Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
27 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, Bill Easterly, development economics, economic history, history of economic thought, Milton Friedman
Tweet… is from page 298 of William Easterly’s brilliant 2025 book, Violent Saviors: The West’s Conquest of the Rest [footnote deleted; link added]: The Friedman’s [Milton and Rose] liked markets because they could make individual self-determination possible for all groups. Markets allowed “the freedom of individuals to pursue their own objective.” Markets made this possible…
Quotation of the Day…
23 Dec 2025 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, economics of information, economics of regulation, history of economic thought
Here is a passage from The Theory of Moral Sentiments by Smith (author of the book The Wealth of Nations in 1776 that started economics) at the Library of Economics and Liberty. Smith emphasizes the arrogance and conceit of those who think they can arrange society any way they want. In a separate passage, Smith…
Adam Smith And Joseph Campbell On The Dangers Of “The Man Of System”
21 Sep 2025 Leave a comment
in Milton Friedman, history of economic thought, Adam Smith
TweetHere’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal. Editor: Glory Liu argues that, in reality, Adam Smith wasn’t as favorably disposed to free markets as Milton Friedman portrayed him as being (“Adam Smith Is Known for His ‘Invisible Hand’ Theory. The Truth Is More Complex.” September 13). Her evidence for this thesis is thin. While,…
Milton Friedman Did Not Concoct a False Image of Adam Smith
27 Aug 2025 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, economics of education
Jonathan Haidt wrote the book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. It is about how polarized and nasty our politics have become, how everyone loves to demonize and ridicule anyone from a different political party. But these are things that Adam Smith talked about in his book The Theory…
Adam Smith Meets Jonathan Haidt (on political polarization and the animosity of hostile factions)
04 Feb 2025 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, applied price theory, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, law and economics, politics - New Zealand, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking
Bryce Wilkinson writes – If you believe some of its critics, the pending Regulatory Standards Bill is a demonic measure to end New Zealand society as we know it. This is beyond false; it is ridiculous. In fact, it is a modest transparency measure. It will better inform the public about laws and regulations likely […]
Property, liberty, transparency: the principled basis for the Regulatory Standards Bill
19 Jan 2025 1 Comment
in Adam Smith, applied price theory, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, economics of love and marriage, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, law and economics, poverty and inequality, property rights, unemployment
Tweet… is from page 53 of the late, great Harold Demsetz’s excellent 2008 book, From Economic Man to Economic System: Adam Smith and Thomas Malthus differed in their forecasts of mankind’s future. Smith (1776), in his Wealth of Nations, offered an optimistic view, basing this on his understanding of the new economic system that began…
Quotation of the Day…
22 Aug 2024 1 Comment
in Adam Smith, economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: free speech, political correctness, regressive left. Age of Enlightenment
Jonathan Haidt wrote the book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. It is about how polarized and nasty our politics have become, how everyone loves to demonize and ridicule anyone from a different political party. But these are things that Adam Smith talked about in his book The Theory…
Adam Smith Meets Jonathan Haidt (on political polarization and the animosity of hostile factions)
28 Jul 2022 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, history of economic thought
25 Apr 2022 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, applied price theory, history of economic thought
25 Feb 2022 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, financial economics, fiscal policy, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, monetarism, monetary economics
01 Nov 2021 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, applied price theory, economic history, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, labour economics, labour supply, managerial economics, occupational choice, organisational economics, personnel economics, survivor principle Tags: compensating differences
12 Nov 2020 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of regulation, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, managerial economics, market efficiency, organisational economics, property rights, Public Choice, rentseeking, survivor principle, theory of the firm Tags: corporate governance
23 Sep 2020 Leave a comment
in Adam Smith, applied price theory, applied welfare economics, Austrian economics, comparative institutional analysis, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, economics of crime, economics of education, economics of information, economics of regulation, entrepreneurship, history of economic thought, industrial organisation, law and economics, politics - USA, Public Choice, rentseeking, Richard Posner, Ronald Coase, Ronald Coase, survivor principle Tags: competition and monopoly, competition law, creative destruction, offsetting behaviour, patents and copyright, The fatal conceit, The meaning of competition, unintended consequences
Celebrating humanity's flourishing through the spread of capitalism and the rule of law
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