It has often been noted, for instance, that Smith never once used the term “laissez-faire” or even the term “capitalism,” and that his two books- The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and The Wealth of Nations (1776)-are full of passages lamenting the potential moral, social, and political ills of what he called “commercial society.” Many a scholar has made a career, in recent decades, by pointing out that this view of Smith is a gross caricature. One of the more memorable statements of Barack Obama’s presidency thus far has been his claim, in a high-profile December 2013 speech, that great and growing economic inequality is “the defining challenge of our time.” In making his case Obama appealed to the authority of a seemingly unlikely ally: Adam Smith, the purported founding father of laissez-faire capitalism, who is widely thought to have advocated unbridled greed and selfishness in the name of allowing the invisible hand of the market to work its magic.
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