AN END TO 'GREED IS GOOD' ECONOMICS?

Donald R Davis Jr posts (23 July)  The Dharma of Business talks about the history of commerce in India. HERE

“This latest book throws light on the roots of business in India”

“Morality has been another constant phenomenon. Here, Davis reminds that Adam Smith, whose 'hidden hand' theory is often put forward to justify the greed-is good argument, believed in moral economy and his initial juxtaposition on economy and morality has been distorted. "There emerged a series of economists in the US in the 20th century who mystified the economy and believed that it was an autonomous entity. They said there was no need to worry about morality because the market magically converted greed into good," he says. "I think Smith would have been shocked to see his idea being distorted so much.”

COMMENT

At least David R Davis Jr exposes the modern distortion of Adam Smith’s use of the metaphor of the ‘hidden hand’/ invisible hand in modern economics. For that alone congratulations!

I think (hope?) there is a slowy emerging trend to abandon Paul Samuelson’s/Friedman’s 1948/1950s distortion of the post-war that ‘Greed is good’ economics.

From such signs, I am increasingly optimistic that the modern distortion of Adam Smith’s ideas will largely be universally discredited before too long. (I am 77 …).