Documentary Videos

An Animal That Trades

A five-part short video series on the life and contemporary relevance of Adam Smith. This video series, produced by AdamSmithWorks, can be watch as a full 38-minute feature, or in five thematic, classroom-friendly chunks. To access all, click here.   Below are some discussion prompts related to this video:   Part 1: The Invisible Hand 1. Who do you care for most in the world, and why? 2. How do you know whom to trust? How might you go about teaching someone how to know this? 3. What do you think makes people naturally sociable? 4. The narrator claims that economists today are more often seen as “fortune tellers” or “stockbrokers.” How did Adam Smith see himself by contrast? Do you think this characterization of economists today is correct? Why or why not? 5. What is the real “moral” of the story of the poor man’s son told by Smith? 6. The narrator describes the “spontaneous pattern” of the...