The master economics teacher, the author of Economics in One Lesson, moves his readers to a deeper knowledge of a range of topics in this outstanding collection of essays.
In the late 1990s, Hans Sennholz carefully selected 30 of Hazlitt’s articles that appeared mostly in The Freeman but also other places, and compiled them into a single book under the title The Wisdom of Henry Hazlitt. Most of these articles have appeared in no other collection.
The book begins with a piece written at the end of his life: “Reflections at 70.” The next piece is a reflection on a book Hazlitt wrote when he was a very young man, a piece on the art of thinking. So here we have the “bookends” to an extraordinary life of thinking and writing.
The next section deals with the market economy, and here the editor has selected Hazlitt’s shortest pieces on a variety of topics, from private ownership to prices to income distribution. Next, he deals with the enemies of the market economy. A large section follows that covers the welfare state, foreign aid and other issues of development economics. The book ends with an inspiring selection about the future of the battle between capitalism and planning.
While this is not a systematic treatise, it provides an outstanding overview of all of Hazlitt’s writings in this area. The choices reflect Sennholz’s own interests but those are also the interests of anyone who appreciates Hazlitt’s contribution to communicating economic truth to all people. The collection is indeed well named!
Henry Hazlitt (1894–1993) was a well-known journalist who wrote on economic affairs for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek, among many other publications. He is perhaps best known as the author of the classic, Economics in One Lesson (1946).
Contrary to age-old prejudices, the wealth of the rich is not the cause of the poverty of the poor, but helps to alleviate that poverty. No matter whether it is their intention or not, almost anything that the rich can legally do tends to help the poor.
The whole system of priorities, allocations, quotas, and licenses causes endless delays, keeps efficient concerns from expanding, and keeps inefficient concerns in business.
Antipoverty "strategies" like mandatory overtime pay, state-protected unionization, and opposition to labor-saving devices only serve to increase the cost of living for poor and rich alike.
Hans F. Sennholz (1922-2007) was Ludwig von Mises’s first PhD student in the United States. He taught economics at Grove City College, 1956–1992, having been hired as department chair upon arrival. After he retired, he became president of the Foundation for Economic Education, where he served from 1992-1997. He was an adjunct scholar of the Mises Institute, and in October 2004 was awarded the Gary G. Schlarbaum Prize for lifetime defense of liberty.
Hans F. Sennholz, the translator, lays out Mises’s target—the belief in a “third system” of a hampered market economy standing between capitalism and socialism—and why that middle way cannot hold.
Few people are aware of what the Federal Reserve System, acting on behalf of the U.S. Government, is doing to their money, writes Hans Sennholz.
What the witch was to medieval man, what the capitalist is to socialists and communists, the speculator is to most politicians and statesmen: the embodiment of evil.
Foundation for Economic Freedom, 1993
