Have a Laugh at Adam Smith and Others

Tim Worstall posts (here) in The Business (London global business magazine) which links to a paper on the history of economic theorists that will bring a smile (or a smirk) to your face (don’t read it in public; they may call the men in white coats to take you away).

It’s called: ‘Adam Smith and all that’ by John Creedy (a distinguished academic in the very field he mocks so well).(here)

Here’s Tim’s taster:

"Adam Smith is the most famous economist ever, as well as being a Good Man (in fact he was so good, he was said by his friends to be overflowing with moral sentiments). He was the leading economist of the British school of classical economists. However they had the good sense to write in English rather than Latin, and not to wear togas.

His most famous book is called The Wealth of Nations, of which every literate person has heard. However, no one reads this book any longer: it therefore can be said to have acquired the status of a true classic. One reason it is not read these days is that, like Shakespeare’'s plays and the King James Bible, modern readers realise immediately that it is made up entirely of famous quotations. It is not quite clear why his contemporaries failed to realise this obvious point.

Adam Smith was born, educated, taught and lived in Scotland most of his life. However, he travelled on horseback to Balliol College to find out if education in Oxford was really as bad as he had been told.— It was.”

Comment
Definitely worth a read!