The U. of Michigan prof joins us to discuss Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (and Why We Don't Talk about It) (2017) and “What Is the Point of Equality?” (1999). This is really an episode and a half: a full discussion with Liz, then additional talk about the texts (mostly the 1999 article) among your four hosts Mark, Wes, Seth, and Dylan. What is government? Continue Reading …
Bitcoin and Value: A Labor Theory Perspective
The central thesis of François Quesnay’s 1758 Tableau Économique—generally held to be one of the first texts of classical political economy—is that agriculture is the primary source of wealth. This central insight was the foundational claim that gave rise to what is perhaps the first modern economic theory: physiocracy. The term, derived from the Greek terms physis and kratos, Continue Reading …
Episode 177: Guest Russ Roberts on Adam Smith and Libertarian Economics (Part Two)
Continuing with the Econtalk host on the moral aspects of economics, focused by Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiments. Should we sacrifice ourselves to the machine of the economy? Smith wasn't just all about monetary gain: how does his idea of virtue and talk of the "impartial spectator" line up with economic growth? If growth is the key to Continue Reading …
Episode 177: Guest Russ Roberts on Adam Smith and Libertarian Economics (Part One)
The host of Econtalk provides his take on our ep. 174 on The Wealth of Nations, and explores with us the idea of emergent economic order. As preparation, we all listened to a June 2017 episode of Econtalk that featured Russ, Mike Munger, and Don Boudreaux, so you should too! For a graphic introduction to this idea, see wonderfulloaf.org. Is the economy profitably thought of Continue Reading …
Ep. 177: Guest Russ Roberts on Adam Smith and Libertarian Economics (Citizen Edition)
The host of Econtalk provides his take on our ep. 174 on The Wealth of Nations, and explores with us the idea of emergent economic order. As preparation, we all listened to a June 2017 episode of Econtalk that featured Russ, Mike Munger, and Don Boudreaux, so you should too! For a graphic introduction to this idea, see wonderfulloaf.org. Is the economy profitably thought of Continue Reading …
Episode 174: Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” (Part Two)
Continuing on the foundational text of economics. Is Smith's position the equivalent of "greed is good?" (No.) What's the deal with the "invisible hand?" We talk about Smith's picture of the (sort of) self-regulating economy, and why he thinks we shouldn't have tariffs or guilds or other restrictions on the mobility of goods, workers, or capital. We rant a bit in ways that Continue Reading …
Episode 174: Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” (Part One)
On Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. We discuss the foundational text of modern economics, first published in 1776. How does the division of labor and our instinct to exchange lead to the growth of wealth? Is the economy sufficiently machine-like to enable us to manipulate its output, or at least to tell us how not to screw it Continue Reading …
Ep. 174: Adam Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” (Citizen Edition)
On Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. We discuss the foundational text of modern economics, first published in 1776. How does the division of labor and our instinct to exchange lead to the growth of wealth? Is the economy sufficiently machine-like to enable us to manipulate its output, or at least to tell us how not to screw it Continue Reading …
Friedrich Hayek: The Road to Serfdom
I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice. –Friedrich Hayek Military strategists divide large-scale conflicts into “theaters of war.” During the Second World War, for instance, Europe was divided into Western, Eastern, North African, and Atlantic theaters. From the Continue Reading …
Episode 98: Guest Michael Sandel Against Market Society
On his book What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets (2012), and also bringing Sandel into the discussion begun without him in our last episode about his first book, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. Free economic transactions are supposed to benefit both the buyer and the seller, so why not allow prostitution, vote buying, pay-to-immigrate, selling ad space on Continue Reading …
Episode 98: Guest Michael Sandel Against Market Society
On his book What Money Can't Buy: the Moral Limits of Markets (2012), and also bringing Sandel into the discussion begun without him in our last episode about his first book, Liberalism and the Limits of Justice. Free economic transactions are supposed to benefit both the buyer and the seller, so why not allow prostitution, vote buying, pay-to-immigrate, selling ad space on Continue Reading …
Mark and Frithjof on Bloggingheads.tv
In light of our podcast discussions here and here, I'm helping Frithjof Bergmann launch what will hopefully be a series of shorter video discussions on New Work at bloggingheads.tv. We made our first recording yesterday, and it has already been posted: Watch at Bloggingheads.tv There shouldn't be much new here for PEL listeners who've already sat through our two Continue Reading …
Robert Skidelsky on Work
Robert Skidelsky in How Much is Enough?: Money and the Good Life (2012) uses a 1930 essay from John Maynard Keynes (which you can read here) as a jumping-off point to argue, like Bergmann, that productivity gains enabled by past technological advances make it totally reasonable that we now should be working fewer hours than we are. However, Skidelsky's range of suggested Continue Reading …
Recent Stories About Technology and Jobs: The Atlantic, PBS, and HuffPost
Continuing with my ongoing look at the "end of work," here's a short video from Derek Thompson at The Atlantic (Thanks to Ethan Gach for pointing this out to us): Watch at TheAtlantic.com. Continue Reading …