Saving Adam Smith: A Tale of Wealth, Transformation, and Virtue

Chapter 1 Adam Rising

The man arrived with the downpour. It was a distinctive Virginia thunderstorm, dark bulbous clouds rising and swirling in the early evening. Gusts of spring air tore at the patio umbrella and rain began to flow like a wide-open faucet, hitting the ground and splashing up the glass door to the deck. Rex, my eight-year-old collie, raced from room to room barking at thunder. I went upstairs to close windows, then heard a banging that sounded like a loose shutter. Through the glass I spied a dilapidated car resting at the curb. A figure huddled on my stoop, drawing on the butt of a cigarette. He rapped again impatiently—a knock that would turn my orderly and solitary life upside down, lead me on a barnstorming flight across ...