LOONY TUNES no. 140

1 Steve Cohen posts (6 June) on The Cultural Critic HERE

“The Invisible Hand of greed in the Middle East”

“The title, by the way, comes from Adam Smith’s treatise on capitalism, The Wealth of Nations. The phrase refers to an unseen mechanism that maintains equal equilibrium between supply and demand in the market.”

Comment

In markets visible prices determine outcomes. They cannot work without visible prices.  There is no role for invisible hands;  this was a metaphor used by Smith. He knew nothing of ‘capitalism’ - word first used in English in 1854 - Smith died in 1790. There is no reason for markets, or supply and demand to be in ‘equilibrium’ - a notion also first applied in the late 19th century. There is also no single market - the economy at any one time consists of numerous - even innumerous - markets.

2

DI CO DESIGN

HERE 

“Ultimately such manifestations will be totally absorbed by the invisible hand of post-human cognition and emerge as new forms of social and self-engineering.”

3

Kriston Capps post (9 June) on Washington City Paper HERE

“The show confronts the idea of the museum gift shop, a locus for the invisible hand that guides the art world”

4

Newsstaff of Detroit Lakes Newpapers post (9 June) HERE 

“We don’t advocate the policy [no tipping] one way or the other — the invisible hand of economics will determine things based on whether or not customers support these restaurants and if they are still able to get good, happy servers.”