If you really want to know about the nuts and bolts of a free market, go here: www.mises.org
As a good libertarian, I have to warn you about these guys at the Mises Institute.
Ludwig Von Mises was the founder of the Austrian School of economics. His two most famous proteges were Fredreich Hayek and Milton Friedman who founded the The Chicago School (not the institution the philosophy). Its best known adherents, like Thomas Sowell can be found at George Mason today. Essentially they argued that state run socialism, whether marxist or not, (they didn't care as much about the politics as much as the economics), would fail because of the scarcity of knowledge available to state planners. In a nut shel,l do you make more tractors or typewriters? The planners would screw it up, the free market price system driven by supply and demand, while not perfect, would give you a more accurate and effecient allocation of resources.
So far so good. The problem with the Mises Institute (which has no affiliation with Von Mises other than the name) is that it got infiltrated by a bunch of neo-confederates who slipped a states rights, racist and eugenisicist, and Christian dominion theology spin into this,that in some writings amounts to a very ugly social darwinism. This is sad, as all of the above men loathed bigotry in all its forms as well as relious fanaticism as being inherently anti-human and economically stupid; as it wastes talent and therefore makes us less prosperous as a society. I would reccomend instead the Reason Foundation, the CATO Institute, Institute for Humane Studies and Liberty Magazine.They are a much more savory bunch and will give you a good "free minds and free markets" viewpoint without the ante-bellum and eugenics baggage of folks like Charles Murray. Understand that this is not a whole cloth condemnation, but rather a VERY strong note ofcaution. I would say this was why I got turned off from these guys a while back because there were other agendas at play that you won't find elsewhere (cf footnote1). Caveat emptor. Just my .02.
Fightingquaker13
PS For a reading list I would strongly reccomend Hayek's "Road to Serfdom"which describes how socialism will become more authoritarian in order to solve the "knowledge problem" central planning can't overcome. (note Sweden stands as a good though imperfect counter example).
Friedman's "Free To Choose" is a good and accesible intro to how free market/libertarian markets work. It was based on a PBS series Friedman did and was a best seller in 1980. Both are brief and fairley quick reads. I would start with Friedman.
Footnote1:
"In every society, a few individuals acquire the status of an elite through talent. Due to superior achievements of wealth, wisdom, and bravery, these individuals come to possess natural authority, and their opinions and judgments enjoy wide-spread respect. Moreover, because of selective mating, marriage, and the laws of civil and genetic inheritance, positions of natural authority are likely to be passed on within a few noble families. It is to the heads of these families with long-established records of superior achievement, farsightedness, and exemplary personal conduct that men turn to with their conflicts and complaints against each other. These leaders of the natural elite act as judges and peacemakers, often free of charge out of a sense of duty expected of a person of authority or out of concern for civil justice as a privately produced "public good."
From an article entitled "Natural Elites, Intellectualls and the State" By Hans-Hermann Hoppe (and no I'm not making that up) in which our author goes on to argue for a natural aristocracy, castigates democracy and implies our problems lie in our inability to recognize our betters. It is what it is, but it ain't classical liberalism (liberarianism) and it sure ain't American. There is a lot of this stuff in the Mises Institute.