Let’s ignore Google’s tax bill and scrap corporation tax altogether | Ben Southwood writes for City AM

Head of Research at the ASI, Ben Southwood, discusses the £130 million in corporation tax that Google has agreed to pay, and what the potential benefits are of scrapping the tax altogether:

Investment – into tools, infrastructure, skills, and better organisation – is what makes us more productive. Higher productivity means more goods to go around and higher living standards. Most economists, across the ideological spectrum, agree that capital should ideally not be taxed at all; in fact the result most convincingly showing this is the “Atkinson-Stiglitz theorem”, after famously progressive Anthony Atkinson and Joseph Stiglitz. Corporation tax flies in the face of this, reducing returns and hence disincentivising investment.

Read the full article here.

Eamonn Butler's letter regarding Oyster Card rewards features in the Evening Standard

Dr Eamonn Butler, Director of the ASI, has had his letter regarding Oyster Card rewards for the theatre featured in the Evening Standard

Sadiq Khan's planned Oyster Card rewards for theatre tickets sounds both wooly and unfair. The money to subsidise these tickets has to come from somewhere. Why should, for example, brick layers in Barking pay higher Tube and bus fares to subsidise people going to the theatre?

Davos: Oxfam is ignoring the fact that the world's poor are getting richer |Ben Southwood writes for the IB Times

Head of Research at the ASI, Ben Southwood, has written for the IB Times on why Oxfam's inequality report was so misleading, and why the real story should be how the worlds poorest are actually wealthier now, with higher living standards.

While we might lament that solving developing world poverty seems such a slow and difficult task, we shouldn't omit the fact that we're going in the right direction. Oxfam's data is misleading, beset with statistical niggles, and comes with the wrong conclusion. Let's hope the bigwigs at Davos don't take it too seriously.

Read the full article here.

ASI Paper 'Sound Money' features on Money Week

Anthony J Evans, senior fellow at the ASI, has had his latest paper for the ASI, Sound Money, featured on Money Week for its proposals in support of abolishing the Bank of England and supporting a system of free banking.

According to its supporters – including the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) think tank, which has just published a paper by economist Anthony Evans reviewing and promoting the case in favour – it’s an idea whose time has come again.

Read the full article here.

Sam Bowman discusses whether there's a case for 'Buying British' on BBC Radio 4

Executive Director of the ASI, Sam Bowman, took part in a debate for BBC Radio 4 on whether or not buying British goods is beneficial. Recent decisions regarding buying Spanish train carriages and Chinese oil are discussed, and Sam ultimately argues that buying British goods just for the sake of it is actually not beneficial to British consumers, or the economy. Listen to the full debate here. (Starts 17:35)

Kate Andrews discusses the future of the NHS on BBC 5 Live

Head of Communications and research associate at the Adam Smith Institute, Kate Andrews, was on BBC 5 live discussing the future of the NHS and its funding.

If the NHS is really looking to have its funding directly affect patients and better patients health, they're not only going to need to learn to use that money more efficiently, but they might need to adopt some more sustainable systems.

Listen to the full interview here. (Starts 38:00)

It's not just the elite who should fear America's leading socialist radical | Kate Andrews writes for City AM

Head of communications and research fellow at the Adam Smith Institute, Kate Andrews, wrote a piece for City AM on the radical socialist views of Bernie Sanders, and the threat he poses to Clinton's presidential campaign.

Sanders’s policies have trickled out of the left-wing state of Vermont, where he has spent almost 30 years involved in state politics. Though he has been a proclaimed independent – and ideological socialist – for much of his life, he joined the Democratic Party in 2015 to throw his hat into the presidential race.

Read the full article here.

Sam Bowman discusses steel industry job losses on BBC Radio Wales

Executive director of the ASI, Sam Bowman, was on BBC Radio Wales discussing the recent job losses in the UK steel industry, following the closing of several plants.

"The most important question is, is this a temporary problem caused by dumping, or is this a longer term problem that throws the certain Port Talbot, but also the entire UK steel industry into concern? I think it's a long term problem."

Listen to the full interview here. Starts at (02:08:35)

Sam Bowman discusses the decline in Britain's steel industry on BBC Newsnight

Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute Sam Bowman spoke to BBC Newsnight about the decline of Britain's steel industry and the difficulty in competing with countries like China in these areas. (Starts 3:55)

Press Release: An extra charge on skilled workers would be a poison pill for UK businesses

For further comments or to arrange an interview, contact Head of Communications Kate Andrews: kate@adamsmith.org | 07584 778207. Commenting on the Migration Advisory Committee report, which has suggested an annual charge of £1,000 on skilled workers from outside the EU, Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute Sam Bowman said:

This charge would be a poison pill for businesses. Good, skilled workers are crucial to the success of businesses, large and small. If British firms are to compete around the world they also need to be able to hire the best people from around the world.

Charging them £1,000 per year and raising the earnings threshold, as the Migration Advisory Committee is proposing, would cripple British firms’ ability to hire the staff they need. It is simply a fantasy to assume that we can train enough British workers to do all the skilled jobs that we need when we need them.

This would also mean much higher staffing costs for the NHS – 11% of all staff and 26% of doctors are non-British (though some of these are from the EU). It’s an anti-business, anti-British proposal and it underlines how wrong-headed the government’s overall immigration stance is.

Notes to Editors:

The Adam Smith Institute is a free market, libertarian think tank based in London. It advocates classically liberal public policies to create a richer, freer world.