Podcasts & Videos

Labor exploitation! Corporate profiteering! Government corruption! The 21st century can look a lot like the 18th. In the final episode of a series, we turn to “the father of economics” for solutions. (Part 3 of “In Search of the Real Adam Smith.”)

In this third part of a three part series, you can hear more about Panmure House and the Panmure House Project

Heather McGregor, Dean of Edinburgh Business School at Heriot-Watt University, joins the podcast to share details newly announced Panmure House Prize, an annual award in honour of pioneering economist Adam Smith for the best research into long-term investing. McGregor also discusses Heriot-Watt’s recent focus on decarbonization research, and her 15+ years writing as the Financial Times’ “Mrs Moneypenny.”

Anne McElvoy investigates the life of the Scottish philosopher now known as the father of modern economics. What does an author who died in 1790 have to teach us about trade wars and crony capitalism in the 21st century? And which American television villain kept a copy of “The Wealth of Nations” on his bookshelf? Music (“Divider”) by Chris Zabriskie (CC by 4.0 UK)

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Adam Smith's celebrated economic treatise The Wealth of Nations.

When we asked you to nominate some intellectual cliches for this series earlier this year, Adam Smith's "invisible hand" cropped up repeatedly, with mentions by Comment is free regulars steffanjohn, JonathanKent and TimWorstall – and PatDavers claiming that "we'd have hours of fun with that one". Well, let the fun commence.

In the third episode of The Big Ideas, Benjamen Walker discusses the meaning and uses of Smith's concept with philosopher John Gray, academic Marianne Johnson, economist Eamonn Butler and Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee. We'll be following up the podcast over the course of this and next week with a series of articles looking at Smith's idea from different perspectives.

Mark Carney’s Reith 2020 Lectures chart how we have come to esteem financial value over human value and how we have gone from market economies to market societies. He argues that this has contributed to a trio of crises: of credit, Covid and climate. And the former Bank of England Governor will outline how we can turn this around.

In this lecture, recorded with a virtual audience, he reflects that whenever he could step back from what felt like daily crisis management, the same deeper issues loomed. What is value? How does the way we assess value both shape our values and constrain our choices? How do the valuations of markets affect the values of our society?

Dr Carney argues that society has come to embody Oscar Wilde’s aphorism: “Knowing the price of everything but the value of nothing.”

In 2020, Professor Heather McGregor, Executive Dean, Edinburgh Business School, Heriot-Watt University contributed to a German documentary series.

The episode deals with the development of our modern economy, from the First Opium War to the current challenges of the 21st century. Prof. McGregor, filmed at Adam Smith's Panmure House appears in episode 3 to discuss Adam Smith's basic ideas and the advantages and disadvantages of communism versus capitalism.

Watch the documentary series (in German).

Join Merryn and guests at her Edinburgh Festival show at Panmure House, the last home of Adam Smith, where they discuss the relevance of Smith’s work to today’s politics and economics – taking in many a tangent along the way. Guests include John Stepek, formerly MoneyWeek’s executive editor; financial historian Edward Chancellor; comedian Simon Evans; and Alex Chartres, investment director at Ruffer.