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Tax havens: the search for scapegoats
Kristian Niemietz
9 March 2009
6 comments

At a time when both public deficits and government spending are increasing (bank bailouts and stimulus packages), there is immense political pressure to address the issue of tax havens....
Gordon’s speech to Congress
Philip Booth
6 March 2009
4 comments

Surely Gordon Brown needs a new speech writer. Apparently the US Congress voted with their feet, with the empty seats being filled up with staffers but, had they stayed, what would they have...
The drug laws don’t work, they just make things worse
Nick Silver
17 February 2009
42 comments

Last week the government chose to ignore its own advisors and decided not to downgrade ecstasy to a “class B” drug. This is despite substantial evidence that existing policies have...
Why central banking doesn’t work
Terry Arthur
10 February 2009
10 comments

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What does Osborne mean?
Philip Booth
4 February 2009
4 comments

On Monday, George Osborne made an interesting speech. It would have been a good opening statement at a dinner party of economists. There was a lot to chew on but the ideas were ill defined. But they...
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...
The financial crisis: more transparency, less regulation
Michael Beenstock
2 December 2008
22 comments

The gut reaction to the current financial crisis is that we need more and better regulation. Few understand that regulation is part of the problem and not its solution. The solution lies in...
Why regulation fails: Baby P and Northern Rock
Philip Booth
18 November 2008
4 comments

Without wishing to trivialise the former, there are eerie similarities between the tragic case of Baby P and the failure of Northern Rock. In the banking sector, the FSA, which has virtually...
Does competition law really do much good?
Martin Ricketts
17 November 2008
6 comments

The newspapers have been full of reports recently about the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer summoning senior bankers and ‘ordering’ them to reduce the interest rates charged on...
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...
The press has managed to ignore the facts, the history and the economics of banking
Terry Arthur
10 October 2008
2 comments

On 9th October, Anatole Kaletsky, Associate Editor of The Times, wrote “Banking crises have never been resolved purely by market forces. Once a financial panic starts, government intervention...
Short selling, imprudence and the Archbishop of York
Philip Booth
2 October 2008
comments

Christians have a duty to be properly informed when they speak out. Catholics specifically call the sin of blundering into the unknown “imprudence”. Surely the...
Let them fail
Peter J. Boettke
27 September 2008
4 comments

The market economy is a profit and loss system. Imprudent decisions do require correction – if not by the individuals themselves, then by others who enter into the market in the hope of...
Thumbs down for Bush’s bailout
Philip Booth
26 September 2008
8 comments

Until last week, it seemed that one only needed a couple of PhDs in monetary economics and finance to make head or tail of what was going on in financial markets. It now seems that a PhD in...
Shepherds of the flock produce woolly thinking
Philip Booth
25 September 2008
comments

It is always disappointing when Bishops follow the mob rather than trying to lead their flock. The Archbishop of York joined in the name calling yesterday. Today, in the Spectator, the...
A welfare state for bankers
Philip Booth
8 September 2008
8 comments

Many of us have long argued that the welfare state underwrites irresponsible behaviour and crowds out the institutions that could have provided schools, hospitals and social insurances privately....
Do markets need government?
Peter T. Leeson
3 September 2008
5 comments

The idea that markets need government is as old as government itself. Even Milton Friedman believed this was true. As he put it: “government is essential both as a forum for determining the...
The dark side of European competition law
Richard A. Epstein
1 September 2008
comments

Competition law (which travels under the name antitrust in the United States) rests on the proposition that the most efficient allocation of goods and services takes place within the framework of a...

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