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As the United States confronts an ever-changing set of international challenges, our foreign policy leaders continue to offer the same old answers. But what are the alternatives? In None Of The Above, the Eurasia Group Institute for Global Affairs' Mark Hannah asks leading global thinkers for new answers and new ideas to guide an America increasingly adrift in the world. www.noneoftheabovepodcast.org
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Tracing out Adam Smith’s Book IV, chapters 1–6, to show how mercantilism mistakes money for wealth, how protection creates monopolies at home, and why free exchange raises real prosperity. Smith defends two narrow exceptions—defense and tax parity—while rejecting bounties and politicized treaties that entangle trade with war.
• mercantile vs physiocratic systems and their influence
• wealth as goods and industry, not specie
• balance of trade as a “pestilent error”
• make-or-buy logic and misallocation from tariffs
• invisible hand clarified and limited
• natural vs acquired advantages in specialization
• two exceptions: national defense and tax parity on imports
• drawbacks as refunds vs bounties as subsidies
• corn bounties, higher home prices, cheaper foreign prices
• specie hoards as dams that inevitably overflow
• treaties of commerce, Methuen example, political risk
• case for unilateral free trade over reciprocity
Mentioned in the podcast:
- Laura Williams on Pineapples
- Pineapples in Sweden
- Oren Cass on Adam Smith
- Dan Klein's Law and Liberty piece on Oren Cass on Adam Smith
If you have questions or comments, or want to suggest a future topic, email the show at [email protected] !
You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz
Chapters
1. Setting The Stage: Book IV (00:00:00)
2. Two Systems: Mercantile vs. Physiocracy (00:01:43)
3. Wealth Is Not Money (00:04:22)
4. Balance of Trade Doctrine Critiqued (00:07:41)
5. Baptists, Bootleggers, And Policy Capture (00:10:55)
6. Make-Or-Buy And Free Trade Maxim (00:15:14)
7. Monopoly By Tariff = Misallocation (00:19:44)
8. The Invisible Hand Clarified (00:24:08)
9. Scotland’s Wine And Sweden’s Pineapples (00:28:13)
10. Two Exceptions: Defense And Tax Parity (00:32:17)
11. The Balance-Of-Trade “Pestilent Error” (00:36:55)
12. Drawbacks: Refunds Without Distortion (00:42:03)
13. Bounties: Paying Others To Buy (00:45:20)
14. Corn Bounties And Perverse Prices (00:49:28)
15. Damming Specie: Why Hoards Spill Over (00:53:10)
16. Treaties Of Commerce And War Risks (00:56:10)
17. Methuen Treaty: Cheap Wine, Costly Politics (01:01:00)
18. Unilateral Free Trade Over Deals (01:04:30)
19. Next Up: Colonies And Systems (01:14:59)
67 episodes
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