ive had a copy lying around for the longest and started to read it but its about as exciting as watching paint dry. picked it up again last night but decided to ask if its relevant from a trader/investors perspective? i would still like to better understand macro economics....i'm starting to identify the pieces of the macro economic puzzle but still cant put them all together as they affect the markets as a whole.... would this read help me do this even though it was written such a long time ago?
Send the book to me if you don't want it. I never read it but have seen many excerpts from it, as well as some concepts restated. Just never got around to reading the book, still trying to finish Soros's book and Bushkov's. It's a good read, just for the sake of it.
It's a great book if you are interested in economics (and history of). If you are only interested in trading, I don't see why you would waste your time. It's a long difficult book, but very insightful. "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." "Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things."
lol..... thanks for replies....think i'll give it a read. got a couple other opinions today that said the insight would be worth the effort.....
Here's an insight: "The increase of demand, besides, though in the beginning it may sometimes raise the price of goods, never fails to lower it in the long run. It encourages production, and thereby increases the competition of the producers, who, in order to undersell one another, have recourse to new divisions of labour and new improvements of art which might never otherwise have been thought of."
The only thing I got from it and since it was an original thought of mine I was somewhat surprised that Adam Smith wrote on it. He saids that the only price component iin a good is labor. That if labor was free everything would be free. That is why in 50-100 years when we develop robots to do all the work then labor will be taken out and all goods will be free. John
Updated for the new millenium: Here's an insight: "The increase of greed, besides, though in the beginning it may sometimes raise the price of goods, never fails to lower it in the long run. It encourages globalization, outsourcing and third world exploitation thereby increasing the competition of the producers, who, in order to undersell one another, have no choice but to use third world labour and creative accounting which might never otherwise have been thought of." ....sorry i was bored
Jfic> And who will build the "robots"? Who will design them? You see nothing will ever be free. The reason you should read Wealth of Nations is to get an understanding of what drives a capitalist society and the reasons Adam Smith used to argue his points. We do live in a capitalist society so it should be read to get a more deeper understanding of the concept.
Does he write that? Can you provide a quote? He wrote "The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it." I don't think he wrote that labor is the "only price component."