A guest on NPR’s Morning Edition (August 26) mis-characterized pioneering economist Adam Smith as a pure transactionalist. Smith’s metaphorical “invisible hand,” the guest asserted, suggested self-interest drives our every action. The invisible hand, she concluded, ignored familial love as a motive for action. Adam Smith’s famous Wealth of Nations, in which the invisible hand is introduced, also emphasized morality. Instead, it looks at the deceptively simple question of why someone would accuse Adam Smith of a totally transactional stance.