Blog Editor

Madsen's "Think Tank - the story of the Adam Smith Institute" continues to attract comment.  The Guardian has just featured a review by Steven Poole, sandwiching Madsen (as he points out with delight) half way between intellectuals and gin!

Today we release our latest policy paper, "Mind Your Own Business!". Elaine Sternberg, the paper's author, argues that high executive pay is not a "market failure" as some politicians have claimed, but a natural and perfectly reasonable function of a well-run firm. Shareholder power is critically important, but where problems have arisen it is because of government meddling in corporate governance. She outlines some of her arguments in today's City AM:

• Tax Freedom Day falls two days later in 2012 as UK re-enters recession
• Austerity measures cut the Cost of Government Day back to 23rd June, seven days earlier than in 2011

The UK's Tax Freedom Day – the day when Britons stop working for the Chancellor and start working for themselves – falls today, 29th of May.

Eamonn Butler discusses the morality of taxation, which he wrote about for the Taxpayers' Alliance's excellent new report, The Single Income Tax.

In response to the announcement today on Scotland's minimum alcohol pricing, Sam Bowman, Head of Research at the Adam Smith Institute released the following comment:

"Minimum alcohol pricing is a miserable, Victorian-era measure that explicitly targets the poor and the frugal, leaving the more expensive drinks of the middle classes untouched. It's regressive and paternalistic, treating people as if they're children to be nannied by the government.

In response to the Queen’s Speech, the Adam Smith Institute gives its reactions to some of the key areas: