"What Galbraith understood, and what later researchers (including this author) have proved, is that Adam Smith's "invisible hand" – the notion that the individual pursuit of maximum profit guides capitalist markets to efficiency – is so invisible because, quite often, it's just not there. Unfettered markets often produce too much of some things, such as pollution, and too little of other things, such as basic research. As Bruce Greenwald and I have shown, whenever information is imperfect – that is, always – markets are inefficient; hence the need for government action."
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Joseph E. Stiglitz, “John Kenneth Galbraith understood capitalism as lived – not as theorized”, The Christian Science Monitor (December 28, 2006)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Invisible_hand
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Invisible hand
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