The Waste of Nations argues that pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) waste charges are the best way to encourage recycling and to boost profitable waste businesses. However, the report stresses that PAYT must not be used as a 'dustbin tax' and that its introduction must be accompanied by a corresponding fall in council tax. The report also calls for the full liberalization of the refuse collection sector. Such a move would keep prices down and increase customer satisfaction. It would also lead to innovation and encourage refuse collectors to recycle more waste. The final section of the report argues that recycling should be put on a commercial footing. Recycling facilities and providers should be allowed to merge and consolidate, and the free movement and trade of recyclables should be established. This would ensure a market for commercially viable businesses in the long run.
According to mainstream human rights thinking all human rights are “indivisible". Therefore, this mantra insists, economic, social and cultural rights such as the right to an adequate living and the right to social security should not be treated differently from classic freedom rights such as free speech and habeas corpus. In The War on Capitalism: Human rights, political bias Jacob Mchangama argues that this conflation of very different rights is a fallacy, and that it reveals a marked political bias towards state involvement in the economy, increased public spending and the limitation or even abolishment of free market initiatives.
What is the true aim of taxes on alcohol, tobacco, fatty foods, and other "vices"? Are smokers, drinkers and fat people burdens on society who should be discouraged from enjoying their habits by taxation? Do these "sin taxes" actually work? In The Wages of Sin Taxes, Chris Snowdon tackles these questions and shows that sin taxes do not achieve their stated aim, offer no tangible benefit to society, and hit the poorest hardest.
Adair Turner, the former McKinsey consultant who now heads the FSA, published his much-heralded regulatory response to the global banking crisis last week. By all accounts, Gordon Brown will use the report as the basis for his initiative to re-regulate the world’s banking markets at the G20 Summit due to be held in London next week. While the report includes some telling insights into the current credit crisis, described in the opening paragraph as “arguably the greatest crisis in the history of finance capitalism” it is fundamentally flawed in its approach to the daunting task ahead. The report sets out a raft of new initiatives: higher capital adequacy margins; closely monitored liquidity regulation; greater oversight of hedge funds; curbs on bankers’ bonuses; rating agency oversight; and what is referred to as “intrusive and systemic supervision”. Yet in truth what is needed is not so much a stack of new regulation, but a regulatory regime that enforces the existing rulebook while eliminating regulations that are either unnecessary or unenforceable. [Cont'd]
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.
Read more...
A Tobin tax is a proportional tax on all spot conversions from one currency to another. There are now growing calls for a Tobin tax to be introduced into the UK, both to raise revenues and to reduce market volatility. In this policy paper, Adam Baldwin examines the case for the Tobin tax and the associated "Robin Hood Tax" that was inspired by the Tobin tax. Looking at the underlying economics and the international experiences with Tobin taxes, he argues that such a policy would at best be ineffective, and at worst hugely counterproductive and harmful to the UK's financial sector and wider economy.
In this think piece, Professor Anthony J. Evans discusses the possible implications of a second round of quantitative easing in the UK. He argues that further QE will prove counter-productive, instead advocating a positive programme for laissez-faire economics.
A lucid account of the Suffolk Bank system which operated in Massachusetts between 1825 and 1858. Dr Trivioli shows that during this period a free enterprise central bank and clearing system operated with great success, bringing stability to a stuation where competing banks issued their own notes.
The former chief inspector of schools tells it like it is. Exams really are getting easier,more kids are leaving primary schools unable to read, and leaving secondary school without the skills needed to work or study. The quangos in charge of the exam system should be scrapped and the national curriculum torn up - leaving parents free to choose schools teaching different things in different ways. A must read - if you're one of the few that can.
With Public bugets so tight and negative incentives a concern, government is keen to focus it's help on the most needy, and letting others carry more of their own burden. This may be the start of a third way fore welfare, in which individuals themselves are expected to take on more responsibility for insurable risks,presently covered by the state. There is a wide experience to draw on, both from within the uk, and abroad,of how private insurance can take up some of the strain and tailor a better service to today's more diverse population.
The Adam Smith Institute is the UK’s leading libertarian think tank...
Download PDF