In this weeks podcast, Professor Tyler Cowen leads you on an essay-by-essay discussion of Friedrich Hayek¹s essential economics text, Individualism and Economic Order. Why is the use of knowledge in society so important? Did Hayek predict the E

Practical Issues Faced by the Classical Economists

Jul 7th, 2013 1h 20m

We now look at some of the real world events which shaped classical economics, including the Poor Laws, the Corn Laws, the Irish famine, and the debates over monetary policy in this era. This unit is both economic history and a contextual look

After Adam Smith, Part Two

Jul 1st, 2013 1h 40m

This week in our Great Economists course, we move into the heart of classical economics and examine such thinkers as Frederic Bastiat, John Stuart Mill, Friedrich List, and the early French mathematical economists. It is remarkable during this

After Adam Smith, Part 1

Jun 24th, 2013 1h 21m

This week in our Great Economists course, we will highlight important figures that came after Adam Smith and discuss several key questions. Where did classical economics head after Adam Smith? Which ideas became part of the canon and which fell

Wealth of Nations, Book Five

Jun 17th, 2013 45m

Taxes, debt, and fiscal policy are objects of some of the most heated debates in economics today. In this final part of The Wealth of Nations, you can take a look at what Smith thought on all of these topics. In important ways he remains ahead

Wealth of Nations, Book Four

Jun 11th, 2013 35m 26s

Book IV offers some of Smith's most important discussions in Wealth of Nations, including his famous critique of mercantilism. The discussion of the corn trade is a favorite and it provides one of the most incisive understandings of the market

Wealth of Nations, Book Three

Jun 11th, 2013 10m 52s

Book III is Smith at his most wide-ranging, Smith as historian, Smith as urban economist, Smith as growth theorist, and Smith as a thinker about the past, present, and future of Europe. The title -- "Of the different Progress of Opulence in dif

Wealth of Nations, Book Two

Jun 3rd, 2013 19m

In Book II of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith presents his ideas on capital, capital accumulation, and how capital is connected with economic growth. You'll also find some controversial parts of the book here, such as the critique of usury an

Wealth of Nations, Book One

May 28th, 2013 52m

The opening parts of The Wealth of Nations have some of the most important material ever produced by economists. Smith covers the division of labor, the origins of exchange, and the critical question of why productivity differs across nations a

Adam Smith

May 20th, 2013 34m 27s

Adam Smith was arguably the greatest economist of all time, and Wealth of Nations is his greatest book. It remains a masterpiece to this day, and we set out to study it once again. Please join us in this quest to understand and to see the inv

Before Adam Smith, Part 2

May 13th, 2013 56m

In the second section of Great Economists, we will continue looking at early economists and thinkers before Adam Smith. We'll be discussing Richard Cantillon's importance as a monetary theorist, Anne-Marie-Jacques Turgot writings on the distri

Before Adam Smith, Part 1

May 5th, 2013 57m 11s

How did economics get started? What are the historical foundations of economic science and who were the first important writers on economics? The first podcast of the class starts with Galileo (yes, the astronomer) and takes you up through Bern

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