Adam Smith Institute

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The ASI's comments on the decline of the UK steel industry covered across national broadcast including Bloomberg, BBC News and Radio 5 Live.

Executive Director of the ASI, Sam Bowman, discussed the future of UK steel production and why it’s not viable in the long term with Bloomberg TV:

Where there might be a case for a very short term bridging with the government, say a buyer can’t get the money together immediately and the government steps in to fund the plant in that short period, the danger is that we are left carrying the baby. If the buyer who had expressed an interest in buying the firm just doesn’t in the end the government is left carrying these jobs and the plant – the problem with that is that these plants don't look like they are actually economically viable."

Listen to the full interview here

Bloomberg.com also drew on Sam’s arguments:

"If we bail out industries that are unprofitable in the long term, we’re locking capital and labor into unproductive work. If you bail out these firms, where do you stop? Basically you’d have given up on capitalism.”

Read the full article here

The ASI also contributed to the growing debate around the future of UK steel on BBC News, BBC Three Counties and Radio 5 Live.