Today's British public seems to side with Mariana Matsakado. More than three quarters of the population would prefer that services like gas, water, electricity and railroads were publicly owned. In book five of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith would appear to be in favor of this. So what does a smithian on the right side of the political spectrum, like Aemon Butler, make of this?
Economists and politicians have turned him into a mascot for free-market ideology. Some on the left say the right has badly misread him. Prepare for a very Smithy tug of war. (Part 2 of “In Search of the Real Adam Smith.”)