Assignment 2: listen to the material and fill in the blanks with the missing words you hear from the recording. In the 18th century Adam Smith used the 1) ___________ of an invisible hand to describe how individuals making self-interested decisions can collectively and unwittingly 2) _________ an effective economic system that is in the public interest. This is how the invisible hand is usually understood today. when there’s plenty of 3) _______ on the market, sellers drop their prices to make sales. When it gets 4) _________, the price rises and the financial incentive for growing it or importing it gets stronger. The individual buyers, sellers, growers, and 5) _________ don’t set out to act for the public good. They just go about their business, thinking about their own gains and 6) ________, buying wherever they can to get the best deal. But out of their self-interested choices in a free market, an efficient economy 7) ___________ and this allegedly is superior to any system the state could produce. More recent enthusiasts, such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman have 8) ___________ the idea of an invisible hand as an argument against restrictions on trade. Not everyone sees the invisible hand is 9) ____________, though. Those who are poorly paid or out of work as a result of its 10) ___________may feel that it is better described as an invisible booth.