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Smith closes Book IV by dismantling mercantilism through the lens of colonial policy, monopoly, and rent seeking, then weighs physiocracy against the system of natural liberty. We trace why colonies grew despite Europe, not because of it, and how “wealth as money” broke policy and fueled war.

• mercantilism’s definition of wealth and the balance of trade myth
• monopoly and bounties as tools for concentrated gains
• chapter 7 on colonies as a case study in institutional design
• free ports versus exclusive companies and growth outcomes
• enumeration, navigation acts, and distorted incentives
• defense costs and the arithmetic of empire
• the “nation of shopkeepers” argument and public choice
• draconian wool laws, smuggling, and consumer losses
• physiocracy’s insights and errors, sector favoritism
• the system of natural liberty as Smith’s alternative

You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz

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We trace how Alex Schuessler, the once and once-again President of SmartEquip--also a scholar of expressive choice!--built a platform that makes machines more profitable by erasing the friction between parts, service, and uptime. The rental economy, Japan’s utilization model, and IoT diagnostics reveal why transaction costs, not price tags, decide who should own and who should rent.

• rental vs sharing and why property rights matter
• how serial-number specific data kills errors and downtime
• why parts discounts matter less than service speed
• Japan’s high saturation rental market and long lifecycles
• sensors, IoT, and AI for damage attribution and prevention
• decommoditizing parts through integrated workflows
• Coasean boundaries of the firm and renting incentives
• why RB Global acquired SmartEquip to span the lifecycle
• the back-office puzzle of bespoke systems vs SaaS

“Next week: Book 4, chapters 7–9 from The Wealth of Nations”

• (Parts is Parts, from Wendy's) https://youtu.be/OTzLVIc-O5E?si=Mjz8JX-Sl_sdG6bC
• SmartEquip web site: https://www.smartequip.com/schedule-demo/
• Announcement of Schuessler being (re)hired as President: https://news.ararental.org/schuessler-appointed-president-of-smartequip
• Why Japanese "used" equipment commands a premium: https://everycar-review.com/2025/08/27/voices-from-global-dealers-why-japanese-used-machinery-is-their-first-choice/

You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz

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We explore why money became the default middleman and how a modern platform can make barter practical by slashing the costs of search, matching, and trust. Founder Jassim Baqer shares the story behind Tbadel, what people actually trade, and how reputation, bundling, and scale (might) make swaps work.

• Adam Smith’s "double coincidence of wants" problem and transaction costs
• Platforms as connection engines that lower search and matching costs
• Tabottle’s origin, goals and name meaning exchange in Arabic
• How offers, counteroffers and bundles enable fair value without prices
• Building trust with profiles, ratings, in‑app messaging and reporting
• Local meetups versus future delivery options to cut transfer costs
• Why density and subcommunities unlock multi‑party and chain trades
• What trades dominate now: books, electronics, kids’ gear and services
• AI matching, alerts and global exchange as the growth roadmap
• Two‑sided market dynamics and the path to scale

Tbadel Web Site

Jassim Baqer on LinkedIn

From JJ's letter: Photos of "Parklet" in San Francisco.

You can follow Mike Munger on Twitter at @mungowitz