EconTalk · Russ Roberts

What Is Capitalism? (with Mike Munger)

July 7, 2025·1 hr 20 min·5 clips
Mike Munger connects Adam Smith's impartial spectator to the foundation of justice required for advanced market societies.
Economist Mike Munger joins Russ Roberts to explore the essence of capitalism, framing it as a three-stage system: voluntary exchange, markets, and capitalism itself. They discuss how these stages build on each other, with insights from Adam Smith and Douglas North, and highlight capitalism's unique ability to fund innovation through equity and liquidity.

As heard by us

A steady look at capitalism as specialization, exchange, and the social arrangements that make both work.

Mike Munger and Russ Roberts use capitalism to work through exchange, specialization, and the way a commercial society hangs together. The examples stay grounded in apples, bananas, shoes, fishing, wages, and opportunity cost, which keeps the discussion plain even as it reaches…

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Why you'd press play

For when you want capitalism unpacked as specialization, exchange, and a commercial society that still depends on social glue.

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