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“A new turn to religion in Smith studies helps provide a bertter understanding of the great Scottish philosopher and political economist than has traditionally been on offer. […] Rather than providing a close textual reading and explication of a particular passage or a comprehensive survey of religious and theological themes in Smith’s work, this essay sets the stage for a broad theological understanding of Smith.”
“In the first of multi-part ‘Ask Us Anything’ series, Professor Donald J. Boudreaux explains Adam Smith’s stance on trade and mercantilism and elaborates on why Smith remains the greatest debunker of mercantilist policy to this day.”
“Price control is an ancient form of regulation. Adam Smith was the first to criticise price regulation from an economics perspective, in his famous book The Wealth of Nations. Smith’s insight – which forms the basis of modern economists’ views of price control – was that attempts to arrest price increases during periods of scarcity (due to war or drought) are not helpful and lead to famine. Freezing price changes – or seeking to reduce prices below market-determined levels – is likely to maintain demand at levels which supply cannot meet.”
“Whatever your political leanings, one thing is clear: Smith speaks on both sides of a longstanding debate about the fundamental values of modern market-oriented society. But these arguments over Smith’s ideas and identity are not new. His complicated reputation today is the consequence of a long history of fighting to claim his intellectual authority.”
“Smith wasn’t warning about government intervention in the market; he was warning about goverment capture”
“These short essays range from studying the background of Smith’s works to elaborating his views on economics, politics, ethics, religion, social vision, morality, and philosophy. There are thirty-two separate chapters, each written by a scholar well-acquainted with Smith and his works”, say Paul Mueller in his review for the Economic History Association.
“Russ Roberts — economist and host of the excellent EconTalk podcast — wrote a penetrating essay last week on what we can learn from Adam Smith’s first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments.”
“The choices underlying marketplace transactions are more complicated and less narrowly self-regarding than we often suppose. By returning to the full corpus of Adam Smith’s writings, we can escape economistic conceptions of human beings and enhance our understanding of how market economies actually work.”
