ABSTRACT
Over 200 years ago, when Adam Smith set about forming his moral ideas of the free market, he made it clear that the wealth of nations requires a strong state, not a weak one. The state needs to guarantee at least three conditions:
● Healthy infrastructure that benefits all competitors but is not paid for by any individual player (Adam Smith gives lighthouses as an example)
Another grandfather of modern economists, David Ricardo, also presented assumptions for healthy trade and an international division of labour. One of his assumptions was that capital was not moving. Is it very far-fetched to suspect that David Ricardo, were he alive today, would be among the protesters in Seattle, Genoa or Barcelona? These protesters say nothing in principle against international trade but do not like the élite power structures of today’s capital ‘markets’.
