This Is the Moment Adam Smith Has Been Waiting For

For many Americans, the present economic circumstances feel uneasy, and the future feels worse. They direct their anxiety at other countries, which are supposedly taking advantage of us through trade, or at artificial intelligence, with its potential to upend jobs and concentrate power. Lawmakers respond by offering antitrust, industrial and trade policies. It is striking, then, that some of the clearest guidance for this moment comes from a book published 250 years ago today: “The Wealth of Nations,” by Adam Smith, who put optimism about people at the center of his economic philosophy.