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‘But it works in Sweden!’ - The case against naïve egalitarianism
Kristian Niemietz
24 March 2013
5 comments

Since 1979, the consumption level of the poorest tenth of British society has increased by about 60 per cent in real terms. Among this group, 24 per cent have a car, 32 per cent own the home they...
Demand and supply: why the Budget fails on A-level economics
Kristian Niemietz
21 March 2013
5 comments

At first sight, the 2013 Budget seems to mean good news for prospective homebuyers and working parents. Under the new Help-to-Buy programme, the government will act as a guarantor for mortgages...
Single parenthood: the poverty industry’s kryptonite
Kristian Niemietz
6 March 2013
4 comments

Poverty cannot be meaningfully debated without due regard for a population’s demographic risk profile. When it comes to child poverty, this must include a discussion of the role of single...
The poverty industry's weird anti-work agenda
Kristian Niemietz
26 February 2013
3 comments

If you want to get an idea of the poverty industry’s attitude towards poor people, think of an ultra-overprotective parent, who thinks the best way to spare their children from experiencing...
Campaigning for the status quo is not an option
Philip Booth
14 February 2013
comments

The government reached the position in 2009 where it could spend no more. In many respects the position was similar to that in which Britain found itself during the late 1970s. Government spending...
Freeing the poor from the cost of environmentalism
Kristian Niemietz
4 February 2013
2 comments

Even in its current shackled and constrained form, modern capitalism still has a lot to show for it. One of the greatest developments of the last two decades has to be the extension of air travel...
Childcare: how to price the poor out of the market, and then subsidise them back in again
Kristian Niemietz
28 January 2013
4 comments

When New Labour came to power, one in five children lived in a household with no adult in work, so it was not unreasonable that parental work levels became a priority for the new government. A key...
Abolish the CAP, let food prices tumble
Kristian Niemietz
18 January 2013
15 comments

Imagine there was a Food Tax which had the effect of raising food prices by, say, 17% on average. The tax revenue was collected centrally, and then disbursed to agricultural producers. That tax...
Planning reform must be a key ingredient in an anti-poverty package
Kristian Niemietz
15 January 2013
comments

Econometric literature is notorious for its inconclusiveness. Even for seemingly straightforward issues such as the impact of minimum wage laws, you can always find econometric papers on both...
The poverty lobby: single-issuers whose single issue is no longer relevant
Kristian Niemietz
8 January 2013
3 comments

Anyone who has ever read half a page in a Public Choice textbook will, if nothing else, at least have taken the following insight on board: if the benefits of a policy are tangible and concentrated...
Why does the poverty lobby wage war on markets instead of on poverty?
Philip Booth
3 January 2013
1 comment

If the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) were to issue a press release this holiday period, which of the following do you think would be the most likely headline? CPAG claims that the...
What is the 'poverty industry'?
Kristian Niemietz
22 December 2012
6 comments

When I began working on poverty issues, I had the naïve idea that a child poverty activist was somebody who raised money to help poor children. That was not entirely wrong; there are a few...
Autumn Statement: the salami-slicing continues
Kristian Niemietz
7 December 2012
3 comments

  Right from the start, the guiding question behind the coalition’s fiscal strategy has been ‘Which consolidation measures are least likely to get us into trouble?’ rather...
Anything but planning: our housing debate is like the 1970s debate on inflation
Kristian Niemietz
30 November 2012
3 comments

  With the benefit of hindsight, articles on inflation from pre-monetarist days can make a very amusing read. Back then, economic journalists were essentially arguing that inflation is...
Why Europhiles and Eurosceptics don’t understand each other
Kristian Niemietz
26 November 2012
3 comments

I suspect this hypothetical dialogue will look vaguely familiar to many readers: Europhile:        ‘The global economy of the future will be dominated by...
Workfare and welfare-to-work: the devil in the detail
Kristian Niemietz
13 November 2012
1 comment

  The Dutch sometimes find it annoying that most people use the terms ‘Holland’ and ‘the Netherlands’ as synonyms. Holland, they insist, is just one part of the...
The Living Wage campaign: shouting at red signals
Kristian Niemietz
8 November 2012
1 comment

When you get stuck on the tube, and hear the driver’s voice on the loudspeaker saying ‘we are currently being held here at a red signal’ – do you sometimes feel a flash of...
The Living Wage and the traps of motivated reasoning
Kristian Niemietz
2 November 2012
4 comments

  A while ago, I saw a study on American attitudes towards the death penalty, and in particular, on how the belief in its deterrent effect correlates with the belief in its moral...
In praise of trickle-up economics
Kristian Niemietz
24 October 2012
11 comments

  Have you heard about it? Trickle-down economics has failed. Barack Obama says so. Paul Krugman says so. The Wall Street Journal says so. The Guardian says so. You’ll hear it in...
Liberating housing: a free-market approach
Kristian Niemietz
16 October 2012
comments

  ‘If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it.’ This famous quote by Ronald Reagan was meant to be a summary of governments...

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