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Speaking of Smith Archives

Lovers need Smith's Impartial Spectator too.


Adam Smith's impartial spectator plays Cupid in one of Jane Austen's greatest novels. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett reform themselves because they were able to let go of their too biased self-love and sought the perspective of an impartial judge for themselves and each other.

Adam Smith and the Counter-Enlightenment


Bastardo considers where Adam Smith's wide-ranging thoughts place him in relation to his contemporaries and modern thinkers on political economy. 

Adam Smith Comics: The Woolen Coat


Before Leonard Read's "I, Pencil", before Russ Robert's "It's a Wonderful Loaf", there was Adam Smith's red woolen coat keeping laborers warm and reminding readers of the infinite, complicated stories behind even seemingly simple things. 

Smithian Imagination and Austen's Catharine or the Bower

April 30, 2024


Adam Smith often used fictional examples to talk about his ideas. Carly Jackson takes his lead using an unfinished work of Jane Austen's juvenilia to help us think about sympathy, fellow-feeling, and imagination gone wrong. 

Adam Smith and the Red Carpet

March 7, 2024

Should a good Smithian abstain from watching the Oscars for fear we might encourage a corrupting disposition to admire the rich and powerful? Pass the popcorn says Marriott and Lukac.

On the objective-functions of firms and consumers

February 22, 2024
 

What should people in business maximize? Thelmo Vargas-Madrigal gives a brief tour of famous thinkers who have tried to answer that question and picks his winners and losers. 

Sobre los objetivos de las empresas y de los consumidores

February 22, 2024


"Desde la perspectiva de política pública, la historia ha demostrado que la visión de Karl Marx sobre cómo optimizar el bienestar de la sociedad era errónea, mientras que la de Adam Smith era correcta e inspiradora." 

Off the Air But On the Record with Alain Bertaud

February 15, 2024


Marvel at how a conversation about famously disruptive buildings turned into one about Adam Smith and trust in society. 

Would Adam Smith Tell Taylor Swift to Attend the Super Bowl?

February 5, 2024


Would Adam Smith advise Taylor Swift to rush back to America after an exhausting concert just to cheer on a man in a football game? Joy Buchanan cheers for Smithian sentiments. 

The Liberal Roots of Karl Marx and How He Went Wrong

January 1, 2024


"Both authors agree that economic power does not replace the formal rule of law, but where they differ is that Marx asserts that it leads to an indirect rule over what law does not regulate: the spoils of labor, production and its dividends."

Taylor Swift & The World’s Most Expensive Cinnamon Rolls

January 3, 2024


Would you bake your new love a $35,000 cinnamon bun? 

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..."