The EU referendum is too important to be left to the BBC February 2, 2016 The EU referendum debate is well underway. Whether we vote this year or next, David Cameron has abandoned any pretence of attempting to fundamentally alter our EU relationship – with previous promises to repatriate employment law, clamp down on free movement, and change EU treaties all jettisoned. What tweaks Cameron is seeking look largely cosmetic or [...]
Drinkers pay net tax of £7bn: It’s time to stop pretending they’re a burden on taxpayers September 2, 2015 Teetotallers should raise a glass of sparkling water to Britain’s drinkers, who are subsidising the Treasury to the tune of £6.5bn a year according to a think tank. Revenues from alcohol taxes amount to over £10bn, according to official figures crunched by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). The contribution of drinkers to [...]
S&P slashes Russia’s economic growth forecasts amid weak oil prices October 15, 2015 Credit ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has said that oil prices remaining lower for longer will punish Russia's economy. S&P slashed its forecasts for Russia's economic growth from -2.6 per cent to -3.6 per cent this year, and from 1.9 per cent to 0.3 per cent in 2016. "The change reflects our expectations of a more prolonged weakness in [...]
Think tank calls for sex trade decriminalisation in Britain: Restricting sex trade is “a waste of public money” says the Institute of Economic Affairs August 6, 2015 A free market think tank has today waded into the row on laws surrounding the UK sex trade. The sex industry should be fully decriminalised, the Westminsterbased Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) said in a new report. The IEA argues that existing attempts to restrict prostitution are “ineffective, ill-informed and a waste public money”. It [...]
Barclays says oil prices are likely to recover before market expectations October 15, 2015 Barclays analysts have come out against the "lower for longer" talk regarding the future direction of oil prices. In a report, they argue current oil prices aren’t high enough to encourage companies to keep producing sufficient quantities of the black stuff in the medium term. And this will make it harder to meet demand for oil [...]
The proto-Corbyn years of the 1970s were awful: We must fight what remains of them October 4, 2015 During the late 1990s and early 2000s, think tanks such as the IEA had a difficult time. We were told that the argument for the market economy had been won. A so-called neo-liberal hegemony had been created, and even a Labour government had accepted free markets. Meanwhile, water was being poured into the foundations [...]
How low can oil prices go? Here’s what the industry thinks November 23, 2015 Venezuelan oil minister Eulogio del Pino yesterday warned that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) cannot allow an oil price war, and urged it to take action to stabilise the crude market soon. In response to the question of how low oil prices could go next year if Opec fails to take action, del Pino said "mid-20s". With the future direction of [...]
Oil price slide casts shadow over Shell’s £47bn takeover of BG Group December 15, 2015 Shell's mega merger with BG Group was given the green light by Chinese regulators yesterday, but the deal has been rocked after tumbling oil prices led to a major shareholder questioning its viability. The price of international benchmark Brent crude oil yesterday fell to fresh lows of $36.33 per barrel before a rally in early evening [...]
Uber, drills and the death of ownership: Why the future is renting… everything December 14, 2015 If markets are so great, why do firms exist at all? To a non-economist, that might seem like a bizarre thing to ask. Yet the growth of the misleadingly named “sharing economy” is making it one of the most important questions for understanding the future economic structure of our world. We have traditionally thought that [...]
Turn UK railway tracks into express bus lanes to reduce ticket prices and allow commuters to sit down, says IEA February 2, 2015 Commuters could save money, and even be able to sit down, if some of the UK’s railways were turned into bus routes instead, according to a new report by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA). In the report named “Paving Over the Tracks: A better use of Britain’s railways?” authors Paul Withrington and Richard Wellings [...]