You may have missed that, among all our other British and international activities, the IEA publishes an academic journal: Economic Affairs. The journal is produced in collaboration with the Vinson Centre at the University of Buckingham and our partners Universidad Francisco Marroquin and Universidad de Las Hesperides.  

Three-quarters of our readership are based outside the UK. This is reflected in the people who write for us. In the most recent issue, we have articles by authors from Hungary, Germany, Morocco, Australia and the United States.  



The latest issue begins with a review by US-based economist Willem Buiter warning about the problems facing central banks in the current struggle to contain inflation. In Buiter’s view, these problems result from ‘a convoluted combination of supply and demand factors’ unlike anything experienced since the 1970s. Furthermore, demands for monetary funding of government deficits threaten the appropriate policy response by central banks. 

China-watcher Kerry Liu’s article discusses the partial decoupling of the United States from China following Covid-19 and geopolitical developments. In a novel approach, he shows how the response of stock markets helps indicate the costs of decoupling: variations in equity prices estimate the economic impact of decoupling. 

Said Outlioua and Abdesselam Fazouane are concerned with the long-term sustainability of pension systems worldwide. Their preliminary study of various schemes identifies some critical factors in their success. 

Other scholarly articles in this issue look at the link between religion and attitudes towards markets, the origins of austerity policies between the wars and the meaning of financial stability. In the Discussion section of the journal, where shorter articles discuss intellectual trends, German historian Rainer Zitelmann robustly rebuts the notion of a capitalist conspiracy of ‘the rich’ having untrammelled power and influence. Jamie Whyte explains why he thinks the new school of ‘postliberal’ writers are confused.  

You can read sample articles and take out subscriptions to the journal, which appears three times a year. 

Professor Len Shackleton
Editor, Economic Affairs
Editorial and Research Fellow, Institute of Economic Affairs

FRAUD FOCUS

This week the IEA released its latest paper, 'Fraud Focus: Is the Serious Fraud Office fit for purpose?', authored by IEA Academic and Research Director James Forder. The paper was featured in The Financial Times, The Times, i News, Politico and Legal Futures.

The paper examines the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), which was set up in 1988 to investigate and prosecute cases of complex fraud in England and Wales, and finds an unsatisfactory record of successful prosecutions. The SFO has failed to disclose potentially exculpatory evidence, mishandled documents, used unlawful search warrants, undertaken inadequate legal analysis, made spurious allegations, and, in one case, forged a letter. The paper discusses options for institutional reform.



In a Foreword for the paper, The Rt Hon Sir Robert Buckland KBE KC, former Justice Secretary and MP for South Swindon, said:


 
Paul Maynard, MP for Blackpool North and Cleveleys and former Justice Minister, said:

“With so many cases calling into question the running of the SFO, this is a timely and insightful report into where we need to go from here to reflect Sir David Calvert-Smith’s findings and improve our approach to tackling serious fraud”.



Author of the paper James Forder wrote a piece for CityAM outlining his argument. He commented:

"For the UK to keep its place as a global banking centre, it needs to be able to prevent financial crime. But the record of the Serious Fraud Office has been fraught. It has made many errors, and often been embarrassed by the improper behaviour of its staff. The collapse of the SFO’s case against security firm G4S earlier this month, after a failure to properly disclose evidence, is only the latest in a series of disasters."



James was also interviewed by Matthew on his paper for this week's episode of the IEA Podcast and we also produced a video explainer.

CPTPP

It was announced on Friday that the UK has joined the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) — placing Britain in a group of nations powering the world's future prosperity.



In The Telegraph, Shanker extolled Britain's membership of the trade partnership. He highlighted the impossibility of joining such a bloc in the European Union:

"Accession to the partnership would be a huge event for Brexit Britain and would not have been possible inside the European Union. Accession would mean that the UK would not be able to rejoin the EU customs union."



Shanker appeared on GB News and was also quoted in The Sun, The Daily Mail and in French and Greek media outlets. 

IEA Director General Mark Littlewood also welcomed the news describing it as a "momentous economic and strategic moment". Mark's comments were covered in The Guardian and CityAM.

A DECENT PROPOSAL

Last week IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon found himself £1000 richer. No, he didn't win big on the slots. He won a 2018 bet against economist Jonathan Portes after child poverty failed to increase sharply. 

Christopher and Jonathan's bet has reignited the debate about the accuracy of economic forecasting and has been widely covered.

The pair discussed the bet on GB News with Jacob Rees-Mogg. Commenting on the efficacy of economic models, Christopher said:

"If you look at child poverty over any period of time, it never got anywhere near the 41 per cent that
Jonathan was predicting!"

Financial Times Economics Editor Chris Giles, the arbiter of the bet, wrote about the lessons that can be drawn from their wager:

"First, we need to understand why Portes got it wrong. The child poverty measure in question was the proportion of children living in households with incomes after housing costs below 60 per cent of the median. The problem for Portes was not a government U-turn and greater generosity to the poor, nor more employment in response to stingy benefits, but a failure to foresee that median incomes could grow so slowly."

EMISSION POSSIBLE

A new paper by EPiCENTER member think tank CEPOS, 'Emission Possible: How a consolidated emissions trading system would dramatically reduce costs in the EU', has been published.


 

The paper urges EU decision-makers to include transportation and buildings in the existing Emissions Trading System (ETS). According to the report, this would reduce costs of carbon reduction by 25 per cent compared to the current policy suggestion of creating two parallel systems.

IEA DIGITAL

The IEA's YouTube channel is home to all of your digital free market needs. From lectures with leading thinkers to informative public policy explainers, we have it all. On this week's schedule, we had:



Essential Scholars... The IEA is delighted to have teamed up with the Fraser Institute, Foundation for Economic Education and Institute of Public Affairs, to promote the Essential Scholars project. In this video, IEA Communications Officer Reem Ibrahim takes you on an Essential Scholars tour of London.



Swift Half... In this episode of the Swift Half with Snowdon, IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon is joined by Mail on Sunday Columnist Peter Hitchens to discuss the grammar school revolution.



Crisis, what crisis?... The recent collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse have renewed the conversation about financial crises. But what causes a bank to fail and what regulatory structures are there to prevent it from happening? IEA Director of Public Policy and Communications Matthew Lesh discussed this with Professor Forrest Capie and Professor Geoffrey Wood.



Smoking gun... On March 23rd, the IEA was delighted to host Forest's panel discussion on the creeping prohibition of tobacco. The event was chaired by Simon Clarke and on the panel was: IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon, IEA Communications Officer Reem Ibrahim, Deputy Editor of Conservative Home Henry Hill and Staff Writer for The Spectator World Kara Kennedy

IN THE MEDIA



Child(snare)... IEA Director of Public Policy and Communications Matthew Lesh commented in The Daily Telegraph warning that the government’s new childcare reforms could leave parents worse off. He wrote:

‘If the underlying goal with this childcare policy is to ensure parents, particularly mothers, get back into or stay in the workforce, there is a huge disincentive factor here that could undermine the whole enterprise.

“It will discourage people from working or from working hard, going for promotions and building up their skills over time. It could slow people’s career progression because they are fearful about falling over this threshold. The Government seems to be pretty much doing everything they can to sting the lower end of top income earners.”



School's out... In The Critic, IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon wrote about the decline of grammar schools. Christopher commented:

"It is wholly unfair to judge the grammar school system by how it works today rather than on how it performed before it was sabotaged. Even if academic research into grammar schools was not conducted by people who blatantly have an axe to grind, assessing the impact of grammar schools as they currently exist is like studying the impact of monasteries during the reign of Elizabeth I."



Choice vaporised... Christopher also appeared on TalkTV to discuss proposals to outlaw certain vapes because of their potential appeal to children. He said:

“They’re not recommended for children – their sale has been banned to children for the last eight years and I think enforcing that ban would be more sensible than starting to ban different categories of e-cigarettes."

Christopher discussed the proposed ban in a piece for Spiked.



Absolute banker... IEA Senior Research Fellow Jamie Whyte wrote for The Daily Express criticising the belief that the state intervention can mitigate bank risks without causing unintended consequences. Jamie argued:

“They must offer higher rates of interest on deposits. How will they make money to pay these higher rates of interest? By taking more risks in their lending. By making depositors safe, the Government makes banks risky.”



Brave new world... IEA Head of Political Economy Kristian Niemietz wrote for CapX on a British Social Attitudes survey demonstrating record dissatisfaction with the NHS among the public. He commented:

"The results of the BSA survey indicate a massive change. Until very recently, surveys about the NHS always returned phenomenally positive results."

“Criticism of the NHS is no longer the social taboo it once was. If the NHS were to lose its halo, and if more people began to judge it by its actual performance rather than by the mythology around it, it could be real a gamechanger.”



Road to serfdom... IEA Chief Operating Officer and Energy Analyst Andy Mayer wrote for The Telegraph on the negative impact of heat pumps and what they represent about the net zero project. Andy wrote:

"Net Zero often entails replacing things that work with things that don’t. In power generation, we swap reliable gas turbines for intermittent wind. In transport, cars that can be refilled in minutes once a week make way for ones that need recharging for hours daily. But it’s heating where the Government is most keen to regress, by venerating heat pumps as a miracle solution to a problem that doesn’t exist."

Andy also responded to the government’s broader energy announcements this week in the Powering Up Britain policy paper:
 
“The Powering Up Britain policy paper recommits the government to wasteful subsidies and regulatory meddling while showing insufficient ambition to get out of the way.”

Andy's comments were also covered in Investors' Chronicle.



IEA Communications Officer Harrison Griffiths criticised the government's Nitrous Oxide ban in CapX. He wrote:

“Laughing gas was associated with six deaths in 2021 and a total of 62 since 2001. Each of those deaths is a tragedy, without doubt. But as the independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs argued just last month, prohibition is a totally disproportionate response. Especially so when you consider how many fewer deaths are associated with laughing gas than alcohol (9,641 in 2021) or even paracetamol (277 in 2021) – or, for that matter, day-to-day activities like driving a car (1,608 in 2021). Nor is it even clear that the reported deaths are directly due to laughing gas, or to other substances or activity engaged in at the same time."

Harrison also wrote a piece in The Daily Express on the same topic.

TIMBRO VISIT

This week we were delighted to welcome the Reform Academy of our Swedish sister organisation and fellow EPiCENTER member, Timbro, to our offices.



The twenty talented students and young professionals met with IEA staff to discuss our research and issues such as environmental and technology policy and free speech.

STUDENTS AND TEACHERS



Join the IEA's internship programme!... We are now welcoming applicants. From editorial work to aiding our operations team, there are a variety of opportunities on offer for sixth form and university students. Want to work for the UK's original free-market think tank? Click here to find out more and submit your application.

Our current cohort of talented interns put together a video providing an insight into what you can expect, which you can watch here.

Applications are still open for Camp Vinson, which will now run from 26-30 June at St Antony’s College, Oxford! You can submit applications until Friday 31 March for this exclusive residential programme run in conjunction with the IEA, Initiative for African Trade and Prosperity, Vinson Centre for the Public Understanding of Economics and Entrepreneurship and the Institute of International Monetary Research.

Find out more and apply here.