Tuesday, May 25, 2010

On the Genesis of the Myth of the Invisible Hand from the 1950s no. 6

William Baumol and A. S. Binder, 1979. Economics: principles and policy, pp 593, 599, 806-7, Harcourt Bruce Jovanovich, New York.

Among the main points made in [Wealth Of Nations] are the importance for a nation’s prosperity, of freedom of trade and the division of labor, the dangers of governmental politics of monopolies and the imposition of tariffs, and the superiority of self-interest - the instrument of the “invisible hand” – over altruism as a means of improving the economy’s service to the general public’ (593)

[Appendix] ‘The Invisible Hand in the Distribution of Goods and in Production Planning’ (599)
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Comment
Passing remarks of no great importance, except they remind readers of their first year tutors’ assurances of the existence of an invisible hand as a noun not a metaphor.

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