Now for some macroeconomics comedy—the original post-capitalist might have been the father of capitalism himself: Adam Smith. Most of us only read excerpts from the first few chapters of The Wealth of Nations in school—the ones that cover the concepts like “The Invisible Hand.” When we read about Smith’s ideas in news articles it’s probably most often as a sort of Republican, anti-regulation argument, an implication Smith’s capitalism never wanted for government monitoring and involvement because its “Invisible Hand” would see to it that business was fair, that the best businesses would win and the others would fail. There’s just one small problem with our vague notion of Smith as the ultimate anti- regulatory capitalist… 45