Good News in History, March 9 Why this story matters: While it is easy to become cynical in an age of instant, often negative information, stories like this prove that the human spirit is remarkably resilient. This update captures a moment of genuine triumph over adversity that deserves our full attention. Quick summary: This story highlights recent developments related to on this day, showing how constructive action can lead to meaningful results. Precisely one-quarter millennium ago, the Scottish economist Adam Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations , one of the first great treatises in economics, called “the most important substantive proposition in all of economics,” by George Stigler. Most commonly referred to as simply The Wealth of Nations, this shortening diminishes the book’s true value, namely it was the first time that a scientist or philosopher stopped asking “why is there poverty,” and instead asked “why is there wealth?” a much harder question to answer. Smith’s c…
