Not a perfect analogy, but a disturbing anecdote and an intriguing comparison: “Some of the savage nations in North America tie four boards round the heads of their children, and thus squeeze them, while the bones are tender and gristly, into a form that is almost perfectly square. Europeans are astonished at the absurd barbarity […]
Adam Smith on slaves to fashion Read More »
At the APEE conference next month in Las Vegas, I will be presenting “The Evolution of the Mixed Economy – A Schematic Approach.” My talk integrates themes from several major thinkers from whom I have learned a great deal: Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, and Gordon Tullock.
APEE talk on the mixed economy Read More »
My colleagues in the Department of Philosophy, Shawn Klein and Matthew Flamm, will be leading a reading group on Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Adam Smith is best known as an economist and a critic of mercantilism and as an early advocate of market economies. Less well known is Smith the moral philosopher.
Reading group on Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments Read More »
The estimable Adam Smith, writing over two centuries ago. When you read the following passage, do you find (as I do) that Smith is describing many current public schools and state universities? “In other universities, the teacher is prohibited from receiving any honorary or fee from his pupils, and his salary constitutes the whole of
Adam Smith on accountability in education Read More »
Putting into one flowchart what I have learned from Adam Smith, Ayn Rand, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, James Buchanan, and Gordon Tullock. The flowchart is in spreadsheet format: the short version and the long version in Excel 2007 or in Excel 97-2003. Update: DJ Dates has a cool, scalable Google maps version
Pathologies of the mixed economy (or, How we got into this frackin’ mess) Read More »
3/30 Here is an occasionally snarky interview with the gutsy Christopher Hitchens and Infidel was published in February. 3/28 You must watch this 30-minute video of a debate at the University of Toronto: worried about the criminalization of business: cases that should be handled in civil suits are increasingly being taken to criminal courts. Kirkendall
Worth Reading for March 2007 Read More »