Madsen Pirie 20/07/2016 Madsen Pirie 20/07/2016

Rebooting Britain: Making the most of Brexit

Ben Southwood 25/05/2016 Ben Southwood 25/05/2016

Nothing to Hide: The case against the ban on extreme pornography

The ban on possession of ‘extreme pornography’ was introduced in 2009 and extended in 2015. The law, as drafted, bans depictions of some sex acts that can be conducted safely and consensually between adults, with a specific risk of prosecution posed to LGBT minorities.

Read the whole paper here.

Ben Southwood 03/05/2016 Ben Southwood 03/05/2016

Evolution not revolution: the case for the EEA option

Britain needs to leave the European Union, which over 43 years of membership has proven to be sclerotic, anti-democratic and immune to reform. It is a political relic of a post-war order that no longer exists.The best exit route is for the UK to step back to a position in the European Economic Area (‘EEA’) and the European Free Trade Association (‘EFTA’), thereby wholly maintaining the open trading arrangements of the single market and related economic integration.

Read the paper online here.

Download the paper here.

Ben Southwood 25/04/2016 Ben Southwood 25/04/2016

Stuck in the middle with EU

An increasing number of EU regulations are made at the global level and not by the EU bureaucracy, which mainly performs a ‘wholesaler’ role, enforcing rules without creating them anew. The UK often does not have a full voice at the global level because of the EU’s need for a ‘common position’.

Read the full paper online here.

Ben Southwood 18/04/2016 Ben Southwood 18/04/2016

The Liberal Case for Leave

The EU referendum campaign is presenting us two competing choices. On the one hand a vision of Britain as part of a steadily-integrating EU (at whatever speed) or a vision of Britain completely outside it.

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Nigel Hawkins 18/04/2016 Nigel Hawkins 18/04/2016

UK PLC: Britain's debt time bomb

Nigel Hawkins, in his new ASI paper, reviews the big numbers in the Whole Government Accounts, and finds that Britain's government liabilities go far beyond the national debt. In order to ensure stability in security in public finances into the future, he argues that the government must cut back further, as well as selling off some of the assets mentioned in his previous paper Cash in the Attic.

Read the paper here.

Madsen Pirie 15/02/2016 Madsen Pirie 15/02/2016

The UK and the World in 2050

In The UK and the World in 2050, Madsen Pirie looks ahead to the world in thirty years time and, based on existing scientific advances, considers how we might use technology to solve problems like climate change and world hunger.

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Ben Southwood 10/02/2016 Ben Southwood 10/02/2016

Migration and development

Fredrik Segerfeldt argues that migration benefits not only migrants from developing countries but also the family and friends that they leave behind. The idea of 'brain drain,' that the outward flow of the best and brightest inhabitants of a developing country adversely affects that country's prospects, is not borne out in the empirical data, while remittances are shown to significantly ameliorate poverty.

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Hunter Georgeson 03/02/2016 Hunter Georgeson 03/02/2016

The New Aristocrats - a cultural and economic analysis of the new status signaling

Ryan H. Murphy argues the case that our typical understanding of status signaling - 'conspicuous consumption' - has become outmoded. The 'new aristocrats' focus their energies instead on signaling their virtue, as internet activism and environmentalism replace the ostentatious diamond rings of old.

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Anthony J. Evans 11/01/2016 Anthony J. Evans 11/01/2016

Sound Money: An Austrian proposal for free banking, NGDP targets, and OMO reforms

Anthony J Evans lays out the first, second and third best policies for monetary reform. He outlines reforms to quantitative easing policy that would reduce the distortions it causes; argues that inflation targeting and the Monetary Policy Committee should be replaced by an automatic nominal GDP target; and ultimately says the Bank of England should be scrapped altogether, replaced with privately-run ‘free banking’.

Read the report.