ADAM SMITH: "High profits are not a sign of prosperity but an economy going fast to ruin."

"What the intellectuals' [and politicians'] hostility to profits and the profit motive ignores is that the quest for profit in a free market is the source of virtually all economic improvement... No less ignored by today's intellectuals is the fact that the overwhelming bulk of profits in a free economy is saved and reinvested.... 

    "The government's inflation of the money supply has a major bearing on profits ... In the very nature of the case, an expansion of the money supply operates to raise profits...."
    "Record profits [therefore] are not the sign of a resilient economy but an inflationary effect of reckless money creation caused by government - perhaps what Adam Smith had in mind when he said high profits are not a sign of prosperity but an economy going fast to ruin."

~ composite quote from George Reisman and Jim Brown, from their articles 'Profit & Credit Expansion' and False Profits respectively [emphasis added]