Commercial expression, anti-smoking extremism and the risks of hyper-regulation.
Christopher Snowdon examines the case for plain packaging of cigarettes, including examples from around the world. He finds that its supposed benefits are, in fact, nonexistant, and plain packaging laws may have significant unintended consequences as well, including making counterfeiting of cigarettes more common. Plain packaging laws could lead us down a slippery slope where alcohol and even fatty foods are also controlled by the government.
The rise of global capitalism since 1980 has been the central factor in the massive rise in global quality of life. In this article, Jacob Lundberg explains why more liberalized global markets have meant richer and freer people.
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Adam Smith and David Ricardo explained the benefits of trade, based on specialization and comparative advantage. These concepts, says Arnold Kling, also can provide the basis for explaining fluctuations in employment. In this paper Kling proposes that we jettison the Keynesian paradigm of aggregate supply and demand (AS-AD) in favor of an alternative paradigm, which he calls patterns of sustainable specialization and trade (PSST).
John Chown, principal in Chown Dewhurst LLP and co-founder of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, discusses the background to the Eurozone crisis and the prospects for Euro members in 2012 and beyond.
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As the Eurozone crisis lurches onwards, three academics offer their perspective on how Europe got here — and where it should go now.
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MigrationWatch says that immigration causes youth unemployment. In this article, Henry Oliver looks at the facts behind the headlines.
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How one small change in mindset could free millions of SMEs from onerous regulation and tax by allowing more of their employees to register as self-employed.
Terry Arthur explains why the logic of stimulus is fundamentally flawed — government spending can never "prime the pump" of an economy in recession.
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Zachary Caceres writes on private security provision in Kenya, where desperate circumstances have forced the private sector to provide what many assume to be the sole preserve of the state.
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Accurate accounting is at the root of the legal and scrutiny framework; without accurate accounts basic laws are incapable of enforcement. This report argues that international accounting rules have given the impression of illusory profits on bank balance sheets, inflating bonuses and creating perverse incentives for banks to act recklessly.
The Adam Smith Institute is the UK’s leading libertarian think tank...
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