Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations is widely regarded as the first comprehensive and systematic treatise on how merchantilism and capitalism actually work.

Smith's observation is twofold: First, the nation-as-marketplace involves the interaction of all the people of the nation, and their interactions have emergent properties (desires either ( Read more... )

Each year Edge Magazine asks a question and invites the intellectual public to answer it. Eric Weinstein, the director of Thiel Capital, has a fascinating article answering the question, "What is the most interesting recent scientific news?" In Weinstein's case, a fascinating case for a man in charge of a venture capital fund, the news is that ( Read more... )