Telegraph.co.uk: Nestle's Kit Kat goes Fairtrade

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Old Teaser

Written by Harry Wallop

Some economists, notably the Adam Smith Institute, claim Fairtrade distorts the market by setting a price floor, and encouraging suppliers to increase production. This in turn produces excess supply forcing down prices for suppliers not part of the scheme.

Published on Telegraph.co.uk here.

Telegraph.co.uk: Can a libertarian be a Conservative?

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Written by Dan Hannan

First-past-the-post tends to produce a two-party system; and in any two party system, both parties will be coalitions. The Conservative and Unionist Party was founded in 1912 as a merger between the Conservatives and those old Whigs who, having rejected Home Rule and the Leftward drift of their party, sat under a confusing variety of names: Liberal Imperialists, Liberal Unionists and so on. It is thus heir to both the Tory and Whig traditions. It contains libertarians and authoritarians, radicals and conservatives, forward foreign policy types and non-interferers, ideologues and pragmatists, churchgoers and atheists. This ought hardly to need saying, but observers still like to confect “rows" out of the fact that Conservatives sometimes disagree one with another.

This weekend, I have observed the full spectrum of the modern Conservative Party. Last night, I spoke at the Christmas party of the never-sufficiently-to-be-praised Adam Smith Institute, which feeds the sacred flame of liberty within the conservative coalition. Today I am back in Cameron country: the quiet, patriotic, undogmatic shires that shaped the young Tory leader, first speaking to the Lower Sixth at Bradfield, and then doing a branch function at Cold Ash. (Sorry for the light blogging yesterday: I was having what the late Roy Jenkins would call “Wather a mouvementé day").

Among the libertarians at the ASI party was the hugely entertaining blogger Devil’s Kitchen (warning: if you are squeamish about strong language, don’t follow that last hyperlink). As you will see, the Devil has a low opinion of traditional Tories. I suspect the feeling is mutual: undoctrinaire Tories regard ideological libertarians as slightly mad. But here’s the thing: it’s a problem in theory rather than in practice.

Set aside a couple of slightly recherché issues, such as drugs. On the biggies – school choice, Euroscepticism, tax cuts, welfare reform – we all agree. And the reason we agree is that the current state of Britain is so far removed from what either a conservative or a libertarian wants that any disagreements can be comfortably postponed. It’s as though you were driving from London to two adjoining streets in Aberdeen: almost the whole route would be identical. As my old history tutor used to observe, the differences between Tory and Whig can safely be deferred to after the grave.

Published on Telegraph.co.uk here.

Digital Britain is mad and bad economics

4 December 2009

A new report from influential think tank the Adam Smith Institute (ASI) has attacked the government’s Digital Britain white paper – the inspiration for the Digital Economy Bill currently working its way through Parliament – describing plans to intervene in the digital communications industry as “both mad and bad economics”. The report’s author, digital media and communications expert Eben Wilson, put his case bluntly:

“Over the past twenty years, this thriving commercial sector has very rapidly created a vast engineering infrastructure at no cost to the taxpayer, and has generated large amounts of tax revenue in the process. It is hard to think of a better example of something the state should simply stay out of.”

The ASI’s report – Digital Dirigisme – covers the full range of issues addressed by the Digital Britain white paper, arguing throughout that the digital communications industry is characterized by rapid and unpredictable change, which governments and regulators simply can’t keep up with. As a result, their interventions will invariably do more harm than good.

The report goes on to criticize the government for not taking public concerns about the security of personal data seriously enough, describing their approach to this issue as “bland” and “disappointing”. The report suggests that personal identity and all data associated with it should be defined in law as private property owned by the individual. Any use of that personal data without the owner’s consent would thereby become unlawful.

The report also accuses the government of ignoring a “dinosaur in the room” by failing to address the taxpayer-funded BBC’s market dominance, which it says crowds out other commercial players. The report proposes a radical programme of phased privatization of the BBC, coupled with progressive cuts in the licence fee.

ENDS

Digital Dirigisme – A response to Digital Britain is published by the Adam Smith Institute, 23 Great Smith Street, London SW1P 3BL. A PDF of the report can be downloaded for free at http://adamsmith.org/images/stories/digital-dirigisme.pdf

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MoneyMarketing: Thinktank in call to shut state pension 'Ponzi scheme'

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Old Teaser

Written by Leah Milner & Helen Pow 

The Adam Smith Institute says the state pension is a “giant Ponzi scheme" that will soon become bankrupt and must be phased out.

Writing for the thinktank’s blog, Tom Papworth calls for the state pension to be phased out by age, so those starting their working life now have plenty of time to make their own pension provisions but those who have less time left until retirement are not unfairly penalised.

He says: “We need to wean people off the state pension. It is a giant Ponzi scheme that sooner or later will become bankrupt. There used to be five working-age people supporting each pension, now there are two and in the future that number will shrink. It cannot go on."

Under Papworth’s proposals, people over 60 would get a full pension, those under 20 would get no state pension and those in between would see their state benefits tapered away at a rate that equals 2.5 per cent a year off retirement. He also calls for the mandatory retirement age to be scrapped.

But Legal & General wealth policy director Adrian Boulding says: “The basic state pension is so important. It is the principle of intergenerational solidarity where you pay tax so your parents have a pension and your kids do the same. I am all for saving more on top of that but that basic foundation level is essential. If there were no mandatory retirement age and if people carried on working, employers would have to discipline those employees out.

“It would be pretty brutal and would mean people will just fall into unemployment benefit so we may as well just continue to pay pension benefits."

Published in MoneyMarketing here.

CNBC: Breaking Down What the Queen Said

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Old Teaser

Published on CNBC here.

Daily Mail: Louis Walsh...

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Old Teaser

Written by Ephraim Hardcastle

Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute informs members in his regular bulletin: 'I do sympathise with many of the more honest MPs I know.

They just fell in with a bad crowd. Namely, other MPs.'

Published in the Daily Mail here.

CNBC: This Year's Queen's Speech to Be Very Political?

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Published on CNBC here.

FT: Money and morals: a moral compass in finance

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Old Teaser

The final video of the money and morals series is a debate from The Barrowboy and Banker – a pub in London.

Eamonn Butler of the Adam Smith Institute, Giles Fraser of St Paul’s cathedral and Andrew Hill, FT City editor, debate whether we can still trust free markets, and whether the city and bankers need more regulation or a stronger moral compass.

Click here to watch the video.

Published on FT.com here.

FT: Money and morals: not fair to blame the bankers

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Old Teaser

In the third video in the money and morals series, Eamonn Butler, director of the Adam Smith Institute, defends the bankers against accusations of greed.

He focuses instead on what he sees as the failings of public policy and "immoral politicians".

Click here to watch the video.

Published on FT.com here.

FT: Muddling through with money and morals

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Old Teaser

Written by Michael Skapinker

The call to introduce an ethical spirit into the market has provoked a fascinating debate in this newspaper, on FT.com and elsewhere. On one side are Mr Costa and Stephen Green, chairman of HSBC and author of the book Good Value.

On the other are Eamonn Butler, director of the Adam Smith Institute, and Philip Booth, editorial director of the Institute of Economic Affairs, who argue that capitalism’s problem has not been a deficit of ethics.

Mr Butler argues that the crisis had its origins in US government policies forcing banks to lend to people with poor credit records. Mr Booth wrote that when central banks held interest rates down, asset prices rose and bad risks began to seem good. Mr Butler and Mr Booth assert it is an unfettered free market that encourages virtue and government regulation that destroys it.

Published on FT.com here.