10 Economists Everyone Should Know About
Leonard Read (1898-1983)
A former American World War I Army pilot, Leonard Read was a grocery wholesaler from Ann Arbor, Michigan. After the failure of his grocery business, Read moved to California and was able to find work with the Burlingame Chamber of Commerce. After some time moving up into the hierarchy of the American Chamber of Commerce, and eventually becoming the managing director of the Los Angeles Chamber, Read was able to secure funding to begin the Foundation of Economic Education with Henry Hazlitt in 1946. The Foundation still exists, and Read was a prolific economic writer who produced nearly 30 books concerning the economics of libertarian thought. It is the opinion of this writer that Read’s “I,Pencil” should be required reading for every American schoolchild.
