Thorstein Veblen: The Man Behind Conspicuous Consumption

May I welcome you to the first of a few Adam Smith, Esq. portraits of notable economists?  My source for all in this series is the redoubtable Capitalism and its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI (John Cassidy, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux: New... read more +

Summer Reading List

This column is becoming something of a tradition, and traditions must be maintained. Sitting on various handy tables and shelves around the office and the den at home are, among many other things, the following books taking front and center pride of place during the...

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“I Was Wrong”

Recently The New York Times devoted its Sunday "Opinion" section to the theme, "I was wrong," and several of its leading columnists each penned an essay "I was wrong about...." This set us thinking. And with hardly any hesitation and no second-guessing, we realized it...

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Supply Chains Aren’t Just for Manufacturers

Yes, I'm looking at you, law firm leaders.  You, too, have a supply chain.  It's time to start thinking of it that way. May we take a step back for a moment?  From the redoubtable St. Louis Fed comes a study Supply Chain Disruptions and Inflation During COVID-19 that...

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“Everything Must Go!” (Your Office Edition)

Two plus years after the simultaneous worldwide Office Exodus ("Everybody out of the building!") at the onset of this pandemic, we are at last beginning to emerge from the by-guess-and-by-golly finger-in-the-air period of figuring out what WFH (thank you, Zoom, Webex,...

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