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What You Should Know About Inflation
What You Should Know About Inflation by Henry Hazlitt (Paperback - 1968) Rare and out of print collector's item. First paperbound edition published in 1968. Limited availability. Never sold or read, but with very light shelf wear. Almost no tanning of pages. Bookstore address is stamped inside. The image, that is shown, is this actual copy.
152 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1960
About the author
Henry Hazlitt
75 books439 followersHenry Stuart Hazlitt was an American journalist who wrote about business and economics for such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, The American Mercury, Newsweek, and The New York Times.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 20, 2022
Very informative book
This book provides a simple explanation as to the causes of inflation. Understanding inflation is the first step in combating it at the individual or national level.
This book provides a simple explanation as to the causes of inflation. Understanding inflation is the first step in combating it at the individual or national level.
March 28, 2021
What was interesting for me, a economy newbie:
- Inflation (an increase in prices) is not caused by an increase in wages. Both increases in wages and increases in prices are caused by an increase in the amount of money and credit in the economy. If the wages were to rise, without an increase of money in the economy, the prices would not rise, apparently.
- The best cure for inflation, is to stop adding money and credit to the economy. That's why the change of interest rates is influencing inflation because it increases or decreases the amount of credit and money in the system.
- It is impossible to have rising wages, stable prices, and full employment. If wages would be rising, without prices rising then it would be at the cost of the rising unemployment.
- If the government increases inflation, by giving money to a certain group, this group is better off, compared to the rest of society. Because their income is raised first, and so they buy things when prices are still at the "old" level, and still not inflated. People whose wages were not raised will have to pay new high prices soon, so they will be worse off. Inflation is unfair.
But it seems to me, that this book might be a little biased. Against big government, against economic interventionism, against Keynesianism, biased for the gold standard. I would not be surprised if someone with more economics knowledge than me, would write some critique of this book. At least I know, that the gold standard has its cons, and inflation has its pros.
Besides, this is a really old book.
- Inflation (an increase in prices) is not caused by an increase in wages. Both increases in wages and increases in prices are caused by an increase in the amount of money and credit in the economy. If the wages were to rise, without an increase of money in the economy, the prices would not rise, apparently.
- The best cure for inflation, is to stop adding money and credit to the economy. That's why the change of interest rates is influencing inflation because it increases or decreases the amount of credit and money in the system.
- It is impossible to have rising wages, stable prices, and full employment. If wages would be rising, without prices rising then it would be at the cost of the rising unemployment.
- If the government increases inflation, by giving money to a certain group, this group is better off, compared to the rest of society. Because their income is raised first, and so they buy things when prices are still at the "old" level, and still not inflated. People whose wages were not raised will have to pay new high prices soon, so they will be worse off. Inflation is unfair.
But it seems to me, that this book might be a little biased. Against big government, against economic interventionism, against Keynesianism, biased for the gold standard. I would not be surprised if someone with more economics knowledge than me, would write some critique of this book. At least I know, that the gold standard has its cons, and inflation has its pros.
Besides, this is a really old book.
July 13, 2021
Short book with great explanation of inflation that remains relevant.
June 8, 2026
讀不太進去這本書，最後從這本書獲得的收穫不出中學範圍已知。雖然臺灣出版社將這本書包裝成經濟學普及讀物，但本質上還是一個論戰、專欄式的文章。作者主張不能有通貨膨脹，以及希望回到金本位制。不過為何不能有通膨卻往往是用對道德有負面影響來證成。如果要回到金本位制，黃金跟會法定貨幣的兌換比率也說不清楚。讀這本書還不如直接讀總體經濟學的教科書。
October 21, 2012
This short, lucid primer explains everything you need to know about the current economy.
Yes, that's right: the current economy. For although this book was published in 1960, when the author was 65, the process of monetary inflation, which Henry Hazlitt felt was already doing so much harm to the U.S. economy and society in the 1950s, has proceeded since then almost unabated. Hazlitt died in 1993, but had he somehow survived until today, he would no doubt be depressed at our collective failure to put a stop to this entirely preventable man-made evil.
I learned about this book while reading The Golden Revolution: How to Prepare for the Coming Global Gold Standard by John Butler, in which Butler refers favorably to a simple plan proposed by Hazlitt to restore a gold backing to the U.S. dollar. Having read and enjoyed Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson, and being myself concerned about the runaway train of inflation, I immediately got myself a copy of this work.
While this book is not as good as Economics in One Lesson, being mainly an edited compilation of pieces from Hazlitt's "Business Tides" column for Newsweek, it does treat the topic of inflation simply, thoroughly, and authoritatively. From the layman's perspective, one of the many problems with inflation is that even the so-called experts--economists, businessmen, financial bureaucrats--don't agree on the causes of inflation and indeed do not even use the word to denote the same thing. With things in such confusion, there's no hope of coming to grips with the problem.
Milton Friedman is famous for saying "Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon." This appears in his 1963 book Inflation: Causes And Consequences. But I note that Hazlitt's book, published three years earlier, has this sentence on page 1:
In 44 short chapters Hazlitt deals with many aspects of inflation: what it is, what its effects are, the ambivalence of governments toward it, the difficulty of seeing it for what it is. He shows how inflation is destructive of wealth and of society, but that nonetheless it is promoted by governments and by most economists as necessary to realize "full employment" and to prevent or mitigate downturns in the economy. Hazlitt easily demonstrates the falsity of these notions.
Inflation is deliberately produced by central governments, who create money from nothing in order to fund operations which they know they could never fund through taxation. No new wealth is created by inflation. It is a zero-sum game in which some people benefit and others lose. Those who benefit are the ones closest to the sources of the newly created money and credit--the government, the banks, and their contractors and main clients. Those who lose are pretty much everyone else. The way we lose is by finding that prices keep going up faster than our income. The wealth that we've lost has been magically and involuntarily transferred to those who are printing the money.
This problem is not new. Even in the ancient world, when money consisted of precious metals, rulers would clip and adulterate the coins in order to spend beyond their means. And the boost of wealth they enjoyed was always exactly balanced by a loss of wealth by their subjects.
Because the only people who can stop inflation are exactly the ones who benefit most from it, inflation will remain a stubborn problem, and one that our rulers will never be candid about. If we wish to save our earnings and our savings, it is up to us in the grass roots to educate ourselves about this insidious evil. Hazlitt's book, clear, short, and nontechnical, performs this task admirably.
The Occupy movement may never realize it, but this book should be their Bible.
Yes, that's right: the current economy. For although this book was published in 1960, when the author was 65, the process of monetary inflation, which Henry Hazlitt felt was already doing so much harm to the U.S. economy and society in the 1950s, has proceeded since then almost unabated. Hazlitt died in 1993, but had he somehow survived until today, he would no doubt be depressed at our collective failure to put a stop to this entirely preventable man-made evil.
I learned about this book while reading The Golden Revolution: How to Prepare for the Coming Global Gold Standard by John Butler, in which Butler refers favorably to a simple plan proposed by Hazlitt to restore a gold backing to the U.S. dollar. Having read and enjoyed Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson, and being myself concerned about the runaway train of inflation, I immediately got myself a copy of this work.
While this book is not as good as Economics in One Lesson, being mainly an edited compilation of pieces from Hazlitt's "Business Tides" column for Newsweek, it does treat the topic of inflation simply, thoroughly, and authoritatively. From the layman's perspective, one of the many problems with inflation is that even the so-called experts--economists, businessmen, financial bureaucrats--don't agree on the causes of inflation and indeed do not even use the word to denote the same thing. With things in such confusion, there's no hope of coming to grips with the problem.
Milton Friedman is famous for saying "Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon." This appears in his 1963 book Inflation: Causes And Consequences. But I note that Hazlitt's book, published three years earlier, has this sentence on page 1:
Inflation, always and everywhere, is primarily caused by an increase in the supply of money and credit.The next sentence is, "In fact, inflation is the increase in the supply of money and credit." This shift is important, for the first sentence takes inflation in the commonly understood sense of "generally rising prices", but the second sentence identifies inflation as the cause of rising prices. Only by understanding the cause can we effect a cure.
In 44 short chapters Hazlitt deals with many aspects of inflation: what it is, what its effects are, the ambivalence of governments toward it, the difficulty of seeing it for what it is. He shows how inflation is destructive of wealth and of society, but that nonetheless it is promoted by governments and by most economists as necessary to realize "full employment" and to prevent or mitigate downturns in the economy. Hazlitt easily demonstrates the falsity of these notions.
Inflation is deliberately produced by central governments, who create money from nothing in order to fund operations which they know they could never fund through taxation. No new wealth is created by inflation. It is a zero-sum game in which some people benefit and others lose. Those who benefit are the ones closest to the sources of the newly created money and credit--the government, the banks, and their contractors and main clients. Those who lose are pretty much everyone else. The way we lose is by finding that prices keep going up faster than our income. The wealth that we've lost has been magically and involuntarily transferred to those who are printing the money.
This problem is not new. Even in the ancient world, when money consisted of precious metals, rulers would clip and adulterate the coins in order to spend beyond their means. And the boost of wealth they enjoyed was always exactly balanced by a loss of wealth by their subjects.
Because the only people who can stop inflation are exactly the ones who benefit most from it, inflation will remain a stubborn problem, and one that our rulers will never be candid about. If we wish to save our earnings and our savings, it is up to us in the grass roots to educate ourselves about this insidious evil. Hazlitt's book, clear, short, and nontechnical, performs this task admirably.
The Occupy movement may never realize it, but this book should be their Bible.
April 9, 2009
Although the book was written in 1964, the principles hold true today. Very insightful read.
Read
January 26, 2016fascinating and amazingly relevant to today
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews