Recently Caught My Eye …

Lynne Kiesling

The long-anticipated collapse of the U.S. Postal Service is nigh, according to this very detailed Business Week article, and none of you will be surprised to learn that political stalemates are part of the story.

The convergence of two parts of my world: whisky to energy in Scotland! Contracts have been signed in Speyside for a new power plant that will use distilling draff (spent grains and liquid residue from the copper stills) for its fuel. Participating distilleries include Glenlivet and Macallan. Slàinte!

Gavin Kennedy provides a gentle correction to Dani Rodrik’s interpretation of the meaning and implication of Adam Smith’s analysis of the human “propensity to truck, barter, and exchange”, which Rodrik inaccurately claims to be innate in Smith’s view. Kennedy’s pointing to Smith’s connection of that propensity to our “faculties of reason and speech” is accurate and important to bear in mind because, as Kennedy points out in this excellent post, Smith saw this exchange propensity as a “foundation of human social life”, not just commercial activity. I could not agree more.

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