Capitalisn't Is Everyone Getting Adam Smith Wrong? - ft. Glory Liu
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Mar 26, 2026 Glory Liu, Georgetown assistant professor and author of Adam Smith's America, reclaims Smith as a thinker worried about power and concentrated wealth. She explains how Smith was narrowed to the 'invisible hand'. The conversation probes merchant influence, institutional capture, and whether reviving Smith's moral lens can rethink modern corporate domination.
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Smith As A Theorist Of Power
- Adam Smith is best read as a theorist of power who saw economic life as contests between organized groups, not impersonal market forces.
- Smith highlighted masters versus workmen, noting law often sided with employers to suppress wages and block worker combinations.
Merchants Turn Wealth Into Political Power
- Smith tracked a new commercial class whose wealth-from-commerce let merchants convert money into political influence.
- He used lectures on jurisprudence to show merchants organized interests and convinced legislators their private gains were public good.
Chicago School Simplified Smith Into Market Icon
- The Chicago School's image of a timeless 'market Smith' rests on a selective reading that erases Smith's focus on groups and power.
- This interpretation became dominant after mid-20th-century reforms and Cold War intellectual politics.
