Wealth of laughs on classic tome

Scott Yates, Special to the News

Published January 26, 2007 at midnight

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Who but P.J. O'Rourke would dare reduce a 900-page tome about economics to a 216-page laugh-riot? But then, the author and political observer always has excelled at reporting extensively on completely humorless topics in ways that make you fall off your chair laughing. His latest, On the Wealth of Nations, riffs on Adam Smith's classic 18th-century economic study. In advance of his appearance in Denver, O'Rourke spoke about the book, and more, by phone from New York.

Question: You've said, 'Nobody reads (Adam) Smith now and certainly nobody will in the future.' Given that, is your book a bad sign for the world, or a good sign?

Answer: It's a bad sign (laughter). I didn't want to bore the reader with this too much, but I sort of hope that this book will send people to the big book and give them a few guideposts about what's going to be most interesting. . . . Also, I'd like to send them back to (Smith's) other book, Theory of Moral Sentiments, which is a book that actually can be enjoyed in its entirety. It's still a little slow going, but it's an extremely good book."

Q: I was surprised, given that Smith is from Scotland, that you didn't write about drinking Scotch while reading his book.

A: Plenty of Scotch was drunk, believe me, between tracts of Wealth of Nations. Funnily enough, they didn't drink much Scotch. He and his ilk would have thought of Scotch much what we would think of hillbilly moonshine. They were wine drinkers.

Q: There are some great books similar to yours - diving into something nerdy and then writing about it. What makes this different is that you didn't do any writing about the process of reading such a huge book. . . . Do you have any anecdotes about the reading of Smith's book?

A: My poor wife got her ear bent a lot during this, but she was a business major so she had a better idea what I was talking about than I did. She was very kind in not constantly correcting me.

Q: You once said of a Tom Wolfe novel, that it 'gives such offense to modish sensibilities that the modish haven't yet fully realized how offended they should be.' The same might be said about Smith's attack on anti-free-traders: People like Pat Buchanan or John Edwards, even 225 years later, still don't know how offended they should be.

A: That's quite true. Or Paul Krugman would be another example, or Lou Dobbs. Boy, it chops Lou Dobbs into little pieces. They probably won't look at it, so I suppose it doesn't matter to them. Where in God's green earth did you come across that quote?

Q: You know, the Internet. Speaking of which, I want to increase my Google rankings, so I have to ask about Paris Hilton, who you mention, not once, but twice in your book. Does that do you proud?

A: Did I really mention her twice? Oh, yeah, I did. No, I'm a little ashamed about myself for not knowing more about pop culture to pull up some better examples, but as shame goes, that's a very very minor one.

Q: You are probably the only reporter who's asked both Bill Clinton and Colin Powell which is their favorite Beatle. Who would Adam Smith's favorite be?

A: I've always thought that was an important question to ask. I don't think Smith would have picked Ringo, which is the only right answer. I suppose from an economic point of view, the answer would be clear: At least up until his divorce, it would have been Paul. I don't think he would have cared much for any of them, though he would have been fascinated.

Q: You've got an interesting world perspective because of your travels, and now reading Smith. What might the two of you say about all the problems in the Arabic world?

A: It's lack of jurisprudence, lack of the rule of law. They've got all the other tools. One thing to be said in favor of the Middle East - god knows there must be something!- is that their economic understanding, particularly of the principles of trade and banking, is excellent.

Adam Smith actually mentions it. They built a whole banking system without interest. What they did, if I can indulge in a moment of business talk, is build a system with equity instead of debt. So if you put your money in my bank, I give you a part of the equity of the bank instead of interest. Or if I give you money to start your business, you give me a share of the business. So they realized as early as 600 A.D. that debt and equity can serve the same functions. So they have a marvelous banking system.

Kipling remarked on it 120 years ago or so. He said you could get a note of hand in Suez and cash it in Peshawar - "note of hand" being a check. . . . and that's still true to this day. I mean, there is this amazing Islamic banking system. It's one of the reasons it's been so hard to trace the al-Qaida money. It's so sophisticated, and yet there's no paper trail. It's all done on trust. So, they've got everything going for them except for unbelievably stinky governments.

Q: You've done a lot of hard traveling, Beirut in the '80s and all the rest. How does spending all this time with an old book compare to those adventures?

A: It's more age-appropriate in terms of the strain on body, brain and psyche.

If you go

• What: P.J. O'Rourke appears to promote his new book, On the Wealth of Nations.

• When: Cocktail hour at 6 p.m. Thursday; O'Rourke's talk at 7 p.m.

• Where: The Denver Press Club, 1330 Glenarm Place.

• Cost: $40 for the reception, which includes appetizers, an autographed copy of the book and the 7 p.m. talk; $15 for the talk alone.

• RSVP: 303-571-5260 or at denverpressclub@qwest.net.

Scott C. Yates is a Denver entrepreneur and freelance writer.

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