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On Anglosceptics and little Englanders: how EU commentators got their terminology wrong
Kristian Niemietz
9 June 2009
8 comments

Whether you read a conservative or a left-wing newspaper, a tabloid or the business press, you have probably read many times in the last few days that “Eurosceptic” parties had recorded...
Tax credits: between a rock and a hard place
Kristian Niemietz
27 May 2009
2 comments

Last week it was revealed that at least £7 billion has been paid out wrongly on tax credits over the last five years. Indeed, the tax credit scheme has been accompanied by administrative...
Progressive conservatism – or how to combine the worst bits of two worldviews
Kristian Niemietz
15 May 2009
10 comments

Understatement is perhaps not Phillip Blond’s forte. The director of the “progressive conservatism” project aims at nothing less than ushering in a new era in British post-war...
An alternative Labour Day: Chile’s private pension system turns 28
Kristian Niemietz
1 May 2009
2 comments

Today is International Labour Day, a day to celebrate “the social achievements of the workers”. Or so they say. Unfortunately, in much of the Western world, 1 May is simply an...
The noisy takeover: global protectionism and the death of free trade
Kristian Niemietz
8 April 2009
12 comments

I sometimes wonder whether anti-globalisation activists have some kind of automatic text generator, which works more or less like this: you enter an idea which you disapprove of, say “free...
Public health and the strange double life of advertising
Kristian Niemietz
6 April 2009
8 comments

It is not always necessary to contradict politicians; it is often better to wait until they contradict themselves. A case in point would seem to be Health Secretary Alan Johnson...
Tax havens under attack: Germany vs Switzerland
Kristian Niemietz
27 March 2009
6 comments

Switzerland and other so-called “tax havens” have finally succumbed to international pressure and threats to be “blacklisted” by the OECD. Banking secrecy laws will now be...
Mises’ “Critique of Interventionism” restaged in Venezuela
Kristian Niemietz
19 March 2009
8 comments

Eighty years ago the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises showed how a supposedly “targeted” state intervention in a free economy can produce a whole spiral of follow-up interventions....
An alternative history: how poverty fell under Thatcherism
Kristian Niemietz
13 March 2009
12 comments

Past experience is the foundation on which our beliefs about the desirability of different policies and institutions are mainly based … While the events of the past are the source of...
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....
Change4Life, sales bans and “sin taxes”: when the arsonist screams “fire!”
Kristian Niemietz
3 February 2009
0 comments

One of the justifications for government intervention in the market is the presence of ‘external effects’ or ‘externalities’ which occur when individual actions adversely...
Will the economic crisis reduce poverty?
Kristian Niemietz
28 January 2009
10 comments

Once the current recession is finally over, poverty researchers might well find themselves confronted with a puzzle. For it is entirely possible that the downturn will actually help the government...
German think tank confirms fears over UK debt levels
Kristian Niemietz
20 January 2009
8 comments

In a recent IEA discussion paper, Nick Silver argues that official figures display less than a fifth of the UK’s actual public debt. This is because pension entitlements constitute debt in all...
Poverty-stricken, in relative terms
Kristian Niemietz
16 January 2009
6 comments

There is a country in Europe where it is estimated that 20% of households have to live on less than half the average income. Among the working population, the bottom 30% receives just 7% of total...
Against the zeitgeist: Eugen Richter foresaw the true face of socialism
Kristian Niemietz
9 January 2009
6 comments

Philip Booth’s blog article about Pope Pius IX reminded me of another historical figure who predicted, with an astonishing degree of accuracy, what life would be like in a socialist state....
The link between ‘fiat money’ and boom-and-bust cycles
Kristian Niemietz
11 December 2008
16 comments

The online edition of the Handelsblatt, a major German business newspaper, recently featured an op-ed blaming government-created ’fiat money’ for the current financial crisis. It...
Housing, poverty and the planning system
Kristian Niemietz
3 December 2008
20 comments

Twenty-nine per cent of English homes are not ‘decent’ places to live, according to the latest edition of the English House Condition Survey. They fail to meet the ‘decent homes...
How relative poverty statistics can be manipulated
Kristian Niemietz
27 November 2008
10 comments

I have written on this blog about some of the logical flaws associated with ‘relative poverty’, arguing that even if we were to accept the premise that poverty was a relative concept, it...
What happened to poverty in Scotland?
Kristian Niemietz
13 November 2008
8 comments

On Monday this week, the New Policy Institute released a report called Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion in Scotland 2008, which appears to have encouraging findings. According to the report,...
Nineteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, socialism is thriving in East Germany
Kristian Niemietz
6 November 2008
6 comments

This Sunday will be the 19th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall – one of the greatest victories for freedom in contemporary history, and a powerful reminder that huge advances in...
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