My Family Tree
as told to Leonard E. Read (1958)
Summary: You can learn more about how a market economy works from this simple piece than from any other article in economics. It explains the importance of the information network in the decisions we make every day. You can download a PDF file of the article by clicking on the image below or by clicking the following link. Download.
I first read this piece in 1972. I had won a Fellowship that allowed me to spend the third year of my graduate studies anywhere I wanted. I used the $5000 princely sum to spend the year at the University of Chicago. While there I took every course I could and audited others to learn as much as I could. One of those audited courses was Milton Friedman’s undergraduate microeconomics course. He devoted his first lecture to this paper.
I hope that you enjoy the article and welcome your comments.