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To: Elroy Jetson who wrote (91824)	12/19/2008 11:16:07 PM
From: skinowski	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

From Wiki -- The invisible hand is a metaphor coined by the economist Adam Smith. Once in The Wealth of Nations and other writings, Smith demonstrated that, in a free market, an individual pursuing his own self-interest tends to also promote the good of his community en.wikipedia.org There are variations and subtleties, but the important thing is that "invisible hand" is not an ideology. It is not a way of conducting business or doing anything. It is more or less the outcome of overall economic activity. The algebraic sum. It doesn't lead, it follows. "Guiding" something that follows makes no sense. When we listen to Congressional hearings WRT economy - of which there was a great multitude in recent months - it's not hard to notice that politicians very often make no sense - except that they are very good at getting more control and more power. Even if we end up turning much more towards statism, there will still be "invisible hand" outcomes. The odds are that we probably wouldn't like them very much.