Dr Eamonn Butler

Let's face it: capitalism is a lot more moral and responsible than politics. Many people think capitalism can never be moral because it's rooted in self-interest. But that confuses self-interest with greed. Self-interest is natural and indeed essential: none of us would survive long if we neglected our own needs. Equally, nobody survives long in business if they get a reputation for being greedy.

Here's the argument. The recent financial boom and bust is the death knell of the idea that markets are efficient and that people behave rationally. Plainly, markets underpriced risky business, people took too many and too-large risks, and eventually everyone came a cropper. Capitalism is great, but it needs to be restrained against its own excesses and made to serve the broader interests of society.

In a BBC interview, UK Prime Minister David Cameron indicated that shareholders will be given more power to decide the pay of top executives. It is a welcome acceptance of the fact that government regulation of executive pay has not actually worked, and that it is better to leave pay up to the markets and to the shareholders who actually own businesses, and for whom the executives – supposedly – work.

Bill Bratton, arguably the world's most successful police chief – he was able to reduce crime significantly in New York, Boston and Los Angeles – spoke in London this week on the subject of gang crime. A good place to talk about it. Some 22% of London's violent crime is gang-related, along with 10% or so of all London crime in general. It could be worse. The US, says Bratton, is dealing with its fourth generation of latino gang problems and its third generation of black gang problems.

It's 25 years since the Big Bang deregulation of financial services in the City of London.

So, the eurozone and the IMF are putting together a £1.7 trillion fund to save Greece (and for that matter Portugal and Ireland) and stave off a default. Right?

UK Health Secretary Andrew Lansley says that patient care is under threat at over 60 NHS hospitals which are 'on the brink of financial collapse' because of costly Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes. This is particularly disappointing to those of us at the Adam Smith Institute who campaigned for private financing of public infrastructure projects as far back as the early 1980s. What went wrong?