A Scandinavian economist once stated to Milton Friedman: “In Scandinavia we have no poverty.” Milton Friedman replied, “That’s interesting, because in America among Scandinavians, we have no poverty either”. At first glance, this exchange of words might not seem very exciting. But in fact, it can teach us much about the limits of politics, and […]
The Scottish government has published its Land Reform Bill, based on a pledge by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon when she first took office. “Land reform” is an iconic aspiration for the Scottish Left whose mythology is steeped in a grievance retro-culture relating to the folk memory of the Highland Clearances. It is unfortunate for those […]
In the mid-1970s Time Magazine described a country that sounded much like a utopia. “It is a country whose very name has become a synonym for a materialist paradise”, the international magazine wrote and continued to report “No slums disfigure their cities, their air and water are largely pollution free… Neither ill‑health, unemployment nor old […]
Capitalism is a great system – for filling the pockets of the already rich. But this prosperity comes at the expense of common people, who struggle hard to afford basic services such as health care in the unforgiving market system. This is a common critique against economic freedom. During the 19th and 20th century leftist […]
In two recent articles I’ve argued that the increase in UK house prices from 2000 to 2007 owed much more to strong economic conditions and the easy availability of mortgage credit than to any national or regional shortage of houses. An interesting recent pilot study see by the Financial Times’ Kate Allen (@_Kate_Allen), led by […]
As the protesters took to the streets the day after the election, the usual rhetoric emerged. The system had failed. The Tories with their love of the free market were back in power and back in the business of helping those who already have plenty at the expense of those who do not. Such criticism […]
The Financial Times Lex column says, quite rightly, that bank shareholders should be furious at the latest fines imposed by regulators. Barclays, RBS, J.P. Morgan, Citi and UBS are paying a combined £3.6bn for nefarious activities. While it is true that – incredible as this may seem to baffled taxpayers – the fines for foreign […]
Women’s equality has come a long way in the West. However, with every story of gain we all too often find another story of loss. Take this last week. On the one hand we have the recent election results, which delivered a record number of female MPs in the British Parliament. On the other hand we […]
In a recent CapX article, I argued that there is no UK “housing crisis” and there never was one, if by “housing crisis” one means that the country has run out of houses or that the cost of living in a house (e.g. the cost of renting) has risen enormously. I claimed that house prices […]
It has not been a good week for the British Left. First Ed Miliband was put through the mincer by David Cameron as the Labour party suffered a truly terrible defeat. The opposition has been effectively wiped out in Scotland, where it has only one seat. In the north of England, Labour has UKIP on […]
The political parties have been offering their solutions to the UK’s “housing crisis”. But what does “housing crisis” mean here and why is it believed there is a “housing crisis”? We can consider three things that might be meant by the term “housing crisis”: That there aren’t enough houses — more specifically, there aren’t as […]
Picture America’s financial child, sitting on the knee of Uncle Sam: her hair falls in angelic ringlets and she chews away at a ‘prosperity’ popsicle. Through the door crashes the wild child, America’s moral offspring. He fires his pistol, ‘filthy literature’ and ‘bootleg’ alcohol in hand. When this cartoon ‘Neglecting the Other Child’ appeared in […]
Thomas Piketty has caused a stir with his predictions about increasing inequality and private and inherited wealth growing at higher rates than incomes. His projections are far less certain than often implied in his book. They do not follow from his “two fundamental laws of capitalism” and historical trends. Increasingly, his empirical work has been […]
It was the summer of 2005, and I was fourteen years old. The sixth Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, was due to come out in just two days’ time, and my sister and I had not stopped arguing for a week. The problem was simple. My mother, who was adamantly against […]
Remember the earworm “Que sera, sera”, interpreted by Doris Day, so typical for the Fifties? “When I was just a little girl / I asked my mother, what will I be / Will I be pretty, will I be rich …” Children know that there is no free lunch. Money promises access to the many […]
Are cats really natural libertarians? David Leyonhjelm, the Australian Liberal Democratic party senator for New South Wales, certainly thinks so. Writing in the Guardian on Thursday, he says (with observation to his own cats) that “they are all individuals and refuse to identify with groups”, and concludes “Cats will accept being equal, but nothing less […]
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