In a recent open letter in the Financial Times addressed to "Capitalists of the World" from "Adam Smith," David Rubenstein warns about the excesses of the system Smith so famously praised over two centuries ago.

His claim that capitalism is what currently exists around the world, however, is flatly mistaken.

The idea of states’ rights is most closely associated with the political philosophy of Thomas Jefferson and his political heirs. Jefferson himself never entertained the idea that “states have rights,” as some of the less educated critics of the idea have claimed.

Of course “states” don’t have rights. The essence of Jefferson’s idea is that if the people are to be the masters rather than the servants of their own government, then they must have some vehicle with which to control that government.