It’s often said that Adam Smith would turn in his grave if he knew what was argued in his name. The latest Adam Smith Institute attack on the Robin Hood Tax would certainly be enough to make his skeleton blush crimson.

Whilst accountants, pundits and politicians are poring over the finer details of the PBR in preparation for the Commons debate, the Conservative front bench should cast their eye over a briefing paper produced by the Adam Smith Institute on raising personal allowances. It is, quite simply, an excellent proposal that is succinctly summarised by the author, Tom Clougherty, on the Adam Smith blog. Ra...

"As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce." -- Adam Smith From

I have just returned from the Great Smith Street HQ of the Adam Smith Institute, where celebrations were underway to celebrate the 287th anniversary of the great man's birth. My picture above shows ASI Director Eamonn Butler cutting the birthday...

"Labour was the first price, the original purchase - money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all wealth of the world was originally purchased" - Adam Smith

Fareed Zakaria interviews Wen Jiabao. The usual diplo-guff: It’s the sidebars that are interesting. Apparently, the Communist Party of China is holding high the banner of Adam Smith thought, advancing particularly under the guidance of the Theory of Moral Sentiments,...

Please, go read your Adam Smith again. Since free trade replaced mercantilism, liberals have recognised that capitalism can do good even if that is not its first objective. The benign force Adam Smith called the “invisible hand” was instrumental in the creation of modern journalism. As Gavin Kennedy indefatigably continues to point out, the one reference to

Adam Smith had more complicated views on economic, philosophical and political questions that some of his supporters or detractors assume. Here is a quote from him on banking, a sector which has contributed so much to our current financial crisis: "It is not by augmenting the capital of the country, but by rendering a greater part of that capital active and productive than would otherwise be so, t...

"With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which in their eyes is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves. " - Adam Smith

Yes, he did favour maximum interest rates: In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith often condemned “projectors”, as speculators were called in his own time. For example, he favoured a legally-imposed maximum interest rate of 5 per cent at a time when the market