Guardianomics: another fusion of paternalism and bogus economics


If J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic The Lord of the Rings was re-made into a seasonable film today, it would probably look like this: The Dark Lord Sauron would be replaced by Sir Terry Leahy, while Tesco would take the place of Sauron’s dark empire Mordor . The threatened idyll of the Shire, where lovely Hobbits form a small-is-beautiful barter economy, would be replaced by a pastoral Merry England of some distant past. The titanic clash between the evil wizard Saruman and the wise wizard Gandalf could be replaced by the recent showdown between Tim Montgomerie who dubbed Terry Leahy a ‘champion of the poor’, and Guardian journalist Alex Renton , who thinks that “Sir Terry has done more damage to the fabric of British life than any other businessman in modern times”.

Dr Kristian Niemietz is the IEA's Editorial Director, and Head of Political Economy. Kristian studied Economics at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and the Universidad de Salamanca, graduating in 2007 as Diplom-Volkswirt (≈MSc in Economics). During his studies, he interned at the Central Bank of Bolivia (2004), the National Statistics Office of Paraguay (2005), and at the IEA (2006). He also studied Political Economy at King's College London, graduating in 2013 with a PhD. Kristian previously worked as a Research Fellow at the Berlin-based Institute for Free Enterprise (IUF), and taught Economics at King's College London. He is the author of the books "Socialism: The Failed Idea That Never Dies" (2019), "Universal Healthcare Without The NHS" (2016), "Redefining The Poverty Debate" (2012) and "A New Understanding of Poverty" (2011).



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