Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations Episode 10: Always Contemporary

Send us Fan Mail We assess Adam Smith’s enduring ideas—moral authorization of commerce, division of labor, emergent order—and confront where his optimism breaks: how democratic politics and business fuse to create monopoly privilege. The result is a maintenance‑intensive commercial order that needs competition defended, not assumed. • presumption for markets under secure property, justice, and competition • division of labor as the main engine of productivity and growth • invisible hand reframed as emergent order, not automatic virtue • critique of mercantilism, monopoly privilege, and rent seeking • limited but real state functions: defense, justice, public works, education • motivational symmetry and public choice constraints on government • trade clarity: buy where cheaper, specialize, gains from exchange • competition as a public good that must be defended Happy 250th birthday, Wealth of Nations If you have questions or comments, or want to suggest a future topic, email the show at taitc.email@gmail.com ! You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz