In a Winston-Salem Journal letter to the editor, Wake Forest University economics professor Donald Frey disses Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’:
Unfortunately for Smith’s modern disciples, motives do matter. Smith never revealed how real, fallible humans would keep too much of the “self” out of self-interest. And when the excess of self appears, Smith’s magical “invisible hand” usually goes missing. Fraud, now making headlines, is only one of the results.
…..If Greenspan had regulated more, we might have avoided the disaster that is upon us. The public good is too important to leave to “invisible hands” that are invisible because they aren’t there when it matters.
In response, commenter ‘Brother Moose’ said ‘Wow … someone with a PhD in economics calling the conservative approach to free-market capitalism misplaced. Makes you wonder…’
Don’t place too much faith in a PhD., Brother Moose, especially since a majority of economists supported Obama despite the fact —- pointed out repeatedly during the election — that Obama don’t know much about economics.
Makes you wonder, indeed.
