Author Archives: F. E. Guerra-Pujol

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About F. E. Guerra-Pujol

When I’m not blogging, I am a business law professor at the University of Central Florida.

Adam Smith pop quiz: is it better to be a worker or a capitalist?

Chapter 10 of The Wealth of Nations is the second-longest chapter in Book 1 of Smith’s magnum opus: it consists of two parts, contains 115 paragraphs (52 paragraphs in part one, followed by another 63 paragraphs in part two), and … Continue reading

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Adam Smith versus Karl Marx

Chapter 9 of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (available here) is another intellectual and historical tour de force. Among other things, Smith not only compares and contrasts the levels of wealth of many different nations and regions of the world … Continue reading

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Adam Smith: champion of the working classes

Let’s pick up my survey of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations where we left off: with Chapter 8 on “The Wages of Labour” (available here). As it happens, this particular chapter is one of the lengthiest and most tedious chapters … Continue reading

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Santa Cruz de la Sierra update

Last weekend, I got to meet a pro-market sociologist, Fabio Rojas (Indiana), as well as the “open borders” advocate Bryan Caplan (George Mason) at the Santa Cruz Economic and Political Forum in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Among the … Continue reading

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Monday medley: musica de Luis Vega

Luis Vega is a Bolivian singer and songwriter who originates from Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the tropical town where I visited and read Book I of The Wealth of Nations last week. Below is a small sample of his … Continue reading

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Sunday song: Santa Cruz de antaño

I have been reading Book I of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations in the old town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in the lowlands of Bolivia this past week, and I will have much more to say about my … Continue reading

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Adam Smith’s three laws of market price motion

Chapter 7 of The Wealth of Nations (available here) is a veritable economics tour de force. Among other things, Adam Smith draws a distinction between actual price (or “market price”) and natural price (or what Smith also calls “real price”): … Continue reading

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Adam Smith’s general theory of price

In Chapter 6 of The Wealth of Nations (available here), Adam Smith writes: “Wages, profit, and rent, are the three original sources of all revenue as well as of all exchangeable value. All other revenue is ultimately derived from some … Continue reading

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Adam Smith on real versus nominal prices

Chapter 5 of The Wealth of Nations (available here) draws a distinction between “real” and “nominal” prices. To begin, the “nominal” price of any given good or service is its money price, which can change over time, since the value … Continue reading

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Adam Smith’s apology

Picking up where we left off, Adam Smith concludes Chapter 4 of The Wealth of Nations (available here) thus: 4. Para. 18. Last but not least, Smith concludes Chapter 4 with the following words of warning or an apology of … Continue reading

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