Russ Roberts

They focus on what's measurable.

So in that sense, I've rejected a lot of the utilitarian foundation of my field.

I would say it a little differently.

I would say that Milton Friedman is the patron saint of free market economics, and he saw Adam Smith as a cousin, if not a close relative, even closer relative, a brother in arms.

I think that's roughly fair to Smith.

I don't think there's anything in the theory of moral sentiments that is an indictment

What we would normally call free market economics.

I know progressives have tried to claim Smith.

Certainly there are things in Smith that have a progressive aspect to them.

Often it sometimes requires quoting him out of context, leaving out the next paragraph or the one before.

But there are things in Smith that certainly conflict with standard free market dogma.

Smith was a great writer.

He's a great communicator.

I think great writing is underrated.

It is no small feat.

to coin a phrase like the invisible hand.

Smith used the phrase the invisible hand twice in his two books, once in each.

I would suggest that in neither one is he using it in the way that modern people use it or modern economists.

In modern economics and public policy, it has come to mean that we don't have to worry about certain problems because the market will take care of them.

And that's the magic of the invisible hand.