Welcome to the IEA Weekend Newsletter!

• A message from our Director General
• IEAsolation
• Coronomics
• i on the media

A personal message from Mark Littlewood

Many thanks for being one of the thousands who subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter – and I hope this finds you and your loved ones safe and well.

Like everyone else, our activities have been profoundly impacted by the coronavirus. But I’d like to tell you a little about our new ways of working in light of the pandemic – and what you can expect to see, hear and read from the IEA in the weeks ahead.

In the past week, we’ve trialled live webinars and stepped up our podcast output – including the introduction of a new series of podcasts on coronomics, examining the ways Covid-19 will impact our economy, our working practices, our civil liberties and more (see IEAsolation, below).

But it’s not all about the pandemic. We’ve been busily re-imagining the way we communicate all our research and ideas.

To that end, we’ll be introducing a raft of new video and audio programming providing a free market perspective on a wide range of fascinating topics.

We’ll provide analysis, insight, discussion, debate, lectures from globally-acclaimed economists and thinkers, fascinating film profiles on free-market greats such as Adam Smith, Milton Friedman and more. And we’ll have more blogs, podcasts and online publications than ever before.

Inevitably, the focus will be on digital communication. But be assured that, in the background, we’ll also continue to work on our acclaimed publications programme, preparing new books and papers in readiness for when we can again print and publish them.
 

Also - starting tomorrow - we’ll be introducing IEA Daily, a sister publication to this e-newsletter. 

It will bring you a concise digest of the day’s news, expert commentary, and updates on all our latest and upcoming activities.  If you’d like to subscribe to IEA Daily, please click here.

Finally, I’d like to thank the IEA team for their remarkable efforts to reshape our output in such a short space of time and in such challenging circumstances. And, most of all, I’d like to thank you for following the IEA’s work – I trust you’ll find our expanded and enhanced programme satisfying, stimulating and some comfort in such trying times. Stay well.

Mark Littlewood
Director General, Institute of Economic Affairs

IEAsolation

A week is a long time in politics; in the Covid-19 crisis it’s closer to an age. In response, the IEA has packed more into the past seven days than frantic shoppers have into their trolleys. 

#NeverNeeded

Minimising the damage wreaked by Coronavirus doesn’t necessitate flash policy or intervention. Some of the most interesting policy announcements have come not from the introduction of new regulations but the loosening or scrapping of old ones.

It could be argued that many of these were hard to justify to begin with. A Twitter hashtag, #NeverNeeded, is attracting a growing list of rules for the regulatory bonfire.



In a first for the IEA, our Digital Manager Darren Grimes filmed a video conference between our Director General Mark Littlewood, our Head of Regulatory Affairs Victoria Hewson, and our Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch this spirited debate.

Coronomics

As the government enforces social distancing to slow the spread of the virus, ministers have been charged with the unenviable task of ensuring that hitting pause now does not lead to long-lasting damage.



The chancellor has committed to doing “whatever it takes” to see the country through the crisis, including £330 billion of zero-interest loans and loan guarantees for businesses.

But will this be enough to ensure the economy can recover? What, if anything, could the government be doing differently to reduce the damage?

Our Head of Education, Dr Steve Davies, joined Darren for a podcast on the government’s economic response to the Coronavirus crisis - listen here.

You can subscribe to our podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Podbean.

Meanwhile, the IEA responded to the latest measures for the self-employed. You can read our full comment here. 

With a little help from our friends...

These are difficult times for every individual and organisation, including the IEA. Understandably, your priorities will be to look after your loved ones, your family, your work or your business. 

But if you do have a little extra cash available to help the IEA during these uncertain times, your contribution - no matter how small - would be deeply appreciated. 

As an educational charity, the work we do work is entirely funded by donations. If you are able to help please click here or contact [email protected]. Thank you.

i on the media

IEA spokespeople have continued to make their voices heard, providing expert analysis at this difficult time.

Holed up... With the world facing a coronavirus-induced downturn, governments are “putting economies into hibernation”.

IEA Economics Fellow Julian Jessop told Newsweek, rather than stimulating the economy, this time it’s “about making sure that businesses and jobs continue to exist - it is about preserving the vital organs”.

Silver lining… While we face restrictions on our traditional civil liberties, governments are “simultaneously engaged in a fairly radical programme of liberalisation,” which may have a dramatic effect on our future regulatory landscape, wrote Mark Littlewood in his column for The Times.



The IEA’s Head of Regulatory Affairs Victoria Hewson wrote for Global Vision on the topic. 

Mind the gap… One rule the government has chosen to suspend is the enforcement of gender pay reporting. This is a welcome move. 



But as the IEA has long argued, the measures - which force companies with over 250 employees to publish crude data each year - were never fit for purpose. The IEA’s Director of Communications, Annabel Denham, also called for the requirement to be permanently scrapped in City AM.

War time measures… In an article for the Spectator, the IEA’s Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon argued that “restrictions on liberty and interventions in the economy must be seen as the sacrifices they are and reversed as soon as it is safe to do so.”



Corona ‘95… What if the Coronavirus had hit us 25 years earlier? Writing for CapX, IEA Head of Political Economy Dr Kristian Niemietz argues that thanks to modern technology, we are now better prepared to deal with the consequences of the pandemic than ever before.



A tweak here and there… Writing for City AM, the IEA’s chief operating officer Andy Mayer argued that, as the lockdown kicks in, the government should “take the time to think again and refine” the coronavirus job retention scheme. Unchanged, he warns, it could do significant damage to our ability to work through this crisis.



Extra, extra… IEA Policy Adviser Alex Hammond wrote for National Interest on the South African government’s plan to allow for land expropriation without compensation. 

And Media Manager Emily Carver discussed events of the last seven days on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Good Week Bad Week.