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The “progressive” takeover of America
Fred Hansen
19 July 2010
0 comments

The present Democratic leadership of the United States avoids owning up to the “progressive” philosophy it adheres to. This may be because the US government’s finances are expected...
Graduate tax? No thanks
Len Shackleton
16 July 2010
14 comments

One of the things which the Blair government got right was establishing the principle of student fees in higher education. It is depressing to see our hyperactive coalition government, in the person...
Switzerland has no official poverty statistics. So what?
Kristian Niemietz
15 July 2010
2 comments

In the early 1960s, Chicago economist Milton Friedman travelled to Hong Kong to meet Sir John Cowperthwaite, the colony’s Financial Secretary. The economic development of Hong Kong had aroused...
Pssst! Wanna boost kids’ smoking? Have a display ban!
Patrick Basham
15 July 2010
24 comments

Public health regulations frequently serve exclusively to prevent legal capitalistic acts between consenting adults. But the fact that prohibition’s history is a history of failure never stops...
Lansley’s health reforms evade the key issue of individual responsibility
John Spiers
14 July 2010
1 comment

My recent book on health policy, Who Decides Who Decides?, discussed the many ways in which central government does all it can to avoid placing money directly into the hands of the consumer....
No need to raise VAT – there is a source of cuts to dent the deficit and benefit us all
Martin Cassini
14 July 2010
2 comments

Not all cuts spell pain. The traffic control industry is ripe for reform that could bring massive savings as well as a transformation in road safety, congestion and quality of life. The industry is...
The census only serves to perpetuate the illusion that central planning is possible
Philip Booth
14 July 2010
2 comments

It is very welcome news that the government is planning to scrap the census from 2021. Indeed, you might have first seen this suggestion on the IEA blog last February. It has been suggested that the...
Salary sacrifice – should it be sacrificed?
Peter Morgan
13 July 2010
0 comments

Salary sacrifice pensions have become a popular choice for pension saving. They are beneficial for both individuals and businesses that often make huge savings by reducing their...
Public sector pensions: how they could be reformed
Philip Booth
13 July 2010
0 comments

Audio podcast for The Economist:  
Public spending: the difficulty of being rational
Peter King
13 July 2010
2 comments

Like most people interested in politics I have been following the financial crisis and the manner in which politicians have tried to deal with it. I quite agree that deep cuts are needed in public...
Do spending cuts harm governments’ re-election prospects?
Dan Osborne
12 July 2010
2 comments

Should David Cameron worry that restraining public spending will hurt his chances of being re-elected? Recent political history will reassure him. In the 1980s and 1990s countries such as the...
British government DEFAULT
D. R. Myddelton
9 July 2010
4 comments

It is distressing to witness yet another piece of financial chicanery by the British government, which now proposes to substitute the Consumer Prices Index for the Retail Prices Index as the “...
Poverty targets and tax credits: don’t follow the will-o’-the-wisp
Kristian Niemietz
8 July 2010
0 comments

In hindsight, what would you say were the largest political achievements of the New Labour government? Whatever you have in mind now, I bet the answer is different from the one which the...
How to reform public sector pensions
Richard Wellings
7 July 2010
1 comment

Today, the Public Sector Pensions Commission - which was established in autumn 2009 by the IEA, the Institute of Directors and other groups - has released its report, Reforming Public...
Don’t lecture the drinkers, just make them responsible
Mark Littlewood
6 July 2010
7 comments

Alcohol consumption is now a major problem in British society. Drunken teenagers are running rampant in our town centres. Accident and emergency wards are chock-a-block with people who have fallen...
“The Austrian School” by Jesús Huerta de Soto
Andre Johnston Phijuntjitr
6 July 2010
1 comment

It has become increasingly clear that interventionism played a significant role in precipitating the 2008 financial crisis. The Austrian School is more than capable of providing the...
The Rahn Curve and the growth-maximising level of government
Daniel J. Mitchell
5 July 2010
3 comments

 
Keynesians now face the final curtain
Charles K. Rowley
2 July 2010
12 comments

For those too young to remember, the mid-1970s witnessed the first demise of Keynesian economics as the much-worshipped Phillips Curve turned positive in depicting the relationship between the rate...
Pension age should be raised more rapidly
Anthony Bouselli
1 July 2010
8 comments

" The Emergency Budget included a proposal to raise the state pension age for males from 65 to 66 by 2016. This increases the retirement age significantly earlier than the original...
Tuition fees: £7,000 needn’t be a “crunch point”
Ralph Buckle
30 June 2010
4 comments

Once again the issue of university funding has reared its head. As is often the case, the government has turned to an independent review for a solution. And as with a lot of reviews of this nature,...
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