Will Compernolle is an economist in New York City. He blogs, makes podcasts, and writes music about 18th century Scottish economists.
In Adam Smith’s second book—An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, popularly known as simply The Wealth of Nations—he asked why almost all countries at the time of writing were poor except for northwest Europe. His answer was in the first line:
Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 came as a shock to most political analysts, and spurred numerous analyses looking to explain the outcome. One insightful explanation comes from Ezra Klein’s book Why We’re Polarized. Klein sees the election as a culmination of our social psychology mixing with a
To supporters of the market economy, the fall of the Berlin Wall nearly thirty years ago was supposed to mean the undisputed triumph of capitalism. But tensions today from increasing inequality, the rise of populism, and the remarkable growth of China have thrown this foregone conclusion into doubt. Did capitalism’