard's translation into English has been available since 1963. My copy is dated 2008 by the Ludwig von MIses Institute in Auburn, Alabama. It is possible simply to pick up this little book and start reading with no additional help. If you already know a fair amount about economics, "the dismal science," ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS will be a lucid, ample refresher. But the text is highly condensed. There are no real "case studies" a la Harvard University. Examples tend to be historical. For example: three theories of money (Ch. 5): quantity theory (Jean Bodin); qualitative theory associated with John Locke and the theory that money is neutrality, from David Hume. None of the three theories is without inadequacies. But applying all three models together approaches real truth. The level of abstraction is high throughout. Bottom line: this may not be the best primer for absoulte beginners, with no outside help. The author also displays an underlying belief that the more governments get involved in regulating markets, the more mistakes and distortions occur. I recommend ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS as either the basis for a formal undergraduate course: introduction to economics, or as a handbook to be used in informal adult education groups that meet monthly or weekly. In the latter case, one participant typically hands out a one-page sketch of chapter contents, presents orally in three or four minutes an illustrative case study (e.g., of entreneurship, money markets, foreign exchange, etc.) and then throws the floor open to discussion. In such usages, this book is a winner. -OOO- http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Essentials-of-Economics -a-Brief-Survey-of-Principles-and-Policies/Faustino-Ballv/ e/9781153475075/?itm=2&USRI=faustino+ballve+-+ essentials+of+economics =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (4) amazon.com 11/06/2010 title of review: "The originary form of the market and of the division of labor is barter." rating: * * * * review: "Logically and doubtless also historically, the originary form of the market and of the division of labor is barter." (Ch. 5) I picked this sentence at random from Faustino Ballve's ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS. This representative sample gives the American reader a feeling for what he or she has to tackle in this 1963 translation of a small book first published in Spanish in 1956. The book is clear. The book proceeds from the simple to the more complex: defining economics, then the market, next entrepreneurship and all the way to Chapter 10: "What Economics in Not About." The book is also very dense, devoid of case studies and concretized only by the great names historically associated with various economic theories, e.g., -- Jean Bodin (1520 - 1596) for "the
quantity theory of money,"
-- John Locke (1632 - 1704) and "the qualitative theory," and -- David Hume (1711 - 1776) for "the neutrality of money" (Ch. 5). I have wrestled with this rewarding pamphlet in two ways: just reading it straight through from beginning to end, and also once a month, chapter by chapter, in two-hour long face-to-face discussions in a recently established local Ludwig von Mises Club. The book cries out for case studies to flesh out its compressed theorizing about capital and labor, money markets, labor and capital and monetary policy. And our club leader supplies the necessary. FIrst he hands out a one page summary of chapter highlights; then he adds a two or three page illustrative case study of his own choosing which he reads aloud; finally he invites reaction from the floor. This method works very well. Faustino Ballve is no fanatic either for pure theory or for mathematics. The test of theory is reality, he argues. Expect any one theory to have its faults, e.g. about the nature of money. But hold all three (or more) models simultaneously in your imagination, and you approach truth and reality. The author's aim is to give a general reader, not a trained economist, all the basic tools to size up any city or nation's economy and predict where it is likely to go, if it continues to present reality with its current fiscal or monetary policies. A fine book within its self-imposed limits of brevity and high level of abstraction. -OOO- tags: faustino ballvé, barter, banks, labor, capital, fiscal policy, monetary policy, money http://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Economics-Survey -Principles-Policies/dp/1153475073/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s =books&qid=1286891880&sr=1-4 =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= (5) epinions.com 11/06/2010 Title of this review: "Bannocks are better nor nae kind o' bread" Product rating: * * * * aohcapablanca's Full Review: It is not that I am unfamiliar with economic jargon. After all I spent nearly three decades in the Foreign Service of the U. S. Department of State, rising into senior ranks only after a long apprenticeship in its "Economic Career Cone." -- I reported to Washington about
fluctuations in the Kabul money bazaar related to opium exports across
Iran to Europe.
-- I measured the amounts of rice reaching Saigon from the Mekong River Delta. -- I watched international commodity price fluctuations affect the ups and down of a million-dollar Alcoa investment in Surinam and the not unrelated efforts of democratic politicians to turn the former Dutch Guiana away from its almost quixotic rule by a very minor military dictator. So when, after nearly a year of being invited, I finally consented to join a local Ludwig von Mises economic discussion group, I was no stranger to "the dismal science." Our club's text is Faustino Ballve's ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS: A BRIEF SURVEY OF PRINCIPLES AND POLICIES. First published in Spanish in 1956, this 100 page booklet was translated into English in 1963 and is frequently re-issued. Our club's president presents the highly compressed text very well, I think, during our monthly two-hour long meetings in his Asheville, NC living room. -- First, he hands us a one-page overview
of the highlights of one chapter, e. g. Chapter 10: "What Economics is Not About."
-- Then he gives us a two or three-page published article of his own selecting in the nature of a case study illustrating the thrust of the chapter we are to discuss. -- Finally, he opens the floor to us. We discuss the adequacy of definitions and concepts. We debate theses, e. g., "Logically and doubtless also historically, the originary form of the market and of the division of labor is barter" (Ch. 5). We bring up case studies from our own personal experience. If you have already had an undergraduate course in Economics 101, you can, of course, treat THE ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS simply as Cliff's Notes or a refresher. Open the booklet at random or read it straight through. You will not learn anything new. But you cannot miss the author's free-market bias, which is well enough argued. Caution: the English, though perfectly clear, can be a bit pedantic and abstract. Thus, I rejoiced at a rare bit of something approaching humor in Chapter 2: "The Market." Author Ballve is making points about scarcity and the fact that neither supplier nor consumer can dictate the terms of a (free) market. If, for instance, the supplier demands too much money for whatever he is offering, then the buyer is free to look for a substitute. ("Better some of a pudding than none of a pie.") In a footnote, the English translator Arthur Goddard clarifies what he is up to: "[The sense of
the Spanish proverb here cited by the author is rendered with perhaps
greater literalness by its Scottish equivalent:
'Bannocks are better nor nae kind o' bread' - TRANSLATOR."]
Got it? I assume that readers of my many reviews of novels by Sir Walter Scott, some lightly sprinkled with "Broad Lowland Scots" expressions, know what bannocks are. You might, however, have a preferred illustrative economic proverb of your own to substitute for the translator's! Thank you, dear category lead DramaStef, for making Ballve's dry but thorough digest reviewable for epinions.com. -OOO- Pros: ESSENTIALS OF ECONOMICS covers all the basics lucidly and within a free-market Weltanschauung. Cons: Compressed. Abstract. No case studies. The concrete, uniquely, is nothing but names of creators of economic theories. The Bottom Line: This booklet is an excellent refresher years after you took ECON 101. Not a bad textbook either or outline to be discussed in informal groups. Just not for light bedtime reading. Overall Product Rating: * * * * Above Average Recommended: Yes http://www.epinions.com/reviews/ Essentials_of_Economics_epi =-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= http://www.patrickkillough.com/books/ballve_economics.html file: ballve_economics |