Deputy Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Sam Bowman, appeared on ITV Tonight's programme "Britain's Housing Crisis" and called for planning reform to allow building on small parts of the Green Belt; such a strategy would bring down the cost of land, and in turn, bring down the cost of housing.
Dr Eamonn Butler debates the Eurostar sell-off on BBC Radio 4
Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Dr Eamonn Butler, defended the sale of UK Eurostar shares on BBC Radio 4, arguing that the sale would create financial benefits for taxpayers in the short term, and very likely a better-run train service in the long term. Listen to the interview here. (Starts 20:40)
Sam Bowman's comments on UKIP's immigration policy feature in The Huffington Post UK
Deputy Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Sam Bowman, was quoted in The Huffington Post UK on UKIP's original pledge to cap UK migration at 50,000 people per year.
At the time of Woolfe's announcement, Sam Bowman, from the Adam Smith Institute, said the party's immigration stance was "intellectually and morally bankrupt", adding: "Despite what Ukip claims, immigration is good for virtually everyone in society, rich and poor alike."
Ben Southwood's comments on growth and redistribution feature in a BBC News article
Ben Southwood, Head of Research at the Adam Smith Institute, was quoted in a BBC News article on the importance of growth, competitiveness and redistribution:
We can achieve economic growth and equality in an economic strategy, but we have to be very careful about what measures we use.
It does seem that the poorer counties in the world are unequal, whereas the richer countries are more unequal. That doesn't necessarily mean that reducing inequality lets you get richer.
In fact what we tend to see is first you grow very fast, become more unequal, and then you carry on growing and everybody else catches up.
Redistributing wealth is very important for alleviating poverty but in the long run it has barely lifted anyone out of poverty, compared to the amount economic growth has lifted people out of poverty.
Economic growth has lifted billions of people around the world out of poverty, redistribution has lifted millions of people out of poverty. Redistribution is important but it isn't nearly as important as growth and we should always be focusing on growth.
Dr Eamonn Butler debates the public funding of libraries on BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire
Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Dr Eamonn Butler, spoke to BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire about the need for libraries to revamp both what they offer and their funding structures. Listen to the interview here. (Starts 01:51:52)
Ben Southwood discusses inequality, growth and redistribution on BBC Radio Scotland
Head of Research at the Adam Smith Institute Ben Southwood spoke to BBC Radio Scotland about Nicola Sturgeon's new economic plan for Scotland, the battle between growth and redistribution, and how to best tackle issues of inequality. Listen to the interview here. (Starts 01:10:25)
Dr Eamonn Butler argues against a moral duty to vote on BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze
Director of the Adam Smith Institute Dr Eamonn Butler participated in BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze programme: Is it a Moral Duty to Vote? Dr Butler argued that the irrational nature of voting and the abysmal state of UK democracy illustrate why people have no moral duty to engage in the voting process. Listen to the interview here. (Starts 11:00)
The Financial Times reviews Dr Madsen Pirie's upcoming book "How To Win Every Argument"
The Financial Times gave a glowing review of Dr Madsen Pirie's upcoming book "How To Win Every Argument: The Use And Abuse of Logic", soon to be released.
Mr Pirie adds: “It is well worth the reader’s trouble to learn the Latin tags wherever possible. When an opponent is accused of perpetrating something with a Latin name it sounds as if he is suffering from a rare tropical disease. It has the added effect of making the accuser seem both erudite and authoritative.”
Author of ASI paper "The Green Noose" writes for Public Sector Executive
Tom Papworth - Senior Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute and author of ASI paper "The Green Noose: An analysis of Green Belts and proposals for reform" - wrote a comment piece for Public Sector Executive calling for radical overhaul of the UK's planning structure:
Voltaire once quipped that the Holy Roman Empire was not holy, was not Roman and was not an empire. In light of the fact that they are neither particularly green, nor are they exactly belts, one might say something similar about England’s green belts.Originally conceived to prevent urban sprawl, preserve a rural/urban distinction, stop the agglomeration of towns and encourage city-centre renewal, the green belt designation has come to encompass far more land than we have actually developed.
Green belts are twice as big as the cities they aim to contain and 50% bigger than the total amount of developed land in England.
Yet, as I discuss in ‘The Green Noose’, my recent report for the Adam Smith Institute, the fundamental premises of green belt policy are confused, ambiguous and flawed.
The ASI report, The Green Noose: An analysis of Green Belts and proposals for reform, looks at the Green Belt’s impact on England’s housing shortage. After a comprehensive review of the causes of the housing crisis, it concludes that the planning structure is out of date and in need of radical reform.
ASI Paper "The Real Problem was Nominal" is quoted in The Daily Telegraph
The ASI's paper "The Real Problem was Nominal" was quoted in The Daily Telegraph.
Some experts have already warned that the ECB is not doing enough. Scott Sumner, a leading monetary economist, said that "European officials have not learned any of the lessons offered by the Japanese experience" of prolonged economic stagnation.“The [QE] policy would have been far more effective if done a year or two ago,” he wrote in a paper published by the Adam Smith Institute.
“The Real Problem was Nominal” - written by Prof Scott Sumner, a leading economist who was a key inspiration for the Federal Reserve’s QE3 programme - explains how the European Central Bank is repeating the mistakes that the Fed and Bank of England made in the 2008 crisis—trying to plan credit and micromanage the financial sector, when the real issue is excessively tight monetary policy.
The paper argues that Eurozone quantitative easing will not reverse the Eurozone’s decline unless it is open-ended and tied more explicitly to the ECB’s inflation target. Targeting nominal GDP—the total amount of spending in the economy, also known as aggregate demand—would be even better, the paper argues, guaranteeing more stability when unexpected supply-side shocks like oil price movements make inflation targeting trickier.