Wealth depends on the rule of law

Written by | Tuesday 9 November 2004

If you want to get rich, you need economic growth. To create economic growth, you need people to be creative, to produce things, and to bring them to market and exchange them. But producing and creating things needs investment - education, training, buying capital equipment, and so on. That's risky, because your business may not work and you could lose money. But if you have no secure rights over your own property, it's suicidal. That is why you need property rights and the rule of law.

Free trade

Written by | Monday 11 October 2004

Throughout the history of economic life, "free trade" has been the exception, not the rule.

Nearly a thousand years ago, the rise of Europe's merchant class posed a challenge to the feudal system of the time. The merchants' business was buying and selling, not working the land - so they owed no obligation to a landlord, and paid no taxes to the church.

Oil price is a sign of global health for the environment

Written by | Monday 4 October 2004

Russia has signed up to the Kyoto agreement and oil now costs $50 and more a barrel. But counter-intuitively, the Russian decision is bad news for the world's long-term environment, health and economy - while the oil price is actually rather cheering.

Blame politicians, not managers, for productivity gap

Written by | Sunday 3 October 2004

Britain's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) - a tax-funded research body - has produced another of its reports on productivity, arguing that productivity in Britain is 20% behind that of France and Germany.

That has provided a convenient peg for pundits to go on the radio and slag off British industry and management. Or to assert smugly that continental Europe's more progressive social policies are obviously good for business.

Making super-size dupes of us all

Written by | Monday 13 September 2004

But this movie is in the worst tradition of that other 'documentary'
producer of Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11, the (even
plumper) Michael Moore. These movies are all pieces of advocacy, rather
than an objective analysis of a key social issue. Certainly, they deal
with important issues - America's gun culture, events leading up to
9/11, and obesity. But they are all a clever, cynical and misleading
use of film by partisans of the anti-conservative, anti-business cause.

Butler on Museums

Written by | Saturday 11 September 2004

And this fact, that it is the politicians and not the public who pay
the bills, has divided our museums from the public they are supposed to
serve. They don't reflect our culture, but that of the elites in power
- elites who love big projects, and who find a few big budgets easier
to manage than a lot of small ones.