In the 1980s, Milton Friedman used to declare that the French economy was a mystery to him: “The French government gets everything wrong, and still the country is working”. He explained such a contradiction between a statist economic policy and a decent growth rate, by the extent of fraud and black market trade. Because taxes […]
Most people have something to be disgruntled about China’s economic situation – whether it is its low consumption demand and large external surpluses, industrial overcapacity, environmental degradation, or the range of government intervention spanning from capital controls to financial repression. Pessimists have long called for the demise of the Chinese model, each focusing on a different subset of […]
Anyone who has reflected in this anniversary year on the causes of the First World War will recognize that the one consensual view among all historians is to refer to “causes” in the plural. That is because every cataclysm that occurs in human affairs invariably has more than one origin. Yet there is always a […]
Since the Great Recession, UK household incomes have been squeezed significantly. Median household incomes were still 6.2 per cent below their pre-crisis peak at the end of 2013/14. If the financial crisis had never occurred, households might have expected to have real incomes 20 per cent higher than they do now. This squeeze on real […]
In a profoundly uncertain world, menaced by manifest dangers and by unknown unknowns, there would seem to be an obvious political calculation. In such circumstances, it would be madness to throw over arrangements and institutions which have endured for centuries while delivering prosperity and stability. Yet a significant proportion of the Scottish electorate seems prepared […]
Most of the discussion about the Scottish referendum on independence, , scheduled for September 18, 2014, has focused on the fact that as of late the pro-union forces have maintained a narrow lead, most recently at about 47 to 41 percent. What has gone less remarked as to why any reference to the 50 percent […]
“It’s the economy, stupid.” The mantra coined by James Carville for Bill Clinton’s 1992 election campaign and adopted by western politicians has largely lost credibility among analysts of next year’s British general election prospects; but it may be regaining relevance in the context of the current Scottish independence referendum. Seldom has a solitary opinion poll […]
In a scathing article this Monday, the New York Times has attacked recent free market tax reforms in Kansas. The state initiated two rounds of tax cuts in 2012 and 2013 – slashing 25% off the top rate and eliminating all taxes on business profits that are reported on individual income returns – a particularly unprecedented move. […]
In his Imagined Communities, the political scientist Benedict Anderson identifies four waves of nationalism. The first was the “creole” wars of liberation in North and South America, prompted by the policy of the European powers of barring the entry of the “creole” elite to higher official and political office. The accident of birth in the Americas seemed to […]
I view the prospects of the Chinese economy in the coming years with guarded optimism – guarded because distortions are rampant in the economy – from the vast misallocation of resources to the highly distortionary macroeconomic structure that propels a vicious cycle – but optimistic, for exactly the same reason. The existence of important and pervasive distortions means that there […]
Financial scandals these days are like buses: another one comes along every minute. The ripples from Libor have not yet settled, but now the Serious Fraud Office has launched a criminal investigation into allegations about rigging of the £3 trillion-a-day foreign exchange markets by traders at City banks. For all those critics denouncing the evils […]
When David Cameron announced that he planned to hold a referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union the über-Europhiles warned that the debate would damage overseas investors’ willingness to commit to Britain. We now know that that scaremongering was not well founded. Data released last month from UK Trade and Investment found that […]
The Commonwealth is thriving, as the successful Games that closed in Glasgow earlier this month illustrated. Might it be time for the UK to improve its trade links with these former colonies and other friends outside Europe? At present Great Britain’s largest trading partner is the US; or the EU if you consider the whole […]
It is now five weeks since I participated in the Conference organised by the Centre for Policy Studies, dedicated to the memory of Margaret Thatcher. I still remained impressed by the seriousness of purpose that dominated the occasion. The speeches were devoted to explicating the first principles of political organisation, and they frequently made explicit […]
History has proven that free market capitalism may be imperfect but it is undoubtedly more efficient than any alternative economic invention. Even after the 2008 financial crisis, no rational leader or enlightened economist suggests replacing the free market with socialism. Populist mavericks such as Joseph Stiglitz or Paul Krugman advocate more regulation but are no […]
The Reagan/Thatcher revolution was much the most important event in peacetime Twentieth Century history. Though neither leader had read Spengler, both set out to refute him. He proclaimed the decline of the West. They pronounced an anathema on decline and set about persuading their peoples that the best was yet to be. It is important […]
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