The government is considering the introduction of a general anti-avoidance rule (GAAR). In this article, writer and retired actuary Terry Arthur considers the case for this measure. He argues that the GAAR would hurt living standards and its advocates fundamentally misunderstand the nature of taxation.
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London as a case study for a spontaneously planned future.
The Town and Country Planning Act has failed. Restrictions on development, the Green Belt and the nationalized planning permission system have all helped to create a national housing crisis. In this report, an advance paper from the forthcoming Adam Smith Institute book A Manifesto for London, Tom Papworth argues for a radical reform of the British planning system, replacing it with a local, contractual and pluralist system to allow development whilst conserving areas of natural beauty and national heritage.
Canada's government is proposing to raise corporation tax rates. Some simple, but crucial, lessons from economics and history tell us why this is a bad idea.
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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.
The Adam Smith Institute is the UK’s leading libertarian think tank...
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