LOONY TUNES NO 141
1
DL News Staff post (10 June) on DL-Online HERE
“Giving readers ideas is what we do”
“We don’t advocate the policy 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.
“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.”
Comment
Yesterday it was the “invisible hand of post-human cognition”, today it is the “the invisible hand of economics”.
Tomorrow it might be “the invisible hand” of who knows? This piece ends with: “it’s all part of the free flow of information that everybody should get to enjoy.”
2
“Capitalism: Lifeblood of our system?”
“For many years I taught seniors the economic concepts of capitalism. My presentation always centered around four basic principles.
Our system of capitalism was based on less government, private property, the law of supply and demand, and rugged competition. This model was first advanced by Adam Smith in his famous book called “The Wealth of Nations.”
Furthermore, his ideas were promoted by an invisible hand which was not interfered with by government regulations.
Our system of capitalism was based on less government, private property, the law of supply and demand, and rugged competition. This model was first advanced by Adam Smith in his famous book called “The Wealth of Nations.”
Furthermore, his ideas were promoted by an invisible hand which was not interfered with by government regulations.
Comment
Adam Smith was a formidable contributor to our understading of political economy, but he was not alone, nor was he the first to do so, and neither was he immune from making mistakes in his Wealth of Nations - the so-called ‘labour theory of value’ for example.
Adam Smith was a formidable contributor to our understading of political economy, but he was not alone, nor was he the first to do so, and neither was he immune from making mistakes in his Wealth of Nations - the so-called ‘labour theory of value’ for example.
He did not predict the future - his approach was historical rather than predictive and he did not invent capitalism - a word he never used nor knew as it was first used in English in 1854 by Thackery in ‘The Newcomes’, referring to finance.
Smith’s ideas were not promoted by ‘an invisible hand’ - perish the thought, given all the other versions of ‘invisible hands’ in circulation, some of which I mock on Loony Tunes (not to be confused with Hollywood’s ‘Lonney Tunes’).
Markets work by VISIBLE prics and cannnot work without them. There is no need for anything invisible
3
A Post (13 June) on “Project Halpin – The Other Invisible Hand by Julian Le Grand: Choice” in Echo Chamber Uncut HERE and HERE
“So, choice and competition [GK = the other invisible hand] is a fine policy on paper, but it crunches up into a ball at first contact with reality. Interestingly the coalition government and, to an even great extent, the current Conservative government talk much less about competition and choice and much more about ‘autonomy’. Perhaps this change has been driven primarily by the lack of resources available to government to provide for the level of choice required by Le Grand’s invisible hand.”
4
“THE IRON FIST BEHIND THE INVISIBLE HAND”
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