The Beginning of a Blog about Adam Smith -- in his own words

    In 2008 with the financial melt-down, Alan Greenspan seemed to be dumbfounded that the ideas he propounded from Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations had let him down in his analysis of the financial situation that led to the breakdown of the American economy through the banking sector which thought it was being so clever to offer large unsecured mortgages to people unable to pay for them.  What Greenspan seemed to have forgotten was Smith's admonitions that small enterprises would lead to an "invisible hand" which would regulate the economy.  Now, I have not read a lot of Adam Smith, but I do recall in one place (I don't know where it is) Smith put in a caveat about large, monopolistic organizations which would throw off the balance of the invisible hand.
     This morning, I decided I would look for The Wealth of Nations online, and sure enough, it is there at the Library of Economics and Liberty (http://www.econlib.org/library/Smith/smWN1.html#nn34).  I began to read the work, and the first thing that struck me was in his 4th paragraph -- to wit (and I quote from the above website:
      Such nations, however, are so miserably poor, that from mere want, they are frequently reduced, or, at least, think themselves reduced, to the necessity sometimes of directly destroying, and sometimes of abandoning their infants, their old people, and those afflicted with lingering diseases, to perish with hunger, or to be devoured by wild beasts.

    Now he is talking here about hunter-gatherer nations, but it struck me that this word eerily echoes some of the political rhetoric we are hearing these days -- and I don't think Adam Smith is expressing his approval of this thought; he characterizes it as behavior in a nation which is not "well governed" -- and the political rhetoric today seems to think this is appropriate.

    With that in mind, I have resolved to continue reading through The Wealth of Nations bit by bit in order to post and comment on Adam Smith -- in his own words.  So -- wish me luck and read along.

PS -- I would also point you to the following website, which also cites Adam Smith on any number of topics that the Supply Siders don't necessarily take into account.

http://www.noplaceforrumors.com/Words_of_Adam_Smith.html