Letters

摘要

Your leader and briefing on "What companies are for" (August 24th) were among the most important I have read in The Economist. We live in strange times, when innovations are expanding potential gdp hugely, and, at the same time, fuelling conflict, disenchantment and the marginalisation of many. We saw similar changes during the Industrial Revolution. We came out of that era just fine, not just because of reformers like Robert Peel and Robert Owen, but also because of original thinkers who changed our very understanding of capitalism. The Industrial Revolution coincided with the biggest breakthroughs in economics, from Adam Smith's seminal book in 1776, through the works of Augustin Cournot, Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill, to Leon Walras.