If you happen to be living outside of Scotland, Korea, Uganda Turkey, China, Israel, India, Europe or Taiwan, you may have missed an excellent (and widely published!) article by Dr Eamonn Butler, the ASI's director.

Eamonn argues that the current financial crisis was not caused by capitalism being fatally flawed. Instead, he rightly points out that it was caused by politicians forcing banks to give out bad loans, monetary authorities flooding the West with cheap credit and regulators being asleep at the wheel. In conclusion, Eamonn argues that – regardless of its current difficulties – capitalism continues to pull hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

The free-market argument can be lost amongst the voluminous nonsense leaking from the pens of journalists, as well as the populist drivel spewing from the mouths of politicians on both sides of the Atlantic, who are posturing for the upcoming elections. As such the article is well worth a read.