Smith, Marx, Keynes

Smith, Marx, Keynes

Adam Smith, a Scottish Economist, was baptized on June 5, 1723. The exact date of his birth is unknown. In 1759 he published his Theory of Moral Sentiments, but it wasn't until he moved to London in 1776, that he established himself as a source of contemporary economic thought. Smith published "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," which examined in detail the consequences of economic freedom. The idea of the "invisible hand," now called market mechanism, explained the three core questions of economics. Because of this, he was even more convinced that the laissez faire economy would have the public's welfare in it's best interest. After his death in 1790, it was discovered that he has dedicated most of his income to several charities.

The philosopher, social scientist, historian and revolutionary, Karl Marx, has greatly influenced the development of socialist thought. Many scholars have considered Marx a great economic theoretician and the founder of economic history and sociology. Marx was born into a comfortable middle-class home in Germany on May 5, 1818. His father gave up Judaism and baptized Protestant as to not lose his job as a respected lawyer in Trier, Germany. This may have been one of the factors that caused Marx to eventually become and atheist. In 1867 the first volume of "Das Kapital" was published. "Das Kapital" analyzed the capitalist process of production. Marx distinguished capitalists from merchants. Merchants buy things in one market and then sell them in another. The laws of supply and demand operate within certain markets. There is often a difference between the price of a commodity in one market and another. According to Marx, capitalists, on the other hand, take advantage of the difference between the labor market and the market for whatever commodity is produced by the capitalist.

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