Again and again, I hear managers ask government for stability. You can’t make plans for capital investment and business without expectations about the future. Government sets up big players in society which not only set expectations through tax and regulation, but which can change their minds, spoiling people’s plans, often […]
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Contemporary crony capitalism – Living with Leviathan
For a contemporary and historical account of the scale of the state and its relations with nominally private business, I recommend David B. Smith’s excellent Living with Leviathan: Public Spending, Taxes and Economic Performance: In the last 90 years the proportion of national income spent by the UK government has increased […]
Read MoreHow crony capitalism happens – public choice theory
It’s common for politicians and officials to discuss “market failure” before setting out how the government will correct those failures. However, government fails too and with widespread, profound consequences for us all. Why? Dr Eamonn Butler’s Public Choice – A Primer explains how Public Choice Theory applies the methods of economics […]
Read MoreBook review: C S Lewis, The Four Loves
C S Lewis is one of my favourite authors and not just for the reserved brilliance of Mere Christianity. In contrast to his strictly Christian writing, The Abolition of Man is essentially a work of political philosophy, a critique of those ideas which seek to escape the body of natural law […]
Read MoreEconomics in One Lesson: tariffs and the drive for exports
Today, I continue my précis of Henry Hazlitt’s brilliant 1946 book, Economics in One Lesson, with two chapters covering tariffs and the drive for exports. The index page is here. Who’s “Protected” by Tariffs? The Drive for Exports On this subject, see also Razeen Sally’s excellent Trade Policy, New Century: […]
Read MoreBook review: Popper, All Life is Problem Solving
Karl Popper’s All Life is Problem Solving is a wonderful collection of his speeches and shorter writings in two parts: Questions of natural science and Thoughts on history and politics. I first discovered Popper through The Open Society and its Enemies, a vehement defence of democracy against totalitarianism. Many of […]
Read MoreBook review: Tom Bingham’s The Rule of Law
Tom Bingham’s The Rule of Law is a lively and enjoyable short book on a much misunderstood but relied-upon subject. My quick guide to the Rule of Law was inspired by Hayek’s The Constitution of Liberty. Perhaps in being contemporary, Bingham reflects the growth of state power since Hayek’s book was published […]
Read MoreLuigi Zingales – Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity
This morning, I had breakfast with the engaging and insightful Luigi Zingales, Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance at Chicago Booth and author of Capitalism for the People: Recapturing the Lost Genius of American Prosperity. Via Amazon: A rising star in economics takes a forceful and sometimes personal look at how […]
Read MoreThe missing link in the professional debate about the economic crisis: production time
Roger W Garrison’s Time and Money: The Macroeconomics of Capital Structure bursts with insight but this from the final chapter could be the missing link in the debate about the economic crisis: [D]oes the existence and variability of production time have a first-order claim on our attention? This is the question […]
Read MoreGold Wars, Ferdinand Lips
In Gold Wars, Swiss banker Ferdinand Lips sets out the case that gold and freedom are inseparable. Over 254 pages, he shows how governments fight against gold, a vital restraint on their spending and therefore interventions in the lives of free people. It’s a case which ex-Federal Reserve Chairman Alan […]
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