Obama should really put "The Wealth of Nations" on his summer reading list

This is not exactly a new insight. Writing in 1776, Adam Smith noted, “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we can expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.” …

Mr. Obama constantly reminds us, with justification, that he inherited a recession. But the recession ended over three years ago, while the recovery has been distressingly anemic. He also blames an “obstructionist” Congress. But Democrats had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and control of the House his first two years. Republicans couldn’t obstruct anything. He’s even blamed the Japanese tsunami and the European debt crisis.

Is it any wonder that recent polls show the majority of Americans disapprove of the president’s economic policies and are asking why his explosion of spending and debt has done so little good. Mr. Obama claims that when he took office nobody knew just how deep this recession really was. Not so. I and other economists said it was going to be the worst recession in a generation, and immediately after the 2008 election urged him to temporarily set aside his big-government social-engineering agenda, from energy to health-care reform. Whatever their pros and cons, it was the worst possible time to add such a cost burden and uncertainty to the economy. He was mistaken in the hope the economy could withstand his change.