The New York Review of Books on line has a blog by Steve Pincus that translates the economic terminology of the 1760s into the economic terminology of the 2010s. The 13 colonies rebelled against Great Britain because of British austerity policies. As of this writing, it looks like the Greeks are rebelling similarly against the Eurozone: the NO vote is ahead.
Here's a quote from the blog that shows Adam Smith's prescience:
Had the British government pursued measures to support the colonies, rather than austerity policies that retarded their growth, Smith believed, the American economy would have been so dynamic that in “little more than a century” the “seat of the empire would then naturally remove itself” to its most economically dynamic region: North America.
Which is exactly what happened except it wasn't a united empire any more.
