Roll Over, Adam Smith?

Adam Smith (1723-1790) coined the metaphor of "the invisible hand" in his greatest work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). In The Wealth of Nations and his other writings, Smith suggested that a free market promotes the good of the community as a whole through a principle that Adam Smith called “the invisible hand”. Thanks to Tom Tomorrow, "the invisible hand" becomes a visible character in "This Modern World." Sparky The Penguin becomes "Sparky T. Penguin, Private Eye" in this noir version of Tom Tomorrow's alternate universe. "The Invisible Hand" can be seen in "This Modern World" thanks to the magic of the marketplace. If this is a (fair & balanced) critique of economic mumbo-jumbo, so be it.

[x Salon]
This Modern World: Farewell, My Lovely Economy
By Tom Tomorrow (Dan Perkins)

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Tom Tomorrow/Dan Perkins

[Dan Perkins is an editorial cartoonist better known by the pen name "Tom Tomorrow". His weekly comic strip, "This Modern World," which comments on current events from a strong liberal perspective, appears regularly in approximately 150 papers across the U.S., as well as on Salon and Working for Change. The strip debuted in 1990 in SF Weekly.

Perkins, a long time resident of Brooklyn, New York, currently lives in Connecticut. He received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism in both 1998 and 2002.

When he is not working on projects related to his comic strip, Perkins writes a daily political weblog, also entitled "This Modern World," which he began in December 2001.]

Copyright © 2008 Salon Media Group, Inc.

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