There are certain economic powers that every one of us can exercise, regardless of whether we manage anybody or own so much as a single share of stock.

The good news is that ultimately, these dwarf all others, because collectively, they constitute the power of the marketplace. Everything else in our economic system ultimately rests on this.

Granted, we are no longer knowledgeable in quite the way that Adam Smith and the market theorists who followed him once envisioned. (Today’s products appear on the scene and evolve too quickly for that.)  But once we understand the limitations of our knowledge and grasp some of the socioeconomic effects of these limits, we can become a good deal more savvy in the ways we deal with them.