OREN CASS

OREN CASS is founder and chief economist of American Compass, a think tank.

Oren Cass on the Invisible Hand

OREN CASS March 3, 2025

Modern economics was built on ideas spelled out by Adam Smith in his 18th-century The Wealth of Nations. But while he used the term only once in that voluminous economic treatise, Smith is most remembered for “the invisible hand,” a metaphor that Oren Cass says has wrongly been associated with the idea that markets magically self-correct. Cass is the founder and chief economist at American Compass. In this podcast, he says the contortion of Smith’s idea led to a blind faith in markets, whereas “the invisible hand” was really about ensuring the alignment between private profit and the public interest.

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