The Curious Task

Janet Bufton and Sarah Skwire — Why Tweet The Wealth of Nations?

Alex Aragona speaks with SmithTweeters Janet Bufton and Sarah Skwire as they describe what drew them to the idea of reading through all of The Wealth of Nations and providing an ongoing commentary on Twitter, and how Adam Smith's ideas remain relevant. 

References from The Curious Task Episode 98 with Janet Bufton and Sarah Skwire

• Janet Bufton previously spoke on The Curious Task, which you can listen to here. Sarah Skwire has also appeared on The Curious Task here.
• You can read the #WealthofTweets here.
• The digression on silver in the Wealth of Nations can be read online here.
• Previous Smith Questionnaires can be watched on YouTube here.
• Learn more about the works of Adam Smith from Adam Smith Works here.
• Sarah and Janet reflect on their experience with the #WealthofTweets here.

Anton Howes — What Powered Innovation In Britain?

Alex Aragona speaks with Anton Howes about when the sparks of innovation started in Britain, and what fanned the flames moving forward.

References from The Curious Task Episode 97 with Anton Howes

• You can read more about the Age of Invention at the substack where Anton Howes writes about his ideas here. You can also find his working paper titled The Spread of Improvement here.
• Deirdre McCloskey details her arguments about ethics and commerce in her series which begins with Bourgeois Virtues, available for purchase from Amazon here.
• The European Guilds by Sheilagh Ogilvie is available for purchase through Princeton Press here.

Bill Easterly — What Is The Tyranny of Experts?

Bill Easterly tours some of the concepts from his book The Tyranny of Experts, and explores why technocrats imposing their own form of economic development on cultures and peoples can produce more harm than good.

References from The Curious Task Episode 96 with Bill Easterly

• You can purchase a copy of The Tyranny of the Experts by Bill Easterly here. 
• The End of Poverty by Jeff Sachs can be found on Amazon here.
• The Road to Serfdom by F.A. Hayek can be purchased here.

Dennis Rasmussen — Did America Fail?

Alex Aragona speaks with Dennis Rasmussen about his findings on how the American Founding Fathers truly felt about the experiment they designed and built as time went on.

References from The Curious Task Episode 95 with Dennis Rasmussen

• Dennis Rasmussen previously joined The Curious Task to speak about his book The Infidel and the Professor, and you can listen to that episode here.
• The book discussed on this episode of The Curious Task is Fears of the Setting Sun by Dennis Rasmussen, which can be purchased from Amazon here.
• The rising sun armchair can be seen digitally here.
• More information on the Federalists can be found here, and the Anti-Federalists here.
• The soundtrack to Hamilton can be listened to here.

Graeme Thompson — What Is Canadian Liberalism?

Alex Aragona speaks with Graeme Thompson about the classical liberal tradition in Canada, and what the evolution of that tradition has looked like.

References from The Curious Task Episode 94 with Graeme Thompson

• A collection of the speeches of Wilfred Laurier can be found in an edited edition by Arthur Milnes, available from Amazon here.
• Macdonald Laurier and the Election of 1891 by Christopher Pennington can be found from Penguin House here.
• Graeme Thompson’s piece “Whatever Happened to Laurier” can be found in the National Post here.
• Graeme mentions positive and negative liberty by Isaiah Berlin, which is discussed on the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy here.
• The works of Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and J.S. Mill can be read for free through the Online Library of Liberty.

 

Jacob Levy — How Should Liberals Think of Social Injustice?

Jacob Levy gives a tour of his thoughts on the conversations surrounding social justice, and how liberals might consider the topic from the perspective of social "injustice".

References from The Curious Task Episode 93 with Jacob Levy

• You can listen to Jacob Levy’s other appearances on The Curious Task here and here.
• Rationalism, Pluralism, and Freedom by Jacob T. Levy can be purchased from Amazon here.
• You can purchase Free Market Fairness by John Tomasi from Amazon here.
• You can read more concepts of spontaneous and emergent order found in Hayek here.
• Judith Shklar lays out her argument about injustice in her book The Faces of Injustice (which can be purchased here).

Sandy Ikeda — What Would Jane Jacobs Do?

In honour of her birthday, Sandy Ikeda explores the ideas of Jane Jacobs and reflects on how her thinking on urban centres is still relevant today.

References from The Curious Task Episode 92 with Sandy Ikeda

• You can listen to Sandy Ikeda discuss “Why Can’t a City Be a Work of Art?” on The Curious Task here.
• A copy of Jane Jacob’s Death and Life of Great American Cities can be purchased from Amazon here. Some of her other works include The Economy of Cities (available here) and Systems of Survival (available here).
• For those who want to learn more about Austrian economics, our friends at the Frasier Institute have released an introduction to the subject here.
• You can read more about the thoughts Sandy Ikeda has on Urban Design and Social Complexity here.

Terence Kealey — Should Government Fund Science?

Terence Kealey speaks about the history of state involvement in funding science and technology, and why it may not be as good or innovative of an idea as it may seem.

References from The Curious Task Episode 91 with Terence Kealey

• You can purchase a copy of Sex Science and Profits by Terence Kealey on Amazon here.
• The story of Katalin Karikó is explored in detail in this article.
• Terence Kealey has a chapter in Visions of Liberty, available for purchase here.

Nick Cowen — Should We Regulate Online Sex Work?

Alex Aragona speaks with Nick Cowen as he explores the current state of sex work regulation, and what approaches regulators could (and should) take when considering the increasing online landscape for these services.

References from The Curious Task Episode 90 with Nick Cowen

• Nick Cowen is the author of Neoliberal Social Justice. You can read the first chapter of his book here.
• Nick Cowen’s article Sex Work and Online Platforms: What Should Regulation Do? can be downloaded and read here. Within the article, the section which specifically explores the various models of sex work regulation begins on page 5.
• Markets without Limits by Peter Jaworski and Jason Brennan can be found here.
• Michael Munger speaks more about transaction costs in the economy with our friends at Econtalk here.
• An explanation of the key debates currently about sex work can be found by following this link.

Alex Salter — Did Central Banks Get COVID-19 Right?

Alex Salter dives into Federal Reserve policies during the pandemic, what it got right and wrong, and what the lasting impacts will be.

References from The Curious Task Episode 89 with Alex Salter

• Alex Salter is the co-author of Money and the Rule of Law along with Peter Boettke and Daniel Smith. His book can be purchased from Amazon here.
• To read more about the Federal Reserve’s actions during the financial crisis from Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve Donald Kohn, see here.
• Alex Salter’s most recent commentary on the Federal Reserve at AIER can be found here and here.
• Alex Salter discusses the Federal Reserves response to COVID-19 here.
• For more information about the accountability and transparency of the federal reserve, see the report from Scott Sumner at the Mercatus Center found here.

Dan Griswold & Sabine El-Chidiac — What Should Immigration Policy Look Like After The Pandemic?

Dan and Sabine discuss their newest policy brief with the Mercatus Center, and what changes they'd like to see to Canadian and American immigration policy as it relates to movement between the two countries.

References from The Curious Task Episode 88 with Dan Griswold & Sabine El-Chidiac

• The policy brief co-authored by Daniel Griswold and Sabine El-Chidiac titled “Deepen Us-Canada Ties with a Post-COVID-19 Agreement for the Free Movement of People can be found here.
• Dan Griswold’s book Mad About Trade: Why Main Street America Should Embrace Globalization can be purchased on Amazon here. 
• For more information on Canadian Immigrants in the United States, see this information from the Migration Policy Institute here.
• Dan Griswold explains his stance on Employment-Based Immigration Policies found in Australia and Canada in an interview with the Washington Journal here. 
• Find Free to Move: Foot Voting, Migration and Political Freedom by Ilya Somin available for purchase here. Ilya Somin also appeared on the Curious Task to speak about voting with your feet here.

Bas van der Vossen — Who Owns Your Labour?

Alex Aragona explores standard readings of Lockean property rights theories with Bas van der Vossen, and then explore Bas' idea on what might be missing from these traditional understandings and interpretations. 

References from The Curious Task Episode 87 with Bas van der Vossen

• Bas van der Vossen explores the historical entitlement theory, including some of the points he included in his presentation about Robert Nozick’s version during the podcast, at this link.
• You can read John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government online at this link. Chapter 5, On Property, forms the basis of much of this week’s discussion,
• This article titled, John Locke: Some Problems in Locke’s Theory of Private Property, on libertarianism.org features Nozick’s famous tomato juice analogy that objects Locke’s principle of labour mixing, and is also an extension of the discussion brought up by Bas during this episode.  
• Here is an excerpt by Bas van der Vosen on Hume’s idea of property rights as convention.
• You can access Bas van der Vossen’s work on the “Enough and As Good” Lockean proviso here. 
• Here is a paper by Hillsdale College on the appropriative water rights doctrine in the Western United States that Bas briefly mentions during the podcast. 
• Bas mentions the water shortages that California faces from waterway droughts. An article that details the “Tahoe to tap” option can be accessed at this link.

Matt Warner — What's Wrong With Foreign Aid?

Alex Aragona speaks with Matt Warner as he explores the dilemma that outsiders face when trying to do good for others, and why local knowledge is so important. 

References from Episode 86 with Matt Warner

• Matt Warner is the author of, Poverty and Freedom: Case Studies on Global Economic Freedom, which can be purchased from Amazon Canada here.
  
• Eric Beinhocker’s book, The Origin of Wealth, was mentioned by Matt because it makes a Hayekian case for use of knowledge in society and that there is more than one type of knowledge in an array of complex adaptive systems. This book can also be purchased on Amazon Canada at this link.
  
• Matt mentions Jeffrey Sachs’ crop yield project in Uganda during the podcast. You can read some of Sachs’ work for the Africa Growth Initiative here. 
  
• Francis Fukuyama’s book, The End of History, can be purchased from Amazon Canada at this link.
  
• Stephen Holmes co-authored the book, The Light That Failed, with Ivan Krastev, which is also available for purchase on Amazon Canada here. 
  
• Why Nations Fail is another book cited by Matt during the podcast. It was co-authored by James Robinson and is available on Amazon Canada here.
  
• You can read Mohamed Bouazizi’s story and how it ignited the Arab Spring here.
  
• Mauricio Miller’s book, The Alternative, is listed on Amazon Canada at this link.
  
• Amartya Sen’s book, Development as Freedom, can be found on Amazon Canada here. 
  
• You can explore Jeremy Shapiro’s work on development economics on his website.
  
• Samantha Power’s memoir, The Education of an Idealist, is available for purchase on Amazon Canada at this link.
  
• Daron Acemoglu and James Robinsson’s book, The Narrow Corridor, was also mentioned by Matt during the podcast and can be purchased here.
• You can read Freedom House’s report on the state of democracy around the world in 2021 here.

Paul Robinson — Is Russia a Threat to Democracy?

Alex Aragona speaks with Paul Robinson about whether Russia is trying to meddle with Western democracy, and if he thinks the recommended solutions might be worse than the alleged threat.

References from Episode 85 with Paul Robinson

• You can listen to Paul Robinson speak about military intervention on The Curious Task
• Paul Robinson regularly writes on his blog Irrussianality, which you can read online He is also the author and editor of several books, which can be found here.
• Alex references an essay on disinformation which was published on the CRTC website, which can be read
• Paul Robinson talks specifically about disinformation on his blog in the post “Watching the Disinformation Watchers” which can be read
• Alex suggests you read the unpublished introduction to Animal Farm by George Orwell, which can be found

Scott Scheall — What Is The Fundamental Problem of Political Life?

Alex Aragona speaks with Scott Scheall as he explores how the knowledge problem and other epistemological considerations must be considered before political incentives.

References from Episode 84 with Scott Scheall

• Scott Scheall is the author of the book, F. A. Hayek and the Epistemology of Politics: The Curious Task of Economics, which can be purchased from Routledge at this link.
  
• You can read The Green New Deal resolution presented during the 1st session of the 116th Congress here.
  
• David Hume’s essay, Of the Independency of Parliament, where he talks about political writers as a maxim and how every man ought to be a knave, is available for reading at this link.
  
• Scott references James Buchanan’s idea of “politics without romance” in public choice theory where the assumption of knowledge is a starting point from his co-authored book, The Calculus of Consent. This book can be accessed here.
  
• You can read more about Milton Friedman’s work on command economies here.can
  
• Scott cites F. A. Hayek’s book, The Use of Knowledge in Society, to the argument that gathering data is not a problem for central planning, but that the particular circumstances of time and place are what determine success. This book can be accessed here.
  
• You can read F. A. Hayek’s work, Cosmos and Taxis, here.
  You can read Scott’s op-ed with Parker Crutchfield, There Are No Experts On That for Which We Really Need Experts, published on the American Institute for Economic Research at this link.

Shikha Dalmia — How Does Minority Activism Help Stop Authoritarianism?

Alex Aragona speaks with Shikha Dalmia about minority groups as defenders of rights and freedoms, and the North American libertarian movement during and after Donald Trump's presidency.

References from Episode 83 with Shikha Dalmia

• You can read Shikha’s articles published at Reason Foundation here and her articles in The Week here. 
• Here are some statistics of the the share of votes for Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential Election by ethnicity, produced by Statista.
• This is the Washington Post article by Radley Balko that was referenced by Shikha during the podcast, titled, Meet the police chief turned yoga instructor prodding wealthy suburbanites to civil war.
• Here is Ward Connerly’s biography.
• You can access the full text of the Federalist Papers by James Madison at this link.
• The Liberty Fund has a full version of the letter written by Lord Acton to Bishop Creighton which includes the famous quote, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” (1887) at this link.
• This link will direct you to the original text of The Civil Rights Act (1964).
• This is an article detailing the history of the poll tax in America.
• This is a BBC article that discusses the exclusion of Muslims from the reforms to India’s Citizenship Act.
• Shikha briefly mentions the population dynamics inAntebellum America. Here is an article on the demography of the slave population in Antebellum America for extended reading that was featured in The Journal of Interdisciplinary History.
• This is the codification of Title XI of the Education Amendments Act (1972).
• The Washington Post has an article on Barry Goldwater’s history that was released in commemoration of his passing in 1998 and can be accessed here. 
• You can read more articles written by David French, a Christian conservative critical of Trump and proactive on the topic of religious freedom, at his profile on The Dispatch here.
• This is a link to some quotes by Samuel Johnson on liberty.

Art Carden — Why Are We Rich?

Alex Aragona chats with Art Carden as he explains the kind of deal we need to make if we want to see great prosperity.

References from Episode 82 with Art Carden

• Art Carden is the co-author of the book, Leave Me Alone and I’ll Make You Rich, with Deirdre McCloskey, which is available on Amazon Canada at this link (Kindle Edition and Hardcover).
• Art references Shylock from The Merchant of Venice and Iago from Othello, whose full texts are accessible through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s website (titles hyperlinked).
• This is an interactive graphic by Our World in Data on the world literacy rate overtime.
• Here is a link to a further elaboration of Adam Smith’s quote that “people of the same trades seldom meet together … but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices” and one of “the great deal of ruin in a nation” that were mentioned by Art (Courtesy of the Adam Smith Institute).
  This is a link to William Nordhaus’ working paper on the gains from innovation. 
• You can read more about Fred Shuttlesworth on the encyclopedia website of the King Institute at Stanford University at this link. 
• You can watch the 2007 D5 Conference that hosted Steve Jobs and Bill Gates together and features a question on the “desktop paradigm” on Youtube at this link.
• You can read Thomas Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle Population on The Library of Economics and Liberty website. 
• Here is a link to the Youtube series, Free to Choose, featuring Milton Friedman. 
• You can purchase John Kenneth Galbraith’s book, The New Industrial State, on Amazon Canada at this link.
• Here is a list of the Top 10 Fortune 500 companies.
• Andrew McAfee’s book, More from Less, talks about the dematrialization of economic growth and can be purchased on Amazon Canada here. 
• Art mentions Robin Hanson’s concept of the Futures Market during the podcast. You can read more about it in this article by Robin Hanson.
• Thomas Sowell’s book, A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles, is available on Amazon Canada at this link.

Erik Kimbrough — What Influences Our Choices?

Alex Aragona speaks with Erik Kimbrough as he explores the role social norms, groups, and other factors play in our decision making processes.

References from Episode 81 with Erik Kimbrough

• You can find a list of Erik’s work here, or on SSRN and RePEc (Erik Kimbrough), some of which were quoted during this episode and formed the basis of discussion. These include Erik’s discussions on norm-compliance (with Mark Pickup and Eline de Rooij), corruption, social preferences (with Alexander Vostroknutov), and marriage (with Mahsa Akbari).
• This is a rundown of The Dictator Game in economics as presented by Daniel Kahneman et al.
• This is the paper written by George Stigler and Gary Becker, Accounting for Taste, that was mentioned by Erik in the podcast.
• You can read about Adam Smith’s impartial spectator and sentiments at this link (Adam Smith Institute). 
• You can read more about the economist Douglass North at this link (The Library of Economics and Liberty).
• The book, The WEIRDest People in the World by Joe Henrich, that was mentioned by Erik is available on Amazon Canada at this link. 
• Friedrich Hayek’s quote that “Man is much a rule-following animal as a purpose-seeking one” is from his book, Law, Legislation and Liberty, which can be accessed here.

Ross Emmett and Steve Slivinski — What Policies Hurt Business?

Alex Aragona chats with Ross Emmett and Steve Slivinski as they explore the policies that can hurt businesses, and their work on the Doing Business North America index.

References from Episode 80 with Ross Emmett and Steve Slivinski

• Ross Emmett and Stephen Slivinski are directors of the Doing Business North America project. Their 2020 report forms the basis of this episode and can be found at their website at this link.
• Here is a link to the Doing Business Report by the World Bank that was briefly mentioned in the podcast. 
• You can read the Philadelphia Inquirer’s article on the barriers of doing business in Philadelphia here.
• An in-depth explanation of the DBNA’s methodology and business categories is available for reading at this link.
• The DBNA Land Use index was inspired by The Wharton Residential Land Use Regulatory Index, which can be accessed here. 
• Here are the recent rankings of the DBNA report, which includes a comparison of the performance in cities in Canada, Mexico, and the United States (including the top five and five lowest-performing cities).
• You can interact with the data collected by DBNA at this link.
• Virginia Postrel’s book, The Future and its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress, can be purchased on Amazon Canada at this link.
• Here is an article on the Bootleggers and Baptists problem coined by Bruce Yandle.

Peter Jaworski — What Is Libertarianism?

Alex Aragona speaks with Peter Jaworski as he explores his definition of libertarianism, and how different kinds of morality can lead to certain conclusions about libertarian institutions.

References from Episode 79 with Peter Jaworski

• Peter Jaworski is the co-author of the book, Markets without Limits: Moral Virtues and Commercial Interests, which is available for purchase on Amazon Canada at this link.
• Peter mentions B. van der Vossen’s article on self-ownership published on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which can be read here. The general article on libertarianism starts at this link.
• You can read more about Jonathan Haidt’s moral foundations theory on the website, moralfoundations.org.
• Peter mentions the three-way division between people cited in Jason Brennan’s book, Against Democracy, which is also available on Amazon Canada at this link. 
• This article on libertarianism.org captures David Hume’s is-ought dichotomy that was briefly mentioned by Peter during the podcast. 
• The Acton Institute publishes many articles that demonstrate how their theological views endorse libertarian institutions on their website, acton.org.
• You can read John Stuart Mill’s libertarian conclusions in On Liberty at this link.
• Peter mentions Chris Freiman during the episode, who has published blogposts on learnliberty.org.   
• You can read more about the natural rights argument of Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in this article on libertarianism.org. 
• The Lockean-Nozick justification of property rights has also been written about in this article on libertarianism.org.
  
• Here is the link to Ayn Rand’s book, The Virtue of Selfishness, that explores the concept of ethical egoism.
• Michael L. Frazer has a book on Adam Smith’s theory of sentimentalism and how it departs from that of David Hume, which can be accessed here.
• You can purchase Michael Huemer’s book, Ethical Institutionalism, that was recommended by Peter at this link.
• Jan Narveson makes a contractarian case for libertarianism in this article on libertarianism.org.
• Here is Roderick Long’s article, Eudaimonist Libertarianism, that was published on bleedingheartlibertarians.org.
• Dan Sanchez published an article called, In Defense of Mises’s Utilitarianism, through the Mises Institute and is available for reading here.
• Here is Kevin Vallier’s article, A Rawlisan Case for Libertarianism, which also draws parallels to F. A. Hayek. 
• You can explore Milton Friedman’s natural rights-oriented political philosophy in his book, Capitalism and Freedom, which can be purchased from Amazon Canada at this link.
• Here is a joint article by John Tomasi and Matt Zwolinski called, A Bleeding Heart History of Libertarianism, which was published in Cato Unbound and can be read at this link. 
• This is a link to the Libertarian Party of the United States.
• Deirdre McCloskey elaborated on her idea of The Great Enrichment in this article published on the Foundation for Economic Education.