It’s Not Easy, but We Can All Learn to Think like Adam Smith
To truly understand what a dynamic economy requires, we would do well to recover the 18th-century sensibility that understood dynamism as a social and cultural phenomenon as much as an economic one.
When the disciplines of economics and sociology were being invented in Britain 250 years ago, their progenitors such Adam Smith, David Hume, Adam Ferguson and others were preoccupied with how vibrant commercial activity and human behavior were related. Economic dynamism was not only about economic growth, money and the division of labour, though it was that, too. It was about how and why individuals make commerce succeed.
The father of modern economics, Adam Smith, memorably wrote in his 1776 ‘Wealth of Nations’ that merchants made much better land developers than the landed gentry. Their ‘habits… of order, economy, and attention,’ cultivated in urban markets, formed the bedrock on which their profit and successful projects were built.
The languid posture of the aristocrat, in Smith’s telling, is a good picture of stagnation. Satisfied with the status quo and unable to envision how their land could produce a profit, they live uncreatively and do not recognise innovation.
Stagnation is everywhere in the news now. And with good reason. Slowing productivity, aging infrastructure, fiscal imbalances, less innovation – these and related trends make dynamism in the UK seem more like a thing of the past than the future.
Economic Dynamism
AI and the Future of Society and Economy
Large language and generative AI models like ChatGPT are the equivalent of the first automobiles: fun to play with, somewhat unreliable, and maybe a little dangerous. But over time, the lesson for will be clear: Who Learns Fastest, Wins.
Automated Detection of Emotion in Central Bank Communication: A Warning
Can LLMs help us better understand the role of emotion in central bank communication?
How We Built the Arsenal of Democracy
By unleashing the energy, creativity, and drive of the private sector to rebuild our defense-industrial base, we can trigger a tech-industrial revival of the American economy.
The $130 Billion Train That Couldn’t
California’s High Speed Rail is only the latest blue-state infrastructure failure.
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The Fictions Holding Down the Economy
When crises from statist economic policies happen, “the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.”
The Fed Has Gone Adrift—It’s Time to End The Bureaucratic Mission Creep
The Federal Reserve must do less—and do it better.
