On Friday, Uber will aim to raise as much as $9 billion on the New York Stock Exchange in an IPO that could give the ride-hailing company a market valuation of nearly $90 billion. What is expected to be the biggest US IPO of the year so far has also become a flashpoint in the […]
Fifty years ago, in June, the last space race came to end. As much a political project as a technological one, it ranks for many people among mankind’s greatest achievements. The scale of that success has perhaps been lost by a combination of time and repetition. Once the highest mountain has been climbed the best […]
Europe’s relentless assault on American technology continues. The French government is rushing to effect a domestic “digital services tax” after months of unsuccessfully advocating its EU-wide adoption. The new three per cent revenue tax on earnings since January 1 2019 will only apply to around 30 online firms, hence it becoming known as a “GAFA” […]
It’s that time of year again. Congress has resumed squabbling over budgetary matters with the passing of the March 2 deadline to reinstate the federal debt limit. In order to avoid immediate default, the Treasury Department has likely begun to implement what are known as “extraordinary measures”, such as forgoing further investment for federal worker […]
The great train debate is not just a minor contretemps between the small-state supporters and scorners. It is one that has implications for millions of people everyday. You may have read other authors on this site extol the virtues of privatisation of long-distance rail and evidence this by demonstrating how it has improved the train […]
With just three weeks left until March 29, the countdown to Brexit Day has never looked more uncertain. As the clock ticks on, confusion continues over what options remain on the table, what’s firmly off the table, and even how much longer the table will exist. Crucially, an extension to Article 50 does not mean […]
There’s nothing so dangerous to the public interest as the entire political class agreeing on a single idea. Yet this is what is happening in Washington, DC, about the issue of share buybacks and dividends. That Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren don’t understand how the capitalism works is hardly a surprise. But, as The Telegraph reports, […]
Despite giddy excitement in Westminster regarding the formation of The Independent Group, the most sobering news of the week was the announcement that Honda would be closing its Swindon factory in 2021, taking 7000 jobs with it. The news leaked out before Honda had announced the reasons for the closure. Inevitably, many jumped to conclusions […]
We are said to be living in an age of rapid technological transformation, with another game-changing new gadget just around the corner and innovations overhauling everything from how we communicate to what jobs we do. But is our economic system really as innovative as we think? Not according to this week’s guest on Free Exchange. […]
When Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar came to office in June of 2017, he styled himself as the ‘Irish Macron’. A month earlier the French President had entered the Elysée Palace and was riding a wave of purpose and popularity. Nearly two years on, following a bruising encounter with the gilets jaunes protesting about French fuel […]
The question is when, not if, “Big Tech” will “get regulated”. I can’t remember the last time I flicked through a newspaper and didn’t stumble on a columnist condemning the “arrogant” FAANGs (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) and demanding that regulators bring them to heel. (As an aside, I can’t think of logical reason to […]
Philip Hammond’s decision in this week’s budget to abandon the Private Finance Initiative has been regarded by some commentators as the adoption of a “Corbyn-lite” policy by the Conservatives. Such a claim misses the point. After all, PFI has been used to fund a huge expansion in government spending whilst pushing the costs, in an […]
Few areas of policy surrender better exemplify the failure of the Government’s Chequers proposal than its plan to keep the UK tied to EU energy rules after Brexit. Though it has received little attention amongst the sound and fury of the wider debate, the Chequers plan to maintain “continued and broad co-operation on energy” with […]
Cash transfers transformed the life of a 63-year-old widow from eastern Rwanda according to a recent New York Times article. These transfers were part of a study funded by Google.org and USAID that analysed the different outcomes from three types if aid: in-kind aid — providing actual goods and/or services; the monetary equivalent of the […]
I’ve never really understood the point of a think tank launching a commission full of high profile entrepreneurs, politicians, and trade unionists. To start with they tend to be rather dull. High-profile and time-poor individuals don’t back new ideas. Worse, these commissions tend to get dominated by the most politically active members with hobby horses. […]
Pledges to “fix capitalism”, “save capitalism” and “reform capitalism” are usually a good sign that a politician wants to make more than a few tweaks to the rules of the economic game. That’s not always a bad thing. But such proposals deserve close scrutiny. When they come from a politician with a track record of […]
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