On Rereading Samuelson I: A Teacher’s Perspective

Abstract

Even Adam Smith. . . was so thrilled by the recognition of an order in the economic system that he proclaimed the mystical principle of the 'invisible hand': that each individual in pursuing only his own selfish good was led, as if by an invisible hand, to achieve the best good of all, so that any interference with free competition by government was almost certain to be injurious. This unguarded conclusion has done almost as much harm as good in the past century and a half, especially since too often it is all that some of our leading citizens remember, 30 years later, of their college course in economics.