The director of the Adam Smith Institute says we shouldn't actually read Adam Smith. The theory that Smith changed his mind or had a change of heart between writing The Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759 and The Wealth of Nations in 1776 has come to be known as the Adam Smith problem. No economist's name is more frequently invoked than that of Adam Smith.
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.”)