Apologies and an Explanation

My attention to Blogging duties has been under strain last week and this (perhaps into next week too!) due to my continuing obligations since retirement from fulltime employment at the Business School in the matter of grading MBA Elective examinations in Negotiation. Near on 200 MBA students chose my Elective class this semester and I am grading their efforts, as always subject to the perusal of my work and their efforts by External Examiners from other British Universities, as is the British system - the relative autonomy of faculty in other countries is not copied in UK academe.

Hence, when I get a chance of a welcome break during the grading day - also interrupted by necessary social obligations associated with this time of year in the 'West' - I seize it to read through e-mails about Adam Smith and the ultra-useful summary of economics Blogs on Economics Roundtable (at http://www.rtable.net/index/rt/economics/recent/), the indespensable tool for all economists wishing for access to the best of economics Blogging, and select a subject for comment. All too quickly the time available slips by and I must return to grading. Fortunately, the number of articles misusing Smith's legacy has not been high this past few weeks.

Apologies, therefore, for scanty postings recently. I hope to return to a fuller programme by next week.

Any comments to: gavin [at] adamsmithslostlegacy.com

Incidently, Heriot-Watt University, where I was employed as a Professor from 1982 until March this year, has awarded me the title of Emeritus Professor. I am genuinely honoured and humbled by this unsought award. Academics, even economists, are not just driven by the mores and motives of homo economicus - and I have long doubted that anybody else is either.