I'm muddling my way thru this famous book. It is very difficult for me as an engineer to understand this theoretical economist.

A summation of the book is that the larger government gets the smaller individual freedom becomes. Seems obvious after reading it but is not believed by all.

The example given is for Great Britain circa 1944.

One contention is that Hitler fascism and Stalinist communism are more similar than different in that the state took over control of the economy. Makes a lot of sense to me but I hadn't thought of it in that way as Hitlerism is thought to be right wing and Stalinism left wing. They really are the same wing. Similar treatment of citizens who didn't tow the line as well.

This book was widely panned by the leftists in the US after world war 2.

Another interesting book I received this week is "Basic Economics" by the noted conservative black author Thomas Stowell.

I'm finding references to these books and others in my reading of the Wall Street Journal and National Review Online. I devour the WSJ every day as it is one of last true newspapers with real original news writing.

I haven't read the book, but Austrian economics make much more sense then interventionist Keynesian economics. That said, even Keynes has been distorted because I don't believe Keynes ever advocated deficit spending, surpluses were to be built up in good times and spent during down times, which at least isn't completely irresponsible like the spending we see today.

I really like Thomas Stowell.