Hidden Hands: The Lives of Manuscripts and Their Makers

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The concept of the "invisible hand" is nearly always generalized beyond Smith's original uses. The phrase was not popular among economists before the twentieth century; Alfred Marshall never used it in his Principles of Economics [27] textbook and neither does William Stanley Jevons in his Theory of Political Economy. [28] Paul Samuelson cites it in his Economics textbook in 1948:

Hidden Hand" redirects here. For the 2020 book, see Hidden Hand (book). The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at the Tuileries (1812), exhibiting the hand-in-waistcoat gesture There is only one instance where the invisible hand is explicitly mentioned in The Wealth of Nations, that is in Book IV, Chapter II titled ' Of Restraints Upon the Importation from Foreign Countries of Such Goods as Can Be Produced at Home'. Contrary to common misconceptions, Smith did not assert that all self-interested labour necessarily benefits society, or that all public goods are produced through self-interested labour. His proposal is merely that in a free market, people usually tend to produce goods desired by their neighbours. The tragedy of the commons is an example where self-interest tends to bring an unwanted result.Quinn, Jimmy (23 June 2020). "The Strange Attempt to Stop a New Book on China's Global Influence". National Review. Archived from the original on 30 August 2020 . Retrieved 28 September 2020. Adam Smith goes on pointing out that the self-interest of individuals selects for those industries that create the greatest value. Thus, entrepreneurs will try to invest their capital in those industries where the production is expected to be of the greatest value, since they are also subject to self-interest (i.e. profit seeking): The book details what the authors describe as "the nature and extent of the Chinese Communist Party’s influence operations across the Western world – in politics, business, universities, think tanks and international institutions such as the UN. This new authoritarian power is using democracy to undermine democracy in pursuit of its global ambitions ". [3]

Book, Report Spark Concern Over China's UK Elite Influence Operations". Radio Free Asia. 17 July 2020 . Retrieved 3 November 2023. Nuttall, Jeremy (18 June 2020). "Legal troubles threaten to derail Canadian launch of book about Beijing's influence operations". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020 . Retrieved 27 September 2020. Households maximize a utility function u h ( x h , z h ) {\displaystyle uNaturally, again, such an attitude precluded a critical examination of institutions, and left as the sphere of Christian charity only those parts of life that could be reserved for philanthropy, precisely because they fell outside that larger area of normal human relations, in which the promptings of self-interest provided an all-sufficient motive and rule of conduct. ( Religion and the Rise of Capitalism, pp. 191–192.) Criticisms [ edit ] Joseph E. Stiglitz [ edit ] Lord Shaftesbury turned the convergence of public and private good around, claiming that acting in accordance with one's self-interest produces socially beneficial results. An underlying unifying force that Shaftesbury called the "Will of Nature" maintains equilibrium, congruency, and harmony. This force, to operate freely, requires the individual pursuit of rational self-interest, and the preservation and advancement of the self.