This is my re-working of Henry Hazlitt's book, Economics
in One Lesson (1946).
He was a friend of mine. It was late in his career, and it was
early in mine. He was always upbeat. He was always learning.
I like to think that he
would have approved of my book. It targets an audience very different from his:
Christians who are interested in both economics and ethics. His audience
initially was initially readers of hisNew York Times column. But
that did not work out. Before the year ended, Hazlitt left the New York
Timesbecause of his opposition to the 1944 Bretton Woods agreement, which
created the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The IMF went into operation in 1946.
We now know that the chief
American negotiator at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, Treasury economist Harry
Dexter White, was a spy for the Soviet Union. Ex-Communists under oath testified to this effect in 1948, but they were
ridiculed. In 2013, the Council on Foreign Relations published an article on
White's subversion. It was accurately titled "Red White." White's alter ego for Great
Britain was John Maynard Keynes.
Hazlitt knew the entire
operation was against liberty, and he said so. This cost him his job. But he
immediately got another as Newsweek. He kept it for 20 years.
My book is different from Hazlitt's. Our economic analysis is the
same, but I openly label as theft the two dozen government intrusions into the
free market that Hazlitt identified. He did not deal with the ethics of these
intrusions. This weakened the case against them.
I begin with this principle: "Thou shalt not steal." I
supplement this with Jesus' response to Satan, when Satan tempted Him to turn
stones into bread to feed Himself. Jesus cited Deuteronomy………….
There are no free lunches.
