The Adam Smith Institute in London would not exist were it not for America. Director Ayman Butler grew up in the West Midlands of England. In 1978, he got his PhD in moral philosophy from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He and a couple of like-minded friends considered their professional prospects in the UK to see what they saw.
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.”)