ASI features in the New Statesman for our opposition to the tax credit cuts

The Adam Smith Institute has featured in the New Statesman for our opposition to the Conservative's tax credit cuts:

A grand alliance has condemned George Osborne's planned cuts to tax credits: Labour, the Sun, the work and pensions select committee, Tory backbenchers, Boris Johnson and the Adam Smith Institute. Today, it was the turn of their creator: Gordon Brown.

Read the full article here. 

Dr. Eamonn Butler's joint letter on a new runway at Heathrow is featured in the Sunday Telegraph

Dr. Eamonn Butler's joint letter regarding the expansion of Heathrow airport was featured in the Sunday Telegraph.

SIR – As business leaders, we welcome the news (report, November 8) that the Prime Minister is preparing to back a new runway at Heathrow. However, despite this decision, it seems the Government may be drawn into yet another lengthy consultation on aviation capacity, resulting in further delays and uncertainty.

Read the full letter here. 

Kate Andrews writes for City AM on Hillary Clinton’s gender problem

Head of Communications at the Adam Smith Institute, Kate Andrews, writes a fortnightly column for City AM on events and issues surrounding the US presidential primaries. This week her focus is on Hillary Clinton's tendency to play the 'woman card' to try and advance her campaign.

She has deluded herself into thinking that the woman card alone can win her the Oval Office. Clinton has been using feminine and feminist rhetoric for years to propel her campaigns. She has never shied away from using pay gap stats (both legitimate and debunked) to promote feminist policies and, most recently, her “grandmother glow” became one of her most repeated catchphrases for book tour talks and stump speeches.

But since the launch of her presidential bid, Clinton has been playing up the woman card outrageously, emphasising gender over policy and claiming victimhood status to demote her opponents.

Read the full article here.

ASI comments on tax credit cuts feature in The Mirror

The Adam Smith Institute has featured in The Mirror for our position against the tax credit cuts.

For example the right-wing Adam Smith Institute states: “Working tax credits are the best form of welfare we have and cutting them would be a huge mistake.”

Read the full article here.

Dr. Eamonn Butler's letter features in the Evening Standard

Director of the Adam Smith Institute, Dr. Eamonn Butler, has had his letter regarding the prospect of Lord Turner being the Governor of the Bank of England featured in the Evening Standard.

Lord Turner's keenness for "printing money" is no virtue, but precisely why he should not be a "candidate for Governor of the Bank of England" [City Comment, November 5]. It was the bank's easy money and cheap credit policies that set off this boom-bust cycle in the first place. And their hair-of-the-dog remedy - record low interest rates - just delays an even bigger hangover. We need central bankers who fear making things too easy to be true, not ones who enthuse about it.

Kate Andrews writes for the IBTimes on the issues with Equal Pay Day

Head of Communications at the Adam Smith Institute, Kate Andrews, wrote an article for the IBTimes on why the 'gender wage gap' is not really a gap at all, and discusses how the figures have been manipulated ahead of Equal Pay Day.

Apparently, Equal Pay Day is meant to raise awareness about the inequalities between men and women in the workplace. But in reality, it provides a platform for manipulated statistics to be bandied about, and encourages women to adopt a dangerous (and unnecessary) victimhood mentality in the workplace.

Read the full article here. 

Should more be done to block cheap Chinese steel imports? | Tim Worstall argues NO in City AM

Senior fellow at the ASI, Tim Worstall, was in City AM this morning for his comments on why subsidised Chinese steel imports are actually good for UK consumers

Far from rejecting cheap Chinese steel, we should thank the oppressed Chinese taxpayer for making us all richer. Subsidies are a distortion to a market and we normally don't like such distortions. But think through what the allegation here is.

The Chinese government is subsidising the price of the steel which is flooding out of China. Some call this a subsidy to those steel producers: it isn’t, it is a subsidy to steel consumers.

Read the full debate here. 

ASI Fellow Preston Byrne has his comments on the Investigatory Powers Bill featured in The Guardian

Preston Byrne, an Adam Smith Institute fellow, has featured in the Guardian for his critique of the IP Bill. He argues it does not effectively tackle terrorism, it just puts the general public at risk.

Preston Byrne, the general counsel for blockchain-based startup Eris Industries, said that “this legislation will not address the problem it’s designed to solve. Terrorists will go dark using off-the-shelf software like GPG and Tor, at the same time as ordinary people and businesses are placed in serious jeopardy because all of their own data is stored somewhere in a way which can be compromised.

Read the full article here. 

The Uber of electricity could be just around the corner | Charlotte Bowyer writes for City AM

Head of Programmes at the Adam Smith Institute, Charlotte Bowyer, wrote for City AM on how cutting back regulation within the energy sector could lead to increases in technology and innovation; revolutionising the industry just like Uber did with taxis. In her article, she also discussed our more recent paper "Power Up: The framework for a new era of UK energy distribution", which found that the UK's current regulatory system severely limits room for innovation in the energy sector.

The current regulatory model was borne out of the privatisation of a vertically-integrated industry, where everything from electricity generation and transmission to distribution was performed by a single utility. The future of electricity generation and distribution will be nothing like this.

And in supposing a natural monopoly and applying a static model of innovation, even well-intentioned interventions have an adverse effect on competition, creating an institutional framework in which supplier innovation is severely hampered.

Read the full article here. 

The report, Power Up: The framework for a new era of UK energy distribution, argues that new technologies such as smart grids and distributed energy production can revolutionise old models of energy distribution and pricing, in the same way that apps like Uber are disrupting traditional models of transport.

New ASI paper 'Power Up' features in City AM

The latest Adam Smith Institute paper, "Power Up: The framework for a new era of UK energy distribution", has featured in City AM for its argument that cutting back red tape regulations can lead to innovative and new ways of energy distribution. 

“Regulating the market too heavily ­– often justified by claims that consumers are being ‘ripped off’ or overwhelmed by the number of tariffs available – closes down consumer experimentation and prevents technological and economic progress, which keeps energy prices high,” the think tank said.

Read the full article here. 

The report, Power Up: The framework for a new era of UK energy distribution, argues that new technologies such as smart grids and distributed energy production can revolutionise old models of energy distribution and pricing, in the same way that apps like Uber are disrupting traditional models of transport.