Stephen Dubner

I told Butler I had seen more economic protest on this visit to the UK, more anger and fear than any time in my recent memory.

For a brief moment, back when Liz Truss was prime minister and tried to channel Margaret Thatcher, Eamon Butler and the Adam Smith Institute were poised to return to their glory days of real influence.

But it wasn't to be.

He seems nostalgic for the past.

Coming up after the break, how faithful is the Adam Smith Institute interpretation of Adam Smith?

Did you actually ever read the guy?

Because what you're saying has nothing to do with what he said.

This gets us to what has been called Das Adam Smith Problem.

There's no Das Adam Smith Problem.

Like, it's a pseudo problem.

Pseudo problem or not, we'll try to solve it.

This is Freakonomics Radio.

I'm Stephen Dubner in search of the real Adam Smith.

We'll be right back.

Eamon Butler, co-founder and director of the Adam Smith Institute in London, was just telling us that Adam Smith and the wealth of nations inspired Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to privatize huge swaths of the British economy.

The water and gas and phone utilities, car and ship manufacturing, the houses where nearly two million Britons lived, even British airways.

Butler thinks this all fit snugly with Adam Smith's view of smaller government and that this sort of privatization is an excellent idea.

Not everyone agrees.

The real irony is that the privatization in the UK was often privatized by selling off the assets to other governments.

China, the French state.