Invisible Fist (invisible hand + fist)
Entry in progress—B.P.
Wikipedia: Invisible hand
In economics, the invisible hand of the market is a metaphor conceived by Adam Smith to describe the self-regulating behavior of the marketplace. Individuals can make profit, and maximize it without the need for government intervention. The exact phrase is used just three times in Smith’s writings, but has come to capture his important claim that individuals’ efforts to maximize their own gains in a free market may benefit society, even if the ambitious have no benevolent intentions. Smith came up with the two meanings of the phrase from Richard Cantillon who developed both economic applications in his model of the isolated estate.
He first introduced the concept in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, written in 1759. In this work, however, the idea of the market is not discussed, and the word “capitalism” is never used. By the time he wrote The Wealth of Nations in 1776, Smith had studied the economic models of the French Physiocrats for many years, and in this work the invisible hand is more directly linked to the concept of the market: specifically that it is competition between buyers and sellers that channels the profit motive of individuals on both sides of the transaction such that improved products are produced and at lower costs. This process whereby competition channels ambition toward socially desirable ends comes out most clearly in The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter 7.
Front Porch Republic
Neo-Feudalism and the Invisible Fist
by JOHN MÉDAILLE on AUGUST 27, 2010
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Without proper rules, the “invisible hand” becomes an invisible fist, crushing all opponents. All social interactions are rule-bound. The only interesting question is whether the rules will be written by force or by reason.
Twitter
Stephan Hall
@ramblinngamblin
The Invisible Fist http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/02/no_author/the-invisible-fist/ … #busi3006 How much info do u ppl need? Wake up or go down in flames wit the ship. #JailTheBankers
2:12 PM - 11 Feb 2014
Twitter
Alfredo Mendez
@AlfredMendez3
Algorithms, heuristics or no brainers by weekend, is evidence of the “invisible FIST” of the Wall Street & the central planning gang at work
4:13 PM - 11 Feb 2014
LewRockwell.com
The Invisible Hand, Gold & Mainstream Media Propaganda (‘The Invisible Fist” is the headline on the front page of this website.—ed.)
By Robert Fitzwilson of The Portola Group
King World News
February 11, 2014
(...)
Whether we saw algorithms, heuristics or no brainers at the end of the week, we saw evidence of the “invisible hand” of the Wall Street and the central planning gang at work….