Energy price hikes: less moralising, more economics

Bruno Prior
18 January 2022
Energy and Environment

Energy price hikes: less moralising, more economics

The energy-price crisis is an economic problem. It is not a moral problem. It is a matter of bringing supply and demand for various products into alignment. The fact that some people may suffer does not make it a problem that can be solved by moralising. The options for alleviating the suffering are all in ... Continue reading
Bruno Prior
18 January 2022
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How the Great Awokening has absorbed Millennial Socialism (or vice versa?)

Kristian Niemietz
13 January 2022
Markets and Morality

How the Great Awokening has absorbed Millennial Socialism (or vice versa?)

Last month, Instagram influencer and fashion entrepreneur Molly-Mae Hague appeared on a podcast on business-related issues. She made a fairly anodyne comment about career success: "You're given one life and it's down to you what you do with it, like, you can literally go in any direction. […] [O]bviously we all have different backgrounds and ... Continue reading
Kristian Niemietz
13 January 2022
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The collapse in demand for rail transport heightens the need for sector-wide reform

Len Shackleton
12 January 2022
Transport

The collapse in demand for rail transport heightens the need for sector-wide reform

Omicron, or the Government’s reaction to it, has damaged the economy in many ways. One which hasn’t been much discussed is its effect on the railways. As with many businesses, self-isolation has produced staffing shortages – leading in this case to significant numbers of cancelled trains. But the more important effect has been to reverse ... Continue reading
Len Shackleton
12 January 2022
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In Memoriam: Linda Whetstone (1942-2021)

Robert Boyd
4 January 2022
Markets and Morality

In Memoriam: Linda Whetstone (1942-2021)

“I applaud your aim to build on the success of the IEA in Europe, America and further afield.”  So wrote the Prime Minister to Antony Fisher forty years ago. No-one did more to fulfil that aim than Linda Whetstone. A vibrant network of now 500 think tanks in 100 countries, many very far afield indeed ... Continue reading
Robert Boyd
4 January 2022
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Classical liberalism and the geopolitical stand-off with Russia

Edwin van de Haar
22 December 2021
Government and Institutions

Classical liberalism and the geopolitical stand-off with Russia

Generations of students of international relations (IR) at British universities have learned that liberals detest war and actively seek possibilities to eradicate conflict out of world politics. For example by shifting power from the nation state to international organisations, or by the expansion of international law, setting clear norms and punishing those states that do ... Continue reading
Edwin van de Haar
22 December 2021
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Linda Whetstone (1942-2021)

15 December 2021
Society and Culture

Linda Whetstone (1942-2021)

It is with great sadness that we write of the passing of Linda Whetstone. Linda was Chairman of the Atlas Network, an international association of free-market think tanks, and of Network for a Free Society. As the daughter of Sir Anthony Fisher, co-founder of the Institute of Economic Affairs, she followed his legacy as a ... Continue reading
15 December 2021
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Beware the false prophets of NHS “privatisation”

Kristian Niemietz
10 December 2021
Healthcare

Beware the false prophets of NHS “privatisation”

I sometimes wonder whether some of the Guardian’s regular contributors secretly despise their readers, given how easily they believe obvious nonsense as long as it confirms their fashionable, high-status beliefs. If I were Allyson Pollock, a professor of Public Health at Newcastle University, I certainly would. Prof Pollock has been writing guest contributions for the ... Continue reading
Kristian Niemietz
10 December 2021
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The decline in poverty and the increase in the number of billionaires go hand in hand

Rainer Zitelmann
6 December 2021
Economic Theory

The decline in poverty and the increase in the number of billionaires go hand in hand

The Index of Economic Freedom, which is compiled every year by the Heritage Foundation, shows that the most capitalist countries have an average per capita GDP of $71,576. That compares with $47,706 for the world’s “predominantly free” countries. At the other end of the scale, the “mostly unfree” and the “repressed” countries have a per ... Continue reading
Rainer Zitelmann
6 December 2021
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“Yet you participate in society”: in defence of “Mr Gotcha”

Kristian Niemietz
3 December 2021
Society and Culture

“Yet you participate in society”: in defence of “Mr Gotcha”

When this blog was launched over a decade ago, most of my articles were rebuttals of the latest nonsense I had read in the Guardian or the Independent. Those publications are, unfortunately, still around, and they are still just as wrong about most things and just as annoying as they were then, but they have ... Continue reading
Kristian Niemietz
3 December 2021
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The Great NHS Privatisation Quiz

Kristian Niemietz
25 November 2021
Healthcare

The Great NHS Privatisation Quiz

The citations below are (with one exception) all from major national newspapers or magazines (such as the Guardian/Observer, the Independent or the New Statesman). Time-specific references have been removed. Can you guess which year each quote is from? The answers can be found below.   “These proposals smooth the way for the privatisation of the ... Continue reading
Kristian Niemietz
25 November 2021
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