QUICK BITS no. 6

Imtiaz A. Hussain, posts on Financial Express (23 May) HERE

       “Just as Adam Smith's "invisible hand" means an automatic equilibrium-inducing market clearance for producers, for investors the equivalent involves psychological forces bred by the likes of attraction-inducements as well: whatever they are that make one playground (country) tip the others to reel any deal. Intangible forces (such as security, strikes, or many kinds of market failures) must be as controllable and predictable as tangible counterparts (specific demand, supply, government policy, or borrowing rate), making investment more uncertain than production, a reality Bangladesh must pragmatically tackle.”

         …Critical to the success of all of them, though, remains the "net," rather than project-specific effect of investment's "invisible" hand: infrastructure-building and energy uplift occupy the fast-lane, bank borrowings and FDI flows hold the middle-lane, and both government-related policy reforms and a security-umbrella remain on the slow-lane.

Comment
Typical advice from people in a business selling expensive advice to overcome actvity in markets, despite the obligatory belief in a so-called ‘invisible hand’ that automatically adjusts everything to an equilibrium and a nod to Adam Smith, who never claimed anything about invisible hands falsely credited to him.