Economist Adam Smith was born on June 16th, 1723. Per AdamSmith.org, “Smith railed against merchants using their political influence to win monopolies, tax preferences, controls and other privileges that distort markets in their favor—what today we call crony capitalism. He concluded that government must be limited to its core functions of providing the defense, justice and infrastructure that is needed for commerce to succeed. Leave people free, end cronyism, and the results will amaze you. Smith’s ideas were highly influential. The great free-trade era they ushered in, and the enormous rise in wealth it created—particularly for the poor—did indeed amaze the world.”
FreeToChoose.net recently produced a documentary on Adam Smith. It’s available free online (Part 1, Part 2). Here’s the trailer.