« Price gouging: The beat goes on | Main | Boudreaux on economic freedom »
September 22, 2005
More on the Econoblog
Arnold Kling at EconLog noticed the WSJ Econoblog yesterday. He poses the discussion question:
If your goal were to have first-year economics understand, say, the role of markets in addressing the disruption in gasoline supplies caused by a hurricane, how would you propose to teach this?
See the comments over there for discussion.
Roberts responds to a critic at Cafe Hayek.
Gavin Kennedy checks in with a comment and a link to his site on Adam Smith's Lost Legacy. He blogs on that site as well. I'll be adding that to the blogroll.
On Smith, please notice the link in the Econoblog piece where I talked about Smith. If you missed it, here it is again.
My study of Adam Smith was influenced tremendously by Deirdre McCloskey. I was fortunate enough to be a part of a graduate seminar in which Deirdre and a handful of us grad students read The Theory of Moral Sentiments, beginning to end. It was there that I came to appreciate Smith like never before. The seminar was great. Dinner at Deirdre's house was always a welcome change for a grad student. But most of all, her thoughts on Smith and the virtues outlined in his various works really resonated with me. I carry it with me to this day.
So read the piece by McCloskey. Just to give you a little teaser, here you go...
The businessmen wearing the Adam Smith ties need to do a little reading of The Wealth of Nations and especially The "Theory of Moral Sentiments" on the train from Westport. Smith did not say, ever, that Greed is Good. And the Christians and other opponents of the sin of avarice need to stop conceding the point to the men of Westport. There is no paradox of thrift, not in a properly Christian world. Nor even in the world we have.
Now, go read the whole thing.
Posted by William Polley at September 22, 2005 4:02 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.williampolley.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/363
Comments
Thanks for the McCloskey link. That is a great read.
Posted by: Steve at September 23, 2005 8:47 AM
I read Professor McCloskey’s article in the Wall Street Journal on what 'Jesus would Spend', etc., following your reference to it. I can see why she made a great impression on you as a teacher. I was most impressed by it and have commented on my Blog: www.adamsmithslostlegacy.com
Having praised it, I made a critical comment to one part of it in respect of Smith's reference in "Moral Sentiments" to the feudal lords ("rich landlords") distributing the surplus above their own consumption of food to their retainers and suppliers of services or 'baubles', being nearly the same as would have been the case if the land was distributed equally. I respectfully disagreed with her assessment that Smith was "incorrect" here.
This does not detract from my appreciation of the bulk of her article and I hope she does not take it personally as it is not meant in that way at all.
I would be interested in her comments (and yours). Meanwhile, I am reading other articles she has published and I will order one of her books (Rhetoric in Economics) from Amazon. Thanks for the heads up.
Gavin Kennedy (Prof)
Posted by: Gavin Kennedy at September 23, 2005 9:40 AM