Our plan for supporting Ukrainian refugees

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Like this bulletin? Tell your friends. Don’t like it? Tell me. — E

IN THIS ADAM SMITH INSTITUTE E-BULLETIN:
* Educating the next generation in liberty.
* Resource depletion? Don't worry!
* Helping Ukrainian refugees.

BUT FIRST...

The news has been terrible lately but sometimes there’s a ray of sunshine: a smiling child, the first daffodils of spring, or lots of asset-frozen Russian oligarchs sobbing to the Hague that their human rights are being abused.

But there is nothing much more amusing than to see a Ukrainian farmer towing away a Russian tank ([link removed]) . And, never lost for a morale-raising joke, the Ukrainian authorities now say that citizens don’t need to declare captured Russian tanks for tax purposes. (Though if I met a Russian tank in the street, whether it was tax-deductible or not wouldn’t be my first concern.)

Once again we’ve seen an out-of-touch government cynically saying one thing but doing another. (You mean like Tories’ promises not to raise national insurance contributions? —Ed.) Perhaps Putin's problem is that he's never lost anything before. He wins every election (not that there are any other candidates), his judo partners all fall at the last point, and he has an uncanny ability to score the winning goal in polo. So right now, he must be wondering why he can’t defeat a country with a third of the population and a twenty-eighth of the land mass. Must be driving him mad. (I think that’s already happened — Ed.) Perhaps he should give up, like Prince Andrew, and just settle.

But maybe Putin figures that he needs the extra space for his extraordinarily long negotiating table at the end of which President Macron and others were marooned last week. (Do the French really eat THAT much garlic —Ed.)

In other news, the Winter Olympics in Beijing, being staged on artificial snow, were disrupted — because of snow. Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.

But I digress…


** SUPPORTING THE ASI
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John Blundell Studentships

The scholarship fund that we instituted in memory of the late director of the Institute of Economic Affairs and President of the Atlas Network, John Blundell, is now at an end, but one of its joys has been the expression, by our scholars, of how much the award has changed their lives. This, for example, from Jorge Jraissati from Venezuela (and there’s a video too) ([link removed])

"The Adam Smith Institute was kind enough to select me as the recipient of this fellowship. This is thanks to my work in Venezuela, specifically, to my continuous attempts to return Venezuela to the course of freedom and democracy.

I decided to pursue my graduate education at the world-renowned IESE Business School, where I am studying public administration. My intention is to gain the practical tools I need to become a better leader,

To the donors and staff of the Adam Smith Institute, I could not thank you enough for your support. By allowing me to keep studying, you are making a tremendous impact in my life, one that I will never forget.”

Well, the scholarships are now at an end, sadly — we committed to running them for seven years and we did that, discovering and helping dozens of young freedom-minded graduate students round the planet, and helping get them into positions of influence where they can act as multipliers and teach others.

But we still do a huge amount of work with students — from our school visits round the country, to our videos and teaching plans, our books for schools programme, our speaking appearances at universities, and our Freedom Week boot camp for promising young individualists.

Help us reach out to the next generation and give them the ideas that they don’t always get in school and college. Let’s break the intellectual mould and expose them to freedom. Donate now to our educational initiatives and spread the understanding of economic and individual freedom!
Donate to the Adam Smith Research Trust ([link removed])


** THINK TANKING
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Resource depletion? Don’t worry!

We heard economist Dr Gale Pooley explain why we shouldn’t worry about the world running out of resources. We’re awash with resources, he argued, we have a superabundance of them, and they are growing a lot faster than the human population — and getting a lot cheaper as well.

That’s because human knowledge is expanding faster still, allowing us to work out how we can make more useful stuff out of useless stuff. Like turning sand into glass — or computer chips. That, says Pooley, is why we have been able to (almost) eliminate famines, reduce accidents, enjoy longer lives and mitigate the effects of weather and climate, all despite our growing numbers. Or maybe just because of them. Human beings are clever, you know. Catch the talk online here ([link removed]) .

Our Space Invaders report ([link removed]) — no, it’s not about the Russian military but about creating property rights on the moon — continues to spark interest. Since various private moon missions are planned, perhaps our ideas on how to solve the who-owns-what problem have come at an appropriate and critical time. And don’t tell me that the moon should be there for ‘all humanity’ — just google ’tragedy of the commons’ and that will tell you just how impractical that is.

Let Them Come: How the UK can help Ukrainians ([link removed])

In our latest paper Ben Ramanauskas outlines the moral and economic case for allowing Ukrainians and high-skilled Russians and Belarusians into the UK. Our three policy recommendations would provide the necessary support to Ukrainians fleeing war, as well as cripple Putin's economy further.


** ON THE ASI SUPERBLOG
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Among lots of other good stuff, of course...

Happy birthday, Wealth of Nations! The 9th March marked the two hundred and somethingth anniversary of Adam Smith’s great book The Wealth of Nations. Everybody knows how boring it is, but not many appreciate how revolutionary it was too. Not only did it introduce new academic and economic concepts like GDP (in the first sentence, no less), but it was also a polemic against restrictions on trade and commerce — not lost on the leading policymakers of the time. Don’t bother reading it, though, when you can skim through my Condensed Wealth of Nations ([link removed]) instead!

Antonio Martino’s liberal legacy. We’ve lost some good liberal thinkers recently. First there was PJ O’Rourke, who was of course a humourist but who actually wrote an amazingly perceptive book on The Wealth of Nations, and more on other interesting economic issues. And just recently we lost a good friend, Antonio Martino, who used to be Italy’s defence minister but was also a noted liberal scholar in his country.

The author Eric Williams got rejection slips for his book on the slave trade, now a UK bestseller. Publishers thought it highlighted Britain’s shame. But his thesis, says Tim Worstall, was that slavery was simply economically unviable, and that its abolition was driven as much by the changes coming from the Industrial Revolution as the moral desire to end it. In other words, capitalism, trade and markets helped end slavery and free millions of people. That’s actually something to celebrate. Let’s hear it for capitalism!

Emily Fielder was on GB News ([link removed]) discussing Universal Basic Income- we’re in favour of a negative income tax, which would be a much simpler welfare mechanism than the current system. She wrote for CapX ([link removed]) to oppose the Government’s Nationality and Borders Bill and to support lifting the employment ban on asylum seekers ([link removed]) . John Macdonald and Emily Fielder also discussed this topic on LBC ([link removed]) and Times Radio ([link removed]) respectively.

Plus, Charles Bromley-Davenport was in CapX ([link removed]) on how a classic case of Big Government intervention has created a black market for harmful chemicals, Fiona Townsley was in 1828 ([link removed]) voicing her concerns about the Policing Bill, and ASI Fellow Mark Oates discussed the benefits of vaping as a form of tobacco harm reduction with the Sunday Post.


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** AND I QUOTE...
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As the Belgian economist Gustave de Molinari noted:

"Just as war is the natural consequence of monopoly, peace is the natural consequence of liberty.”

So let’s do what we can to expand liberty.

Bye,

e

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I’ve told you once, but let me say it again. We don’t take any government grants, and over the last 18 months we’ve resisted taking furlough payments and loans from taxpayers who are well overburdened enough. That means we rely exclusively on the financial support of people who understand the importance of what we do, for rational public debate and for freedom and prosperity in the United Kingdom and beyond.

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