Sir John Cowperthwaite was a supremely successful Financial Secretary of Hong Kong. Cowperthwaite had the challenge of advising on how the government could boost post-war economic outlook. When he found the economy was recovering without government intervention, his approach was not to stand back and do nothing but instead spent his time preventing politics from interfering in Hong Kong’s economic markets. Hong Kong once one of the poorest countries, Cowperthwaite made it one of the wealthiest, all without the use of statistics. As he believed statistics, such as GDP were subject to special interests and interventionism. Now though unfortunately the new finical secretaries declare “positive non-intervention” policy is outdated. Additionally, people may not be richer than before but just more advanced. Watch this video on him The Manager Who Does Much By Doing Little by Tony Allwright, Tallrite Inc., Source: (Allwright, 2014).
Resources
Nation Multimedia. Andrew Sheng. (2015). The end of laissez-faire in Hong Kong? <http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/The-end-of-laissez-faire-in-Hong-Kong-30268064.html>.
FEE article on Sir John Cowperthwaite <http://fee.org/articles/the-man-behind-the-hong-kong-miracle/>.
Mises Institute. Frank Shostak. (2001). What is up with the GDP? <https://mises.org/library/what-gdp>.
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