Adam Smith Tie

Above, yours truly wearing his Adam Smith tie. Photo by Anastasia Lipovetskaya.

Back in the days of the Reagan Administration, the "in" necktie to wear at the White House was the Adam Smith tie.

According to a 1981 article in the New York Times:

If there were ever any doubt about the economic proclivities of the Reagan White House, one need only observe what its occupants wear around their necks: Neckties embroidered with profiles of Adam Smith, the 18th-century political economist. 

''They are all the rage in the White House and Friedman and Simon and all those guys have them,'' said Candy Chimples, secretary to Martin Anderson, domestic policy adviser to President Reagan. 

Mr. Anderson donned his a few weeks ago when he was photographed for a Fortune Magazine cover story, and he wore it when interviewed on the Today Show. Edwin Meese 3d, counselor to the President, owns one in burgundy and another in navy blue and wears them ''for all public photos,'' said an aide. ''In fact, I sometimes wonder if he has any other ties.''

Who was Adam Smith? According to Wikipedia:

 Adam Smith (16 June 1723 NS (5 June 1723 OS) – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher, pioneer of political economy, and a key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. 

Smith is best known for two classic works: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. 

Smith laid the foundations of classical free market economic theory. The Wealth of Nations was a precursor to the modern academic discipline of economics.

Most often, I wear my Adam Smith tie to political and other events. Most conservative friends also wear theirs. We bought them at the same time from the Decatur Shop back in the early 1980s.

I recently had a photo shoot done in preparation for an oil painting to be done. I wore my Adam Smith tie for that. Following the photo shoot, artist Anastasia Lipovetskaya and I enjoyed a sushi dinner. The photo above was taken during dinner.

People can still buy them. The Leadership Institute has them. Here's a link to their navy blue version.

Also, there's even an Adam Smith ties Facebook page.

Obama Stimulus Not Necessary

Source: U.S. News & World Report.com

The Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress are acting as if this recession is another "Great Depression." Nothing could be further from the truth.

Two triggers started the Great Depression:

congressional passage of the protectionist Smoot-Hawley tariff bill (producing overseas retaliation and a contraction of international trade) and the Federal Reserve's squeezing of the money supply.

Clark S. Judge, managing director of the White House Writers Group Inc. in Washington and chairman of Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco writes:

Milton Friedman had a rule: Increases or decreases in the money supply take six to nine months to alter economic output and as much as two years to move prices. As the Senate takes up the president's stimulus package, the administration argues that, to avert another Great Depression, it is better to do too much than too little. But a Friedmanesque look at today and the 1930s tells a different story: The analogy with the Depression is wrong; the current downturn may be all but over; and doing too much, not too little, is the real danger.

Unlike U.S. policy in the '30s, the 2008 Treasury and the Federal Reserve attacked the problem at its source. The Fed added more than $1.1 trillion in new facilities to its balance sheet. Each facility was designed to restart the markets for one or another of the troubled classes of assets, strengthening the balance sheets of institutions holding those assets. To supplement these efforts and to augment bank reserves directly through preferred stock purchases, the Treasury received authority to commit up to $1.5 trillion—about a quarter of which had been deployed when the new administration took office. Nonbanks acting as banks were brought under the banking laws where legal authority existed to shore them up too. Currency, bank reserves, assets underpinning bank reserves: Every component of base money was addressed. The question now is, how much is enough—or too much?

Read the article and find out!