Speaking of Smith Archives

Macbeth's Ambition and Smith's Words of Warning

December 7, 2023

"Smith posits that the way to avoid ambition and 'live free, fearless, and independent' is to never raise the poisonous chalice of place to one’s lips..."

Addressing Problems Rather than Perpetuating Them

November 29, 2023

Questions about how to help workers without harming economic growth were as important in Adam Smith's time as in our own.

Raising Ghosts at Panmure House

November 20, 2023

Adam Smith (Dougal Lee) and David Hume (Mark Coleman) at Panmure House 2023

Blair Barrows of Adam Smith's Panmure House tell the story behind their production of Enquiry Concerning Hereafter as part of the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Panmure House was the final home of Adam Smith. He lived there between 1778 and 1790.

Adam Smith Comics: Not Only Loved But Lovely

November 16, 2023

"Man naturally desires, not only to be loved, but to be lovely..." Sally Madden illustrates this beloved Smith quotation with humor and fun. Watch out for everyone - worms too!

Smith’s Man of System in Romeo and Juliet

November 13, 2023

Treating people like plants (or chessmen) doesn't work out and the results can be tragic.

H.L. Mencken as Impartial Spectator?

November 1, 2023

When it comes to leading a good life, there are guides within us (like our impartial spectators) but there are also past thinkers and writers to help us along the way.

We sympathize even with the dead

October 31, 2023

One of our long-time contributors let's his imagination roam with some help from a generative art program.

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.