Adam Smith

The Scottish moral philosopher remembered for one metaphor and misread because of it. The Wealth of Nations is not a brief for greed. It is a careful argument that a well-ordered market can turn private effort toward public benefit, written by a man whose other great book was about moral sentiments and human sympathy. Read whole, Smith is more humane and more cautious than the caricature that carries his name. The civic case for markets is his, and it has conditions.