"It was Adam Smith who first recognized how a market economy organizes the complicated forces of supply and demand. In one of the most famous passages of all economics, quoted from The Wealth of Nations at the opening of this chapter, Smith saw the harmony between private profit and public interest. Go back and reread these paradoxical words. Particularly note the subtle point about the invisible hand—that private interest can lead to public gain when it takes place in a well-functioning market mechanism."