ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

John James Cowperthwaite

John James Cowperthwaite was a very smart man who lived a long time ago in a place called Hong Kong. He was in charge of making sure that the money and economy of Hong Kong did well. Think of Hong Kong like a big piggy bank - it holds a lot of money for many people. Mr. Cowperthwaite wanted to make sure that the piggy bank worked really well, so he made some rules to help it stay strong and healthy.

Mr. Cowperthwaite had a very simple rule: don't mess with the piggy bank too much. He believed that people should be free to use their money as they wanted, without too much government interference. This way, the money would flow freely and everybody could use their own money to make decisions about what they wanted to do. It's like having your own toy box - you get to decide which toys you want to play with and how you want to play with them.

Mr. Cowperthwaite believed that if the government was too involved in the economy, there would be too many rules that would stop people from using their money the way they wanted. This could make the piggy bank sick and weak, and nobody would want to put their money in it anymore. It's like having a toy box that's filled with toys that your parents won't let you play with - you might get bored and not want to play anymore.

So Mr. Cowperthwaite made sure that Hong Kong had very few rules about how people could use their money, which allowed it to grow and become very strong. It's like having a toy box that has all the toys you want to play with and no rules about how you can play with them - you'll have a lot of fun and keep playing for a long time.

Thanks to Mr. Cowperthwaite's rules, Hong Kong became one of the richest and most successful places in the world. So, even though Mr. Cowperthwaite may have had a funny name, he was a very important man who helped make the piggy bank of Hong Kong a great place to keep your money.