Sam Bowman discusses 2016 Budget predictions of Share Radio

Sam Bowman, Executive Director of the ASI, was on Share Radio discussing what he hopes the 2016 Budget will hold. Policies discussed include pension tax relief and scrapping stamp duty on shares. Listen to the full interview here.

ASI 2016 Budget predictions feature in City AM

The ASI's wish list for the 2016 Budget has featured in City AM, focusing particularly on our calls to scrap stamp duty on shares, and replace business rates with a land value tax.

The verdict is unequivocal: scrap [stamp duty on shares]. The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) says this is one of the most harmful taxes and raises relatively little.

The ASI wants business rates to be stopped from taxing capital. Its reasoning is as follows: business rates tax property values, so they effectively tax both the land a property is built on, and what sits on top of the land (bricks, mortar, machinery).

Read the full article here.

Sam Bowman defends CEO pay on BBC 5 Live

Executive Director of the ASI, Sam Bowman, was on BBC 5 Live discussing CEO pay and why they are worth their wages:

One way of checking if salaries are over the top is looking at firm value when they take on a new CEO thats perceived to be good, and if the new CEO comes on and they're paid £5m a year, but the firm value goes up by £50m, then I think thats a sign that the firm has done a really good job, and the new CEO is actually being paid less than they're worth.

Listen to the full interview here (Starts 01:52:35)

Sam Bowman discusses junior doctors contracts on Sunday Politics

Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Sam Bowman, was on the BBC's Sunday Politics discussing the junior doctor contract dispute. He argues that the sticking point ultimately is not to do with patient safety, and is largely just about doctors pay:

If we're talking about how to get the best value for money for people who use the NHS, patients, and taxpayers, then I think the key is to restrict the amount of money we're paying doctors to make sure it doesn't go up any further, because they will go on to earn much more than almost anybody can hope to afford.

Watch the full interview here. (Starts 51:00)

ASI report 'A Garden of One's Own' features in The Times

The ASI's latest report on the Green Belt has featured in The Times. 'A Garden of One's own', by Tom Papworth, advocates building on Green Belt land, potentially on golf courses, in order to alleviate the housing crisis in the UK.

A report by the Adam Smith Institute recommended that more golf courses on protected green land should be sold off. Tom Papworth, the author, said: “We have to choose whether to protect valuable inner-city green space or sacrifice our parks for the sake of low-grade farmland, golf courses and already-developed sites that happen to have once been classified as greenbelt.”

Read the full article here.

Is Facebook’s decision to pay more tax in the UK a victory for the government? | Tim Worstall argues NO in City AM

Senior fellow of the ASI, Tim Worstall, wrote a debate piece for City AM on whether or not Facebook's tax decision is a victory for the government’s diverted profits tax policy.

Facebook overhauls its tax structure but, no, this does not mean that George Osborne’s Google Tax has worked. Facebook is starting to sell to large UK advertising accounts using UK-based and paid salespeople. This constitutes a “permanent establishment” under the usual international tax laws and the profits from this activity will be taxable in 2017, when Facebook starts doing this.

Read the full article here.

ASI greenbelt proposals feature in the Evening Standard

The Adam Smith Institute has featured in the Evening Standard for our position on the Green Belt. We advocate reducing regulations around building on Green Belt land, in order to resolve the growing housing crisis:

To date only the Right-wing think tank the Adam Smith Institute has advocated the alternative of sacrificing some of London’s heavily-protected “green lung” for housing.

Read the full article here.

Britain’s Nostradamus Drives a Tesla | Dr. Madsen Pirie is interviewed for The Drive

President of the ASI, Dr. Madsen Pirie, was interviewed by The Drive website to discuss his predictions for the future of transport. He talks about his latest paper, "The UK and the world in 2050", and discusses his predictions that cars will be driverless, and energy will be free.

Not that there’ll be much distinction between home and car, mind. Another goodly chunk of the 2050 report describes the coming age of our robot overlords, who might let us sleep in—all the way to work. “I’m predicting that when we do have driverless cars, there can be sofas in them. You could have a bed. The whole layout of ‘two seats here, two seats there’ is completely outmoded. All you need to tell the car is where to go.”

Read the full article here.

Dr Madsen Pirie discusses his new report "The UK and the world in 2050" on BBC 5 Live

President of the ASI, Dr Madsen Pirie, has gone on BBC 5 Live to discuss his latest paper "The UK and the world in 2050". In it he discusses his predictions for life in the future, including technological advances such as robots and GM crops, and dramatic increases in living standards. Listen to the full interview here. (Starts 01:08:52)

"The UK and the world in 2050" features in The Times and The Telegraph

The new ASI paper, "The UK and the world in 2050" has featured in the Times and the Telegraph. The paper suggests a variety of ways in which life will be different in the future, and even states that people will be twice as rich in real terms, and extinct animals will be brought back. From the Times:

In a paper from the Adam Smith Institute, Madsen Pirie, president of the free-market think tank, outlines trends in scientific research and makes predictions about how new technology will solve the energy, environmental and health problems of today.

Workers long accustomed to stagnant pay after years of austerity can look forward to earning twice as much in real terms by 2050, thanks to an average 2 per cent annual growth rate.

and from the Telegraph:

Today's teenagers will live like millionaires by the time they are middle-aged because of improvements in living standards, a respected think-tank has said.

Dr Pirie also predicts that several species of dinosaur will be recreated and roam the earth for the first time in 66 million years.

Read the full Times article here.

Real the Telegraph article here.