Periodically, I’ll try to provide insight into some of the books I’ve gone through. Unfortunately, I’ve been slacking on my reading as of late but I did just finish Henry Hazlett’s Economics in One Lesson: Henry Hazlitt was a self-educated political and economic columnist who developed a strong liking for Austrian economics. A friend of Friedrich Hayek and Ayn Rand, Hazlett is actually credited with providing Ludwig von Mises with his first position at NYU.
As a writer for the Wall Street Journal in the 1940’s, Hazlitt was known for his ability to clearly communicate current events and economic theory, his best-selling book Economics in One Lesson, is strong starting point for those unfamiliar with the economic beliefs of Milton Friedman, von Mises and many other free market economists. Hazlitt does a great job of effectively using real-life examples to clearly articulate the basic principles and benefits of free markets and the effects that government controls have on the flow of money and production. The central theme of Economics is to teach the reader to focus on the overall effects that many economic barriers provide rather than zero in on specific market alterations.
Throughout the book, Hazlitt cites minimum wage laws, tariffs, price fixing, rent control, overly aggressive union measures, and many other issues as policies that, in the long run, do more harm than good to the economy.Like any science, the economic devil is in the details; however, Hazlitt articulately lays out the classic, free market outlook on economic growth (tariffs are bad, free trade is good, competition drives innovation, government intervention harms private enterprise etc.) that every American should be familiar with. In a time when most Presidential candidates from BOTH parties are advocating THE SAME backwards economic policies that accompanied the stagflation, gas lines, and high unemployment rates of the 1970’s; Economics in One Lesson is worth picking up. You can get a copy of Economics in One Lesson used for under six bucks at Amazon.com or you can read it for free at this website
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