REDISCOVERING ANCIENT TRUTHS. Legend has it that a venerable professor of graduate level History of Economic Thought at the University of Chicago had a standing offer: an automatic A for the course to the student who found a passage in Wealth of Nations where Adam Smith had something kind to say about a businessman.

Don at Left2Right thinks he has discovered something new. Brad DeLong is cranky and annoyed, but not so annoyed as to say "you don't know Jack." (Hat tip: Tyler at Marginal Revolution. Don't miss Robert at Signifying Nothing's link to an annotated Wealth of Nations. Oh frabjous day, calloo, callay, Talmudic commentary to use to launch a lunch conversation.)

My favorite Smith quote deals with proposals to regulate business.

The proposal of any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from this order ought always to be listened to with great precaution, and ought never to be adopted till after having been long and carefully examined, not only with the most scrupulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes from an order of men whose interest is never exactly the same with that of the public, who have generally an interest to deceive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly have, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it.

Alas, I'm getting predictable: my students tend to recognize this as coming from Adam Smith (or have they never heard of Karl Marx or Leon Trotsky?) Got the quote here: this source also sees the irony.