ECONOMICS
IN ONE LESSON
Fiftieth Anniversary Edition
HENRY HAZLITT
Foreword by
STEVE FORBES
Laissez Faire Books
San Francisco
Foreword copyright ©1996 by Laissez Faire Books
Copyright ©1962 and 1979 by Henry Hazlitt
First published in 1946 by Harper & Brothers
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Fiftieth Anniversary Edition published by Laissez Faire Books an imprint of Fox & Wilkes 938 Howard Street, Suite 202 San Francisco, CA 94103
Published by arrangement with Crown Publishers, Inc.
ISBN o-930073-19-3 (Pb)
ISBN o-930073-20-7 (he)
Manufactured in the United States of America
FOREWORD
WE HAVE BEEN INUNDATED LATELY with a barrage of 5oth anniversaries of important events-the dropping of the atomic bombs, Iwo Jima, VE
and VJ days, Bretton Woods. And with this edition of Henry Hazlitt's best-known work we commemorate another. Five decades have passed since
the publication of a book on economics so powerful in its clarity and simplicity that we can declare, without question, it has shaped our
world.
With Economics in One Lesson, Henry Hazlitt provided a loaded arsenal for those who would do combat with the cloudy and mistaken
economic wisdom of the day. In that respect, he is something of a refuter. He addressed every major economic fallacy, all prominently and
widely held, and refuted them. He showed why protective tariffs are not protective, why minimum wage laws hurt those they are intended to
benefit, and why government attempts to stabilize and fix prices throw them out of whack. And in doing this he advanced the notion that
markets freed from government intervention can best serve and improve society.
In a period when the economics undergirding the New Deal were ascendant, Hazlitt emerged as one of the most successful proponents of
free markets and one of the most forceful opponents of the Keynesian nostrums dictating U.S. economic policy. From his perch as an editorial
