Eamonn Butler Eamonn Butler

What’s wrong with economics — 5 (Policy)

The illusion that one can be scientific about complex phenomena (such as the workings of economic life) that depend on facts, values and information that we could never ascertain, is a dangerous one.

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Eamonn Butler Eamonn Butler

What’s wrong with economics — 4 (Big choices)

Economists believe that, with proper scientific understanding and analysis, they can make policy recommendations to governments that will improve the stability, efficiency, and operation of economic life.

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Tim Worstall Tim Worstall

As we keep saying; Jobs are a cost

Good to see that some are grasping this simple concept: Wes Streeting has ordered a “high-stakes” reorganisation of the NHS that will scrap 10,000 jobs in an attempt to free up cash for frontline care.

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Eamonn Butler Eamonn Butler

What’s wrong with economics — 3 (Prediction)

We can’t predict football matches, so why think we can predict the economy? The outcome of a match depends on so many factors: the teams’ structure and support, the players’ motivation, skill health, energy, confidence, ability to spot opportunities, and luck in taking them — and more.

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Tim Worstall Tim Worstall

Good policy is good policy wherever it comes from

We spent a decade making the case that the personal allowance - for both NI (both types) and income tax - should be whatever the full year, full time minimum wage income is. We even won the case intellectually but of course by the time it was phased in inflation had moved the target beyond what happened.

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Maxwell Marlow Maxwell Marlow

A Letter to Sir Keir Starmer MP

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing to you in my capacity as Director of Public Affairs of the Adam Smith Institute, a leading free market think tank, to congratulate you on abolishing the Payment Systems Regulator.

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Eamonn Butler Eamonn Butler

What’s wrong with economics — 2 (Aggregates)

Mathematics can help economists describe the patterns they see in economic statistics such as total investment, consumption, growth, inflation, and unemployment. They formulate equations to show the correlations between these total (or ‘aggregate’) measures.


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