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What should Cameron cut?
Richard Wellings
8 May 2009
22 comments

The projections in last month’s Budget were terrifying. They suggest that net government borrowing is likely to reach unprecedented levels over the next three years:   ● 2009-10:...
G20: cutting public spending should be the main priority
Richard Wellings
2 April 2009
4 comments

Gordon Brown may be advocating a further fiscal stimulus as a means to promote economic recovery at today’s G20 meeting, but, certainly in Britain’s case, implementing such a policy...
Are large benefit increases wise in a recession?
Richard Wellings
12 March 2009
16 comments

Benefit rates are set to rise substantially next month. State pensions will rise by 5%, while means-tested payments, such as Jobseeker’s Allowance, will rise by 6.3%. The new rates, based on...
The slow death of private property
Richard Wellings
23 February 2009
7 comments

The part-nationalisation of Britain’s banks represents a further extension of state power and the erosion of private property rights. There is a huge danger that under political influence the...
Questions over quantitative easing
Richard Wellings
13 February 2009
8 comments

From a monetarist perspective, a strong case can be made in support of the Bank of England’s decision to engage in quantitative easing. A severe deflationary shock would cause big problems for...
Testing times for “New Europe”
Richard Wellings
5 February 2009
2 comments

Recent unrest in Latvia and Bulgaria has emphasised the economic difficulties faced by the formerly communist countries in central and eastern Europe. Indeed a new IEA study, New Europe’s Old...
Heathrow expansion vs high-speed rail
Richard Wellings
23 January 2009
20 comments

The Conservative Party has proposed an alternative to the £9 billion expansion of Heathrow. A high-speed rail line would be constructed along the route London-Birmingham-Manchester-Leeds to...
Government health services are failing patients
Richard Wellings
8 January 2009
comments

State-dominated healthcare systems are failing the poor and chronically sick. And Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) is one of the worst examples. It is plagued by waste,...
Green ‘New Deal’ will sink the UK further into the red
Richard Wellings
5 January 2009
4 comments

Will a green ‘New Deal’ help get Britain out of recession? The Liberal Democrats, for example, have proposed the reopening of disused railway lines as a means of boosting the economy....
Madoff and the regulation of financial markets
Richard Wellings
18 December 2008
4 comments

The Madoff scandal is yet more bad news for the financial sector. Several major banks may have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the alleged scam. An important question is whether this would...
Slam the brakes on bailouts
Richard Wellings
16 December 2008
22 comments

Following the bailout of several banks, the government is now considering measures to ‘save’ the British car industry. Such a bailout would be wrong in itself but would also set a very...
The Pre-Budget Report: will Atlas shrug?
Richard Wellings
25 November 2008
14 comments

One of the most noteworthy elements of the 2008 Pre-Budget Report was the planned increase in income tax rates to 45% for those earning over £150,000. This measure is intended to...
Can we afford ‘affordable’ housing?
Richard Wellings
21 November 2008
12 comments

Yesterday it was announced that the Greater London Authority (GLA) is to create 50,000 ‘affordable’ homes. But do such schemes actually increase the affordability of housing? When developers are...
The case for lifting prohibitions
Richard Wellings
11 November 2008
15 comments

The last century has seen a steady expansion of the ‘nanny state’, a process that has arguably accelerated in the last decade. A ‘banning culture’ has developed, with...
Welfare reform needed to prevent long-term dependency
Richard Wellings
3 November 2008
2 comments

According to official figures, almost two million people are now unemployed in the UK. That number is rising rapidly as the economy shrinks. This means extra expenditure on welfare benefits, putting...
A Keynesian spending spree won’t lead the economy out of recession
Richard Wellings
24 October 2008
6 comments

Alistair Darling’s proposed spending spree on bringing forward major capital projects suggests the government is prepared to sacrifice the economy’s long-term interests for short-term...
Monetary policy a cause of depressions
Richard Wellings
16 October 2008
6 comments

Several bloggers, including Guido Fawkes, have rightly emphasised the relevance of Ludwig von Mises’ work to the current financial crisis. The writings of Mises’ pupil, Nobel...
The government should ditch Crossrail to help balance the books
Richard Wellings
9 October 2008
10 comments

The British government unwisely entered the current slowdown with a sizeable budget deficit. Recent bank bailouts are likely to push the national accounts further into the red and increased...
The hidden cost of environmental scares
Richard Wellings
30 September 2008
comments

Environmental scares have a long history. At the end of the 18th century, Thomas Malthus predicted that rapid population growth would lead to war, pestilence and famine. Almost 200 years later, the...
The economics of windfall taxes
Richard Wellings
9 September 2008
12 comments

The imposition of a windfall tax on energy companies is supported by a majority of the public and many politicians. Revenues would be used to support low-income households struggling to pay gas and...

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