Economics focus: Curse of the ethical executive

摘要

It is more than 200 years since Adam Smith observed that people enjoy their daily bread thanks not to the benevolence of their baker, but to his selfish pursuit of profit. In that observation and its implications lies the case for market capitalism. In their economic lives, people behave as though they had no regard for the public good. Yet the outcome, through the operation of the invisible hand, serves the public good better than any social planner could ever do.