by Summary:
An interesting podcast. The British Conservative, Jesse Norman, says Adam Smith wasn't the neoliberal or the libertarian that many on the left believe (or the right, I might add). The interviewer mentions how Margaret Thatcher carried around all the time in her handbag the Wealth of Nations, but Jesse Norman laughed at that saying that many Conservative politicians can quote three sentences from the Wealth of Nations but have never read the book. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith is a work of genius, not just because it sets out many of the central intellectual tools of political economy – such as the division of labour or the idea of market equilibrium - but because Smith was the first person to put markets at the centre of economics itself. As such, our modern economy owes much
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An interesting podcast. The British Conservative, Jesse Norman, says Adam Smith wasn't the neoliberal or the libertarian that many on the left believe (or the right, I might add). The interviewer mentions how Margaret Thatcher carried around all the time in her handbag the Wealth of Nations, but Jesse Norman laughed at that saying that many Conservative politicians can quote three sentences from the Wealth of Nations but have never read the book. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith is a work of genius, not just because it sets out many of the central intellectual tools of political economy – such as the division of labour or the idea of market equilibrium - but because Smith was the first person to put markets at the centre of economics itself. As such, our modern economy owes much
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Mike Norman considers the following as important:
This could be interesting, too:
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An interesting podcast. The British Conservative, Jesse Norman, says Adam Smith wasn't the neoliberal or the libertarian that many on the left believe (or the right, I might add). The interviewer mentions how Margaret Thatcher carried around all the time in her handbag the Wealth of Nations, but Jesse Norman laughed at that saying that many Conservative politicians can quote three sentences from the Wealth of Nations but have never read the book.
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith is a work of genius, not just because it sets out many of the central intellectual tools of political economy – such as the division of labour or the idea of market equilibrium - but because Smith was the first person to put markets at the centre of economics itself.
As such, our modern economy owes much to him, however, the way we conceive of them today has been stripped of its wider context, of human nature and society as a whole. In fact, according to British MP Jesse Norman, he was not the father of neoliberalism or market fundamentalism, as many on the left believe, nor an eloquent advocate of laissez-faire, free markets and enemy of market intervention. He was much more complex than that.
Jesse Norman is the author of a new biography called Adam Smith: What He Thought and Why It Matters, published by Allen Lane
ABC Radio
Jesse Norman - Adam Smith revisited