Free Republic

Earlier today the Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Dr Eamonn Butler, was being filmed by a camera crew in Great Smith Street, London as part of an interview about the G20 for Canadian television. This perfectly innocent and lawful activity came to the attention of the police, being reported as 'suspicious' because they were not far from two 'sensitive' government buildings - the Department for Children, Schools and Families and Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform. The result, Dr Butler explains, was a police car arriving on the scene, blue lights flashing. He and the camera crew were...

If Adam Smith were here today to witness our economic debacle, this “Great O-pression” which seems to be consuming our wealth with an unprecedented fury, would he support the idea of massive government intervention to “fix” the problems we face? Adam Smith is, of course, the father of free market economic thinking, the great initial intellectual force behind capitalism, the author of our seminal text, The Wealth of Nations, the man behind the proverbial “invisible hand” that mysteriously and relentlessly drives our individual economic activity toward the efficient allocation of scarce resources and the achievement of the greatest possible good...

With the debate over the "Porkulus" bill in Congress (or, as I like to call it, "Pork and Awe"), there has been a great deal of related discussion over why the bill will work, or won't work, to stimulate the economy and create much-needed jobs and economic growth. However, much of the debate has devolved into partisan bickering. It might help to take a step back, and consider the differences between government and private spending in a more general sense. To begin with, what does the stimulus package claim to do? Apparently, it authorizes the government to spend money, in...

The free market is dead. It was killed by the Bolshevik Revolution, fascist dirigisme, Keynesianism, the Great Depression, the second world war economic controls, the Labour party victory of 1945, Keynesianism again, the Arab oil embargo, Anthony Giddens’s “third way” and the current financial crisis. The free market has died at least 10 times in the past century. And whenever the market expires people want to know what Adam Smith would say. It is a moment of, “Hello, God, how’s my atheism going?” Adam Smith would be laughing too hard to say anything. Smith spotted the precise cause of our...

With today's economy, wouldn't it be nice if we knew how to make an economy grow? To know what works and what doesn't? Well, we do. We just prefer to ignore the truth.What works is economic freedom. What doesn't work is more government. I'm sorry that those words sound simplistic and like Republican "ideology" (or at least what used to be Republican ideology - before the Bailout Fairy arrived). But they have the benefit of being true. If you were to start from scratch, ignoring all ideology and going simply by the evidence of what produces prosperity, you would come...

“Adam Smith is often wrongly seen as the patron of free market capitalism without a conscience.” -- Gordon Brown, Prime Minister (Labour Party) I just celebrated the most unusual 4th of July fireworks I’ve ever experienced -- in Edinburgh, Scotland, where Nobel Prize economist Vernon Smith unveiled a giant statue of Adam Smith, on Royal Mile Road. For decades, Marxists and socialists could go to the Highgate Cemetery in London and honor their patron saint, Karl Marx. Now, finally, we free-marketers can make our own pilgrimage to Edinburgh and worship our own hero to free-market capitalism.

Leftist ideology may be gaining ground in Latin America. But it will never set foot on the manicured lawns of Francisco Marroquin University. For nearly 40 years, this private college has been a citadel of laissez-faire economics. Here, banners quoting "The Wealth of Nations" author Adam Smith -- he of the powdered wig and invisible hand -- flutter over the campus food court. Every undergraduate, regardless of major, must study market economics and the philosophy of individual rights embraced by the U.S. founding fathers, including "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." A sculpture commemorating Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" is...

The Edinburgh home where the pioneer of economics spent his final years has been put up for sale. Adam Smith lived in Panmure House in the Old Town from 1778 until his death aged 67 in 1790. The A-listed building has now been put up for sale by its owner, Edinburgh City Council, after it was deemed surplus to requirements. The authoritative Adam Smith Institute today called on any new development within the building to remember its historic past and commemorate the close link it has with the economist. It has been put on the market for offers over £700,000...

"The tendency of a national bank is to increase public and private credit. The former gives power to the state, for the protection of its rights and interests: and the latter facilitates and extends the operations of commerce among individuals. Industry is increased, commodities are multiplied, agriculture and manufacturers flourish: and herein consists the true wealth and prosperity of a state." -- Alexander Hamilton (Report on Manufactures, 1790) Reference: The Works of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Cabot Lodge, ed., 362.

LONDON (AFP) - An image of 18th century economist Adam Smith (news, bio, voting record) features on a new twenty pound banknote that the Bank of England (BoE) hopes will slash fraud and counterfeits. Smith, widely seen as one of the founding fathers of modern economics, is the first Scottish person to ever grace a UK banknote. While the size and colour of the note remain the same, it offers new security measures such as a holographic strip, raised-print areas and an improved watermark. Commenting on the choice of Smith, BoE Governor Mervyn King said: "SmithÂ’s insights into human nature,...

A £20 note featuring economist Adam Smith will be issued on 13 March, the Bank of England has said. The note will also include a number of new security features designed to tackle counterfeiting. While the Bank has yet to reveal the safety measures, they are thought to include a see through feature and a holographic strip. The current £20 note, which features composer Edward Elgar, will be phased out after the launch of the Adams note. Enhanced security "The introduction of the Adam Smith £20 from 13 March will be a major undertaking for us as the £20 denomination...

The contribution of world-renowned 18th century philosopher and economist, Adam Smith, is to be acknowledged on a new-design 20 banknote the Bank of England is to intorduce into circulation next Spring. Changes to the design mean that the note will start a new seires of Bank of England banknotes.

The Wealth of Nations is, without doubt, a book that changed the world. But it has been taking its time. Two hundred thirty-one years after publication, Adam Smith's practical truths are only beginning to be absorbed in full. And where practical truths are most important-amid counsels of the European Union, World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, British Parliament, and American Congress-the lessons of Adam Smith end up as often sunk as sinking in. Adam Smith's Simple Principles . Smith illuminated the mystery of economics in one flash: "Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production." There is no...

How to bring manufacturing back home -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: September 29, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern In July, our trade deficit hit yet another all-time record, $68 billion, an annual rate of $816 billion. Imports surged to $188 billion for the month, as our dependency on foreigners for the vital necessities of our national life ever deepens. China's trade surplus with us was $19.6 billion for July alone, moving toward an all-time record of $235 billion for 2006 – the largest trade deficit one country has ever run with another. Our deficit with Mexico is running at an annual rate of $60...

This past Wednesday, when I attended Students for Saving Social Security’s event on Social Security reform with roughly 300 other young people, I was overcome by an unusual Washington, D.C. emotion—hope. Having only lived in our nation’s capital for about a year, I have not yet succumbed to the total disillusionment and cynicism of many people, but it has certainly affected my optimistic tendencies. But in contradiction to my sometimes-attitude that nothing in this city ever gets done, let alone gets done right, I found myself believing something could be changed. Social Security was considered for decades to be the...

Young conservatives in DC apparently like intellectual stimulation in a lecture format, but then again the free beer might have been on more than a few minds. Last Wednesday night, more than 80 young conservative intellectuals crowded into a back room of The Brickskeller on 22nd St, NW to listen to a professor talk about vocation, to eat and drink, and to meet their peers and colleagues. It was the first meeting of “Conservatism on Tap” presented by the ISI (Intercollegiate Studies Institute) Young Alumni group of DC founded by Princeton graduate Evan Baehr. The event was a success, with...

FREE TO CHOOSE: Tyranny of Control Friedman: It is harvest time and Japanese farmers gather their crops for the rice market in Kyoto. Of course, they will try to get as much for it as possible and the buyer's will try to buy it as cheaply as possible. That is how markets are supposed to work. That is what Adam Smith, the Scotsman who turned economics into a modern science, observed 200 years ago. He observed something else too. Adam Smith: In every country it is always and must be in the interest of the great body of people to...

Welfare discourages crime. Crime is usually the other main source of income for poor people, other than welfare. The poor and disenfranchised have shown themselves perpetually ripe for criminal activity, such as in France's recent riots, the early days of organized crime in Sicily, the 1992 Los Angeles riots, and the current gestation of jihadism in poverty-stricken Middle Eastern countries, among many others. Junsen Zhang, professor of economics at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, studied U.S. welfare programs and found a strong negative relationship between welfare programs and property crime.

couple hundred years ago, in his "Theory of the Moral Sentiments," Adam Smith contended that capitalism requires a moral and ethical center if it is to function effectively and to the benefit of all. About thirty years ago, supply-side economic philosopher Irving Kristol similarly emphasized the importance of capitalism's moral compass. His wife, the brilliant historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, wrote regularly about the importance of morality in society, culture, and the economy, a topic she covered in her standout book, "The De-Moralization of Society." Bea Himmelfarb sets off the Victorians in English history as an example of a moral society. These...

Sheep's clothing and Adam Smith -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: March 13, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern By Vox Day -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- © 2006 WorldNetDaily.com How does one resolve the question of the presumably cataclysmic meeting between the hitherto immovable rock and the historically unstoppable force? Perhaps by reversing the logic of the famous question: "Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?" Is the rock truly immovable? Or, alternatively, is the force actually unstoppable? I mention this because I have long been a vocal advocate of free trade. I was raised on Adam Smith, inoculated against the usual collegiate flirtation with...