NY Times Review of Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations

The New York Times Review of Knowledge and the Wealth of Nations,' by David Warsh reveals an interesting book that exposes the "intellectual revolution, largely invisible to the general public, that swept through the economics profession between the late 1970's and the late 1980's."

"Warsh tells the tale of a great contradiction that has lain at the heart of economic theory ever since 1776, the year in which Adam Smith published 'The Wealth of Nations.' Warsh calls it the struggle between the Pin Factory and the Invisible Hand. On one side, Smith emphasized the huge increases in productivity that could be achieved through the division of labor, as illustrated by his famous example of a pin factory whose employees, by specializing on narrow tasks, produce far more than they could if each worked independently. On the other side, he was the first to recognize how a market economy can harness self-interest to the common good, leading each individual as though 'by an invisible hand to promote an end.'"