KK> BTW Frank, since you're the historian here, mebbe you can clue me on
 KK> something.  Adam Smith is a sort of god these days, and I've never read
 KK> him in the original.  But I've heard that his 'invisible hand' was, in
 KK> his own mind, the sense of common decency that lives in any community --
 KK> IOW certain things like usury or destruction of common resources were
 KK> simply unacceptable, and this kept greed within bounds.  Zat true?
   His keyword about the market is "SELF-regulating."  He would not recognize
the market machinery we have in place today which some praise as
"free-enterprise."
   I confess quite readily that I have not read Adam Smith in the original
either and don't know that I much want to undertake such a task at my age in
life when so many other things interests me so much more.  
   I would refer you to the chapter entitled "The Wonderful World of Adam
Smith" in Robert L. Heilbroner's _The Worldly Philosophers_, a text which I
assigned as reading along with the main textbook in my classes in the history
of Western Civilization, second semester, beginning with the 17th and 18th
century building of the modern world from the Renaissance onward.  I trust
Heilbroner and he is thoroughly familier with the "lives and times of the
great economic thinkers."  
   Was interrupted - back later
Sincerely, 
                                     Frank
                                                                              
                                                       
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