Sunday, March 21, 2010

A Lady Doth Impress Not at All

Francesca Sidoti writing in SavingsGuide.com
HERE:

When it rains you should read up on finances”

“I’m not quite delusional enough to believe I would sit down and read Adam Smith, though I suspect it would be very impressive at dinner parties to reel off quotes about the invisible hand.”


Comment
Francesca is a kidder. She wants to impress people with her knowledge of financial economics and gives an impressive list of names she wants to read: Skidelski’s biography of Keynes to which is added Amartya Sen, Karl Marx, and Paul Krugman. Impressive? Yes.

But she gives her game away by opening with Adam Smith and being able “to reel off quotes about the invisible hand”. Oh, dear.

There is only one reference to the invisible hand in Adam Smith’s Wealth Of Nations and another one in Moral Sentiments. There no multiple quotes about the invisible hand in Smith.

Francesca didn’t know that – apparently – and fails to impress Lost Legacy. Presumably the editors of ‘Savings Guide” didn’t know either. Shame.

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2 Comments:

Blogger Michael said...

Dear Professor Kennedy,
Please forgive an off-topic comment, but I'd like to thank you for putting your blog out where it can be appreciated.
I discovered this site accidentally, while trying to find a copy of Amartya Sen’s essay on the Theory of Moral Sentiments, and have been frequently delighted by your entries. I thought it might amuse you that a law graduate from Glasgow University was led gently back towards the sage of Kirkcaldy by way of to Sen (initially “The Argumentative Indian”, which I would recommend to anyone).

Best regards,

Michael Mooney

2:12 pm  
Blogger Gavin Kennedy said...

Hi Michael

Thanks for posting.


I too am a fan of Amartya Sen. I heard him speak at Glasgow University at the conference on Smith's Moral Sentiments last year. Very impressive.

Gaviun

7:46 pm  

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