Speaking of Smith Archives

Vocation: A Cure for Burnout

October 17, 2023

Do improvements in artificial intelligence make the remaining work better for humans or worse? Adam Smith and Karl Marx never wrote about AI but they understood plenty about how changes in work could cause torpor and alienation.

Adam Smith on Taxation

October 16, 2023

Costa Rican economist Thelmo Vargas-Madrigal offers three Adam Smith-inspired public finance lessons for modern day policy-makers.

Ideas de Adam Smith en Materia Impositiva

October 16, 2023

El economista Thelmo Vargas-Madrigal ofrece tres lecciones de finanzas públicas inspiradas en Adam Smith para los tiempos modernos. (Costa Rican economist Thelmo Vargas-Madrigal offers three Adam Smith-inspired public finance lessons for the modern day.)

Chelsea Follett on Cities that Changed the World

October 13, 2023

‘Humiliations Galore’: Adam Smith meets Miracle Max

October 5, 2023

A pivotal scene from The Princess Bride illustrates a key Smithian insight.

The self & sympathy: A brief essay on David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40)

October 3, 2023

Hume’s social psychology undercuts universal moral theories like Kantianism and Utilitarianism. For Hume, there are circles of moral concerns like family and community and these circles frame and circumscribe morality.

Pete Boettke on Mainline Economics

What Adam Smith Ate: Fresh Dairy Cheese

September 21, 2023

"Once everyone was paid wages in real money, Smith noted everyone benefits '…when barter ceases and money has become the common instrument of commerce.'"

What would Adam Smith think about "vocations"? Part 2

September 12, 2023

We can look at Smith's ideas but also his own decisions to think about what he might think about the idea of a vocation.

What would Adam Smith think about "vocations"?

September 7, 2023

Would Adam Smith have thought of some kinds of work as vocational?

Wealth of Nations Comics

September 5, 2023

We're not sure if Adam Smith could have imagined his words being turned into comics but we hope he would get a chuckle and maybe even a new idea from them if he could see them.

Adam Smith Knew Why We’d Love Jane Austen

August 31, 2023

"Though Smith died before Austen’s novels were published, his Theory of Moral Sentiments anticipates the reason her books affect us. As Smith says, we take on the feelings we imagine others feel."