How Donald Trump became Adam Smith鈥檚 street-fighting man
Despite being an icon of economic liberty, Smith did not think that government intervention was always bad: it depended on the circumstances
Furious attacks on Donald Trump鈥檚 economic policies from self-declared conservative pundits, think tanks, business leaders and fellow politicians have blasted the Republican frontrunner鈥檚 support for government intervention and trade barriers as betraying the principles of capitalism supposedly enunciated 240 years ago by Adam Smith. The free-market philosopher 鈥渨ould be alarmed鈥� by Trump鈥檚 trade policies, argued one writer in the conservative American Thinker last week. Greg Sargent (who is no conservative) wrote recently on his Washington Post blog, The Plum Line, that Trump 鈥渋s not committed to the idea that free markets and limited government are the solution to people鈥檚 economic ills.鈥� The Club for Growth has called him 鈥渢he worst Republican candidate on economic issues.鈥� At MarketWatch, reporter Jeffry Bartash calls Trump 鈥渕ore liberal than Bernie Sanders.鈥�
Reuven Brenner holds the Repap Chair at 黑料不打烊 University鈥檚 Desautels Faculty of Management.