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'Too far and too fast' or too little, too late? Why Osborne needs a plan B
Daniel Mahoney
3 February 2011
7 comments

Ed Miliband is taking the line that the coalition is cutting “too far and too fast”. The news that the economy shrank by 0.5% in Q4 of 2010 (zero growth if you factor in the...
Why raising VAT destroys wealth
Richard Wellings
4 January 2011
2 comments

In the context of Britain’s fiscal crisis, today's rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20% may be seen by some as a necessary evil. Moreover, indirect taxes such as VAT are often regarded as less...
A Post-Keynesian sleight of hand
G. R. Steele
19 November 2010
2 comments

As one set of economists warns that rapid debt reduction is likely to plunge the economy into deep recession, another set argues that debt reduction is essential to restore financial stability and...
Britain’s Trillion Pound Horror Story
Ruth Porter
11 November 2010
10 comments

Britain’s Trillion Pound Horror Story airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 4. The film explains the full extent of the financial mess this country is in – an estimated £4.8 trillion of...
Why the Forestry Commission deserves the chop
Sandra Tusin
28 October 2010
4 comments

Back in 1981, the IEA published State Forestry for the Axe: A Study of the Forestry Commission and De-nationalisation by the Market by Robert Miller. Almost thirty years on, the government is now...
Can Sarkozy beat the unions?
Finbarr Toesland
25 October 2010
3 comments

Trade unions in France have historically commanded a disproportionate level of power and influence over government policy. The percentage of workers in unions in 1960 was only 19.6%, and this...
Briefing on the Spending Review
Philip Booth
23 October 2010
1 comment

 
A long way to go
Philip Booth
20 October 2010
6 comments

George Osborne has probably done enough to ensure that the public finances are back on track and that the national debt will not run out of control. He has, however, taken only the first step on the...
Osborne’s economic gamble
Richard Wellings
20 October 2010
5 comments

Amid all the discussion of ‘severe cuts’, perhaps the most important fact to come out of today’s Comprehensive Spending Review is that total government spending in real terms...
Bonfire of the quangos is mostly hot air
Richard Wellings
14 October 2010
8 comments

There are over 1,000 quangos in the UK. Today’s news that 192 of them are to be abolished appears to be concrete evidence that the coalition is taking radical action to reduce the role of...
How to balance the budget without higher taxes
Daniel J. Mitchell
14 October 2010
1 comment

This video looks at the budget deficit in the US, but its analysis is also relevant to the UK ahead of next week’s Comprehensive Spending Review.    
Finding a narrative of hope
Mark Littlewood
17 September 2010
comments

In these grim dark days of austerity and cuts, the coalition urgently needs to find a compelling political narrative of hope and optimism. David Cameron’s Big Society rhetoric occasionally...
Defence policy is not the product of rational decision-making
Paul Robinson
13 September 2010
comments

A fascinating fact about defence budgets is that no matter what the changes in the strategic situation the proportion of the budget assigned to each of the three armed services hardly changes at all...
A solid enough start
Mark Littlewood
19 August 2010
comments

The Liberal-Conservative administration deserves to pass its 100 day probation. It hasn’t done much yet, but it has said some of the right things and sounds like it might even get round to...
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...
Public sector pensions: how they could be reformed
Philip Booth
13 July 2010
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...
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...
Housing Benefit: Osborne’s approach does not address the dynamics of cost explosion
Kristian Niemietz
29 June 2010
5 comments

Some of the old video recorders made in the 1980s had an annoying kink: they could not hold the freeze frame mode for long. Shortly after pressing the pause button, they would automatically switch...
Keynesian policies have brought Britain to the brink of ruin
Kevin Dowd
24 June 2010
23 comments

By far the best contribution to the parliamentary debate on the Emergency Budget was by the MP for Wycombe, Steve Baker. Using impeccable analysis and respected (ONS and Bank for International...

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