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We assess Adam Smith’s enduring ideas—moral authorization of commerce, division of labor, emergent order—and confront where his optimism breaks: how democratic politics and business fuse to create monopoly privilege. The result is a maintenance‑intensive commercial order that needs competition defended, not assumed.

• presumption for markets under secure property, justice, and competition
• division of labor as the main engine of productivity and growth
• invisible hand reframed as emergent order, not automatic virtue
• critique of mercantilism, monopoly privilege, and rent seeking
• limited but real state functions: defense, justice, public works, education
• motivational symmetry and public choice constraints on government
• trade clarity: buy where cheaper, specialize, gains from exchange
• competition as a public good that must be defended

Happy 250th birthday, Wealth of Nations

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