Was and Would Adam Smith Now Be Considered a Leftist Economist? A Comment on Mary Cleveland's Misrepresentations of Smith's Economic Analyses

ABSTRACT Mary Cleveland misrepresents Adam Smith's analyses of government taxation, trade, and industrial policies as those that made him a leftist economist during the classical economics period and would similarly characterize him now. The misrepresentation takes the form of omitting relevant passages or misinterpretations of texts from Smith's The Theory of Moral Sentiments and The Wealth of Nations that render Smith properly a principal proponent of free markets or capitalism both in the past and in the present. Smith explained the sources of income inequality and did not advocate redistributive policies to minimize inequality. He was not a leftist economist.