Conservative economic policy is easily recognised when stated as balanced budgets, low taxes and sound money. Today, these are a distant prospect. For all the work the Government have done, this year’s net financing requirement is £144.9 billion, larger than the health budget (£140bn) or education (£98bn). As my weekend brief […]
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Writing today for City AM, Paul Ormerod argues “It’s time to fight the claim that consumer choice doesn’t improve public services”. Quite right. Ormerod indicates one of the trends of our time: The new Labour shadow transport secretary Mary Creagh said last week that she was “open” to the idea […]
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UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) has launched a new pilot marketing campaign called Exporting is GREAT that will run throughout May 2013 to help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) grow internationally. Exporting is GREAT is designed to increase understanding of the benefits of exporting and to drive awareness, and […]
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Via LearnLiberty, Why Do We Exchange Things? The answer is simple. In voluntary exchange, both parties benefit. We exchange things because it makes us happier. Gifts are often wonderful but the giver’s reward is the warm glow of altruism. Only the recipient is better off and only if they received something […]
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Via the Office of Fair Trading, Rises in pump prices for petrol and diesel over the last 10 years have been caused largely by higher crude oil prices and increases in tax and duty and not a lack of competition, an OFT report has found. and, emphasis mine, The OFT […]
Read MoreTomorrow, the BBC Radio 4 programme Analysis features Jamie Whyte’s Keeping the Free Market Faith at 20:30: The financial crisis has made many on the political right question their faith in free market capitalism. Jamie Whyte is unaffected by such doubts. The financial crisis, he argues, was caused by too much state interference […]
Read MoreCrony capitalism — businesses capturing the state for commercial advantage, serving politicians and officials instead of the public — ought to be brought to an end. A prerequisite to that is a good understanding of how social cooperation in the market works. Israel Kirzner’s, How Markets Work: Disequilibrium, Entrepreneurship and […]
Read MoreBefore I left Westminster on Thursday, I submitted this written question to the Chancellor for answer on 2 July: Steve Baker (Wycombe): To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the need for a Competition Commission inquiry into the routine procedures for setting LIBOR. […]
Read MoreThis 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 Government claim progress on cutting red tape for businesses. They have provided the ticker, right, which gives a running update of the red tape scrapped. Under the previous Government, the equivalent of six new regulations every working day were passed, or over 1,500 in a year. In 2011, the […]
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