Believers in free markets are fighting back

Written by | Monday 9 March 2009

“If you bound the arms and legs of gold-medal swimmer Michael Phelps, weighed him down with chains, threw him in a pool and he sank, you wouldn't call it a ‘failure of swimming'. So, when markets have been weighted down by inept and excessive regulation, why call this a ‘failure of capitalism'?"

A Labour-made crisis

Written by | Thursday 5 March 2009

Yes, Sir Fred Goodwin's pension is a scandal. How can someone who brought his company to near collapse walk away, aged just 50, with £703,000 a year? But would I tear up the contract? No, I wouldn't. A deal is a deal. If the minister, Lord Myners, was foolish enough to sign it - without even giving himself a cooling-off period, which of course the banks have to give their customers - then I'm afraid that he and taxpayers are stuck with it.

We've all been made criminals

Written by | Sunday 1 March 2009

What’s frustrating about our slide into a police state is that most people haven’t even noticed it, while the rest have actually welcomed it. Sure, 9/11 and the London bombings leave no doubt that terrorism is a real threat. But then the sweeping powers we’ve given our police and politicians to deal with it are an even bigger one.

Ordinary, upright citizens are now spied on, stopped and searched, arrested at gunpoint, DNA-swabbed and criminalised, for no good reason other than that some officer of the state has the power to do it, and is incentivised to do it.

Has Keynes trumped Adam Smith?

Written by | Friday 27 February 2009

The problem today is Keynesian-style policy, the darling of the establishment politicos and media giants:  big government solutions, deficit spending, easy money, bailouts.  Keynes has suddenly trumped Adam Smith.  And that's dangerous.  
 

The rise of Mugabenomics

Written by | Friday 30 January 2009

Gordon Brown has reportedly said that the government must use simpler language about the credit crunch, because banking and financial-policy jargon just confuses everyone. Well, I can sum it up quite easily: we're bust, and we're going to print money to make ourselves feel richer.

Madsen Pirie on Platform sets out his manifesto for Britain

Written by | Thursday 15 January 2009

To transform Britain permanently, the next Government should start by taking the lowest paid out of income tax and replacing council tax with a local sales tax