smith

adam smith was a scottish political economist and moral philosopher, and would more than likely have supported celtic football club, if they had been in existence at the time.
he is best known for his work “the wealth of nations”.





the adam smith
adam smith institute describes this book as a stinging critique of the crippling regulations that afflicted trade and commerce, but then they would wouldn’t they.
but over at wikipedia the view is slightly more rounded but essentially the same, good old adam didn’t want the government interfering in the economy.
adam smith believed in self-interest and that left alone the self-interest of the individual will have socially beneficial outcomes. this happens because of the “invisible hand” of the free market. although the market may appear to be chaotic it is guided to produce the right amount and variety of goods so if there is a shortage of something then producers will step in to make that good and more enter the arena of production prices will drop. the shortage is cured and the prices are brought to a market level. everyone is happy and the market has prevailed where governments would fail.
to be sure i am skipping over a lot of stuff here about division of labour, smith’s critiques of previous views of economics, but go and look at the book – it is a big bugger and you don’t want me waffling on about that….

suffice to say that adam smith can be credited with founding the discipline of economics. his work is built on by writers such as malthus and ricardo, in what is now called classical economics. his view is criticised by marx in “das kapital”, and between them smith and marx have (it could be argued) laid the foundation for all the debates that take place in politics and economics today.

naturally enough the adam smith institute
, founded in 1977, is most interested in the areas of deregulation and smaller government. it was a favourite of margaret thatcher (which alone is enough to condemn it to the lowest pits of hell). their own website describes them as a “do-tank” (though not as they should be called a “dog-do tank” – see political satire is alive and well….)

in short the adam smith institute loves laissez faire capitalism.
but they have no fashion sense.

lets have a peek at their merchandise page . and what do we have but the adam smith hoodie, complete with graffiti style adam smith name tag.







it is just what the local radical conservative is wearing. indeed all those city whiz kids, come out of their offices don their adam smith hoodie so they can hang out with their pound posse or their capitalist crew as they be illin’ and chillin’ while they be billing by the hour. they are phat and down with their (wall)street cred.
or not as the case may be.
perhaps it was seeing this elegant hoodie that caused cameron to want to hug a hoodie, as he wanted to give respec’ to his peeps.

it is billed as being the ultimate in street cred think tank wear, not only is this an oxymoron but i think the idea it will draw admiring glances as you walk down the street is cause for them to be taken before the trading standards.

they would have been better off letting their members buy a nice tank top knitted by some of the ladies from the wi.

given their idea of dress sense would you let these people influence the way the country is run?