Category Archives: Uncategorized
Paris Liberation Day
Today (25 August) is the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Paris from German occupation (see here and here) as well as my first day back in the classroom after the summer break and my 57th birthday!
Sunday song: My boo
I will resume my survey of “Adam Smith problems” in the next day or two; in the meantime, check out the hit song “My boo” by Ghostown DJs from the 1990s: Footnote: for me, “My boo” is the Tom Brady … Continue reading
Adam Smith and John Wesley’s Final Sermon at Oxford
Below is an excerpt from Chapter 5 (“Das Oxford Problem”) of my forthcoming survey of open Adam Smith problems with Salim Rashid: “Why did Smith ditch Oxford in 1746? Did this decision have anything to do with John Wesley’s final … Continue reading
Adam Smith’s anvil
Below is an excerpt from Chapter 4 (“Das Ambossproblem”) of my forthcoming survey of open Adam Smith problems with Salim Rashid (again, footnotes are below the fold): “… The Wealth of Nations and Theory of Moral Sentiments were not the … Continue reading
The sleepy sentinel problem
Below is an excerpt from Chapter 3 (“TMS Problems”) of my forthcoming survey of open Adam Smith problems with Salim Rashid (footnotes are below the fold): “Was Smith a closet consequentialist? Next, we want to share our favorite open problem … Continue reading
Another Adam Smith problem: Arthur Cole’s puzzle
What is “Arthur Cole’s puzzle”? This enigma refers to an obscure but curious Adam Smith problem identified by Arthur H. Cole (pictured here), an economic historian at Harvard and the head librarian of the Harvard Business School back in the … Continue reading
Das Problem des Reichtums: What does Adam Smith mean by *wealth* in The Wealth of Nations?
Below is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of my forthcoming survey of Adam Smith problems with Salim Rashid: “’Wealth’, in the words of Robert L. Heilbroner, ‘is a fundamental concept in economics—indeed, perhaps the conceptual starting point for the discipline.’ … Continue reading
Abstract of *Adam Smith Problems*
My colleague and friend Salim Rashid and I have been working on a new book-length manuscript tentatively titled Adam Smith Problems. (Here is our first draft.) In summary, we survey a wide variety of open problems and unsolved mysteries regarding … Continue reading
Update Re: *Adam Smith in the Salons of Paris*
Alain and I expanded on the introduction to our work-in-progress, “The Philosopher’s Muses: Adam Smith in the Salons of Paris“, by adding the following passages (footnotes omitted): “Adam Smith resided in the Faubourg Saint-Germain in Paris for several months in … Continue reading

