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Response to Michael Perelman/ James C.W. Ahiakpor: 
    
Just as I feared, the kids are kidding. 
 
If granddaddy Smith could be brought back to us, I would like him to scold us for being
............what we are.
    
This was a scholar whose writing is rich. It will not be good for us to forget that he was
not writing pure economics, forgetting the existence of the state and culture beyond the
market.
 
There is always a tension between being rich versus being sharp. 
    
As I see it, a poor economist (who cannot afford being a political scientist and an
athropologist also at the same time) may have to shine by his sharpness. He will then have
to pick and choose granddaddy's treasures to present a well-defined but very shining and
sophisticated economics. In that effort, the presence of the state as a guardian of
private property and the enforcer of laws etc will have little relevance. If one wanted,
one would assemble a political science from Smith's treasure house, and an anthropology.
    
But may be Ahiakpor wants to feel rich and hence would like to present the whole set of
treasures so that visitors will have no idea what is what, but they will know that there
is a whole big lot of things.
    
My own motto is simple: be sharp, even if it means being poor. 
 
Let my cousins talk about the state and its gurdianship. For me, the market is where my
profit lies.
    
Mohammad Gani 
 
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