What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen Economics makes the invisible visible.
Economists examine that which non-economists never even suspect of existing.
This is the lesson of Adam Smith's great 1776 book An Inguiry Into The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations . As Smith and Bastiat did, all sound economists instinctively look beyond the obvious. Being the Foundation for Economic Education, we sincerely wish to encourage people to think like good economists. Doing so is surprisingly easy. To help to counteract this unfortunate fact, we will in this space point out particularly wrongheaded pieces of economic journalism that commit the juvenile fallacy of never looking beyond the obvious.