Matthew Hennessey - Visible Hand: A Wealth of Notions on the Miracle of the Market

What we badly need right now is someone to remind us of what economic freedom is and does. Matthew Hennesseys Visible Hand is a wise reminder that free markets are essential to human flourishing. In an engaging and highly amusing style he boils economic concepts down to their essence. Buy this for any son or daughter who needs to know what American capitalism is, what it isnt, and why its departure would bring great ill.

Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal columnist

Matthew Hennessey makes the case for liberal democracy and American capitalism in plain Englishand he does it with a sense of humor, too. Nothing dismal here. Econ 101 should always be this much fun.

Larry Kudlow,former director of the National Economic Council

Matthew Hennessey brings to economics the sensibility of a man who grew up helping to tend bar at his fathers saloon in New Jersey: He has no interest in putting on airs, only in telling you the story. In Visible Hand he has produced the most completely enjoyable book on economics Ive ever encountered. Economics? Enjoyable? Did I just write that? Because of Matt, I did.

Peter Robinson,Murdoch Distinguished Policy Fellow at the Hoover Institution

As a libertarian, I dont like mandates, but Visible Hand should be required reading for every American. It will restore faith in the power of capitalism to increase opportunity for all of us, especially those born without wealth and privilege. For too long, economics has been the province of writers of gray prose and makers of two-dimensional supply-and-demand charts. Hennessey uses personal experience, history, and popular culture to create a thrilling story about how the world actually works. Im going to make my sonsa Millennial and a Zoomerread Visible Hand, which explains how individualism, free markets, choice, and entrepreneurial risk make us richer, happier, and more fulfilled.

Nick Gillespie,Editor at Large, Reason

This delightful and entertaining book makes the ideas behind economics accessible to all. It also reminds both novices and econ wonks why economic reasoning is so important and critical to understanding the world today.

Allison Schrager,Manhattan Institute Senior Fellow

A WEALTH OF NOTIONS on the MIRACLE OF THE MARKET

MATTHEW HENNESSEY

New York London

2022 by Matthew Hennessey

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Encounter Books, 900 Broadway, Suite 601, New York, New York, 10003.

First American edition published in 2022 by Encounter Books, an activity of Encounter for Culture and Education, Inc., a nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation.

Encounter Books website address: www.encounterbooks.com

Manufactured in the United States and printed on acid-free paper. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.481992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).

FIRST AMERICAN EDITION

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Names: Hennessey, Matthew, 1973- author.

Title: Visible Hand: A Wealth of Notions on the Miracle of the Market / by Matthew Hennessey.

Description: First American edition. | New York, NY: Encounter Books, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references and index. |

Identifiers: LCCN 2021034947 (print) | LCCN 2021034948 (ebook) | ISBN 9781641772372 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781641772389 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Economics--Popular works.

Classification: LCC HB171 .H54 2022 (print) | LCC HB171 (ebook) | DDC 330--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021034947

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021034948

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For my father, who gave me everything

I am not an economist. Im telling you that now, here at the beginning, because you have a right to know what kind of person youre dealing with.

This is a book about economics, broadly speaking, and some would say Im out of my depth. Fair enough. Im not licensed. I dont have a PhD in economics. I dont have a PhD in anything. The gatekeepers of the vast edifice of economic knowledge tend not to look kindly on the opinions of the uncredentialed. They like to keep it complicated. They prefer to dress economic things up in opaque terminology and technical jargon, stashing it all on a high college shelf, well out of the reach of the average person. This book is not for them.

I dont pretend to be making a contribution to the academic literature. This isnt a dissertation or a textbook. Its just one guys view of the world through market-colored glasses. Dont say I didnt warn you.

Theres more you should know: Ive never worked in business, banking, finance, oruntil relatively recentlya large private company. I couldnt tell you a single useful thing about accounting other than that assets equal liabilities plus equity on the balance sheet and that people who study accounting in college tend to nab high-paying jobs right out of the gate. I dont know how to read an earnings report and Im useless with a spreadsheet. Stocks dont interest me much, apart from the possibility that they will pay for my retirement. Cryptocurrency might as well be professional lacrosse for all I care about it, which is not very much. I dont think the world revolves around career, money, bond prices, or the oil market.

After reading a list of all my non-qualifications, you may be wondering why I have written a book on economics at all. I did it because I suspect many people are afraid of economics, or confused and intimidated by it, just like I once was. For most of my life I avoided the topic entirely. Then I woke up one day and realized that all Id been doing my whole life was acting like an economist: responding to incentives, weighing trade-offs, making decisions at the margin, and calculating the utility of everything from investing in my education to helping myself to a second scoop of strawberry ice cream. So this is a book about economics for people who, broadly speaking, dont like economics. Or think they dont.