Economic Sophisms and “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen” (The Collected Works of Frédéric Bastiat, 3)

On the recommendation in Jim Grant's "Interest Rate Observer", I had read Henry Hazlitt's "Economics in One Lesson", which itself was quite good. In it, Hazlitt referred often to the 19th century writings of Frederic Bastiat. So I bought Bastiat's Collected Works. What riveting stuff! The lessons are timeless, and alas, by and large, we've learned very little in 170 years. When Bastiat writes he does so in order to teach and manages to pull off being very direct with the politicians of his day, whose protectionist policies he describes as plundering, while at the same time reaching out -- earnestly -- to those same folks with the hope of converting them to free trade for the benefit of all. Much of Bastiat's work is written in the aftermath of the 1848 French Revolution (he himself was an elected official at that time) so the feeling in the work is strong and urgent. I could not say enough about the Bastiat's genius and would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the proper role of government.

Legible book of reasonbable quality. I have no complaints.