Or should I use the more obvious word? It is a tradition of redistribution, intervention and socialism equally as compelling as Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” (which, one should remember, was a satirical attack on laissez-faire morality, drawn from Shakespeare’s Macbeth). It’s got bugger all to do with laissez faire morality. It’s about how the merchant

Booker’s misunderstandings, like his commentary in general, are not original – in this case they come second-hand from the former Ukip press officer-turned-blogger Tim Worstall, whose complaint on the Adam Smith Institute blog is entitled “Perhaps Decc would like to do their sums again“. Worstall’s problem is that he “can’t find the price assumptions they

At the ASI. Ebeneezer Scrooge was Adam Smith’s great nephew.

Rightwing libertarianism recognises few legitimate constraints on the power to act, regardless of the impact on the lives of others. In the UK it is forcefully promoted by groups like the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Adam Smith Institute, the Institute of Economic Affairs, and Policy Exchange. Their concept of freedom looks to me like nothing but

This afternoon I attended an event in the House of Commons organised by the Adam Smith Institute, to launch their publication (published in partnership with the Cobden Centre) entitled The Law of Opposites: Illusory profits in the financial sector, by Gordon Kerr. Kerr himself spoke. Alas, Gordon Kerr is a rather quiet speaker, and he did not use a microphone. Worse, after the talk had begun, I re...

Renewable energy cannot meet the UK's energy needs, claims a report from the Adam Smith Institute and Scientific Alliance.

In the Scottish Mail. Not, as far as I know, online. ‘Some recycling is an extraordinarily good idea – but not when it’s the latest new state religion,’ says the economist Tom Worstall, a Fellow of the Adam Smith Institute and the author of Chasing Rainbows: Economic Myths, Environmental Facts. ‘The concept of zero waste

Last Tuesday Detlev Schlichter gave another talk, one of several that he is doing around now in various parts of the world, on Paper Money Collapse. Last Tuesday's talk was organised by the Adam Smith Institute. I attended this talk and can vouch for the fact that the audience was such that it was standing room only by the time it started, partly thanks (or so I was told the following day) to...

At the ASI. Using Adam Smith to explain hedge fund returns

Yes, there are a couple of interesting recent postings up at the Adam Smith Institute blog, both involving falling prices and falling profits. Tim Worstall writes about why the solar power business is not proving very profitable. This is not, he argues, because solar power is rubbish. It's just that making the kit to capture it is not that hard, the price of such kit is falling all the time, ...