Sam Bowman's letter regarding CEO pay features in the Independent

Executive Director of the ASI, Sam Bowman, has had his letter discussing CEO pay featured in the Independent.

It simply does not make sense to compare the rate of growth in CEO pay and firm value, as Ben Chu does ("Think the market is always right when it comes to top pay? Think again", 11 January).

A CEO on an annual salary of £1m could be given an extra £1m pay rise after raising her firm's value by £1bn, from £100bn to £101bn. Comparing the 100 percent growth rate in her salary with the 1 per cent growth rate in the firms value will not tell us anything useful about whether she is being paid fairly.

Has Obama proved a failure as President? | Kate Andrews argues YES in City AM

Head of Communications and research associate at the ASI, Kate Andrews, took part in a debate piece for City AM on whether Obama has been successful or not in his role as president. Kate argues that his failures regarding healthcare and his numerous foreign policy blunders are two of the main reasons he has not been successful.

As a senator, Obama promised “hope” and “change” on the campaign trail in 2007. But as President, he has presided over some of the worst gridlock Washington has seen. His pledge to unite the parties was quickly voided when he pushed through the Affordable Care Act in a direct attempt to avoid any deal with Republican leaders.

Eight years later, Americans look to elect a new leader to solve the problems Obama failed to address, and to fix the problems he has created.

Read the full debate here.

New ASI paper "Sound Money" features on CapX and CNBC

The latest ASI paper "Sound Money" has featured on CapX and CNBC. From CapX:

The paper which “applies a free market approach to monetary theory to critically assess recent UK monetary policy” was published by the Adam Smith Institute today.

In particular, it advocates reforms that allow: i) Punitive but open access market operations (OMO) ii) A NGDP average growth target of 2%, and iii) Free banking.

Although each of these proposals is progressively less feasible (both politically and technically), Evans argues that they are progressively more desirable.

And from CNBC:

The Bank of England (BoE) should scrap its rate-setting committee and use quantitative easing as its main monetary tool — before losing its monetary powers altogether, according to a new study.

The bank should also cease targeting inflation and instead focus on nominal (non-inflation adjusted) gross domestic product, "dissident" economist, Anthony Evans, added in the report. This was published on Monday by the Adam Smith Institute (ASI), a U.K. free-market think tank.

Read the full CapX article here.

Read the full CNBC article here.

The time is right for sound money | Anthony J Evans writes for Conservative Home

Anthony J Evans, a senior fellow of the Adam Smith Institute, has written for Conservative Home on his latest paper Sound Money.

Should we expect policymakers to be any more successful at planning the monetary system than they are at planning other parts of the economy?

Many economists fail to consider this question, so it should be little surprise that elected MPs, civil servants, and the general public have a blind spot on the issue. But the 2008 financial crisis has made matters of monetary policy highly pertinent, and there is plenty of room for improvement.

Today the Adam Smith Institute have published my new policy paper, “Sound Money: An Austrian proposal for free banking, NGDP targets, and OMO reforms. It is a comprehensive plea for more radical thinking at the Bank of England.

Read the full article here. 

New ASI paper Sound Money features on the front page of City AM

The Adam Smith Institute's latest paper "Sound Money" has featured on the front page of City AM.

A leading free market group has proposed scrapping the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) and replacing it with a rule that would trigger policy action.

In a radical new paper out today that is likely to raise eyebrows among many economists and policymakers, the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) says the Bank should get rid of the MPC, use quantitative easing (QE) instead of interest rates to conduct normal monetary policy, and abandon the existing inflation target in favour of targeting nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP), instead.

Read the full article here.

ASI report Sound Money features as lead story in the Daily Telegraph (Business)

The ASI's latest paper "Sound Money" has featured in The Telegraph as the lead story in the Business section. The paper, which calls for dramatic monetary policy reform, was also featured on the front page of The Telegraph in a teaser for the main article.

The Bank of England should abolish the Monetary Policy Committee and dump its inflation target because the regime has been responsible for creating a century of boom and bust, a think-tank has claimed.

The Adam Smith Institute (ASI), a free market think-tank, has said in a report that the central bank’s monetary interventions have made the UK more prone to banking crises, and have caused the wider economy to become less stable.

At present, the nine-strong Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decides on UK monetary policy. Eamonn Butler, the ASI’s director, said this group of experts had “done a very poor job of managing our money”.

Read the full article here.