When children are taught the difference between left and right, grown-ups like to make fun of them by saying that all they have to do is to look at their hands: The left is in the direction of that hand on which the thumb is to the right of all other fingers, and vice versa. […]
Last November the U.S. had its general elections. The party of tax cuts and a pro-growth agenda – the Republicans this time – was able to command the largest majority in the Peoples’ House since the 71st Congress was in session from 1929 to 1930. Republicans were also able to wrest control of the Senate […]
It is surprisingly hard to kill bad ideas. Often, they seem to be like the wicked Witch in Narnia. Even when she loses a battle with Aslan, she somehow survives, hides away – and waits for another opportunity to deploy her malice, Thus it is with socialism. In the 1980s, it seemed as if free […]
Welcome to the new version of CapX, the service dedicated to providing you with the best thinking and writing on politics, economics, markets and ideas from around the world. With capitalism under attack, CapX is a venture underpinned by a strong commitment to markets and limited government. Our team scours news sources, commentary, blogs, academic […]
This week, the World Health Organization (WHO) meets in Geneva to discuss its agenda for the year ahead. In addition to pressing topics such as Ebola, officials will discus the Sustainable Development Goals – the replacement for the UN’s Millennium Development Goals, due to expire this year. There is increasing consensus that developing countries should […]
Why immigration is a boon, not a bane, for Britain If you’re among the more than 700 million people who use WhatsApp, the smartphone-messaging service, you have Jan Koum to thank – and the United States, for allowing him to move there from his native Ukraine aged sixteen. Facebook thinks what Koum has created is […]
To paraphrase the famous beginning of Anna Karenina, all declining economies are alike; each growing economy flourishes in its own way. As the European Union strives to find ways to spur its economic growth, it should take seriously Leo Tolstoy’s lesson. Economic growth cannot come by decree, neither can it come by virtue of high, […]
Apologies if you are reading this abroad or if Thought For The Day on BBC Radio 4 means nothing to you. You’re lucky and I’m jealous because I wish I had never heard of Thought For The Day either. But as I live in the UK, and because I’m a fan of Radio 4, which […]
That’s all well and good, my Leftie friends often tell me, but what about morality? Let’s accept, they say, that markets are efficient, that they raise living standards, that they encourage people to invent and exchange things. Let’s even allow, for the sake of argument, that they alleviate poverty. Surely – this line is always […]
Healthcare innovation is not all about new miracle drugs that will be able to cure every cancer or eliminate the risk of heart disease. Although pharmaceutical advancements are certainly crucial, they are the solution to just one small part of the challenges facing the global healthcare industry today: aging populations in developed nations, high population […]
“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.” So famously observed […]
On Sunday evening, the BBC showed the first part of the landmark documentary on the Holocaust from 1985. Shoah was directed by Claude Lanzmann. Everything you have ever heard about the overwhelming power of that remarkable and controversial film is true. If you were unaware of it, or if you haven’t seen it, I recommend […]
This will be the last time anti-globalisers protest at the World Economic Forum in Davos. From 2016, the ministers, chief executives, columnists and assorted quangocrats who gather at the Swiss resort won’t see so much as a stray dreadlock: eco-protesters say the meeting is no longer worth picketing. You can see why they might feel […]
As the ECB meets tomorrow to decide its next move, it can now add the risk of a deflationary spiral to the list of the currency bloc’s afflictions. With rising real debt burdens, perennially high unemployment and stagnant growth, it is difficult to be optimistic about the Eurozone. The timidity of the response to this […]
Since the European Court of Justice has extended the mandate of the European Central Bank, it will be allowed to start a programme of quantitative easing. Economists and pundits are celebrating what the left wing medias in Europe have dubbed as a “victory” for monetary policy. It remains to be demonstrated whether an active monetary policy […]
Most commentators expect the European Central Bank (ECB) to announce quantitative easing (QE) for the Eurozone later this week. French President Francois Hollande is so confident that it’s going to happen that he even pre-announced it to French business leaders. But it’s actually very difficult to see how QE could be implemented at present without […]
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