“the invisible hand,” not so much

Book review:

The Classical School:

The Birth of Economics in 20 Enlightened Lives

by Callum Williams

New York: PublicAffairs/Hachette Book Group, 2020

277 pages

The Classical School is a readable, suitably deep dive into the lives, the thinking, and the impacts of famous economists and non-economists in history, and you’ve heard of many of them (I recognized 14 of the 20 subjects).

“Economics” wasn’t always “the dismal science.” There was plenty of ruminative exploration of commercial and political issues that are the historic and current foundation of economics.

Most of the men and women highlighted in The Classical School were right some of the time, and wrong some of the time.

It’s like that right now.

You will learn compellingly interesting stuff from Williams.

F’rinstance, Adam Smith, in his The Wealth of Nations, mentions “the invisible hand” only once, and he does not use it to mean that an unfettered “free market” will always make things turn out right. (p. 64)

* * * * * *

social media making America stupid…

Jonathan Haidt explains in The Atlantic

click here

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As with another eye: Poems of exactitude with 55 free verse and haiku poems,

and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)

and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”