Hayek, Kidnapping, and a Forum full of great ideas

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If like me you're already tired with the back and forth of the current election season we are glad to say that we have a great schedule of events to allow you to escape which also stretches into the new year.
ASI Forum 2019
7th December

At the Adam Smith Institute, we advocate for ideas that will make the world a freer, better, richer place. We aim to be radical and reasonable – pushing for bold reforms but backing it up with cold, hard evidence.

In that spirit, we're hosting our fourth Forum. We're bringing together leading thinkers for a day of talks on the underappreciated, underrecognised ideas they believe help explain and improve the world around us.

We're keeping the talks short (most won't go on for longer than 15 minutes) so we can squeeze as many great ideas as possible into the day. We'll also have our Forum bookstore which will be selling the speakers' latest publications!

Bulk discounts are available for school and university groups - contact [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]?subject=Forum%202019%20Bulk%20Booking) for more information.

We'll also be heading for drinks afterwards to give you a chance to have a chat with some of our speakers and fellow attendees.

Speakers:

Anthony Breach (Analyst, Centre for Cities) on ‘Homes on the Right Track – How Green Belt reform can solve the housing crisis and save our environment’

Sam Bowman (Principal at Fingleton Associates and Senior Fellow at the Adam Smith Institute) on 'The Most Important Tax Cut You’ve Never Heard Of'

Sophie Sandor (Documentary filmmaker) on ‘Education and The State’

Oliver Walker-Jones (Head of Communications, Lilium) on ‘Dude, where's my flying car?’

Refugee Action on 'Lift the Ban: why people seeking asylum should have the right to work'

Silkie Carlo (Director, Big Brother Watch) on 'Why We Must Fight the Surveillance State'

Rob Wiblin (Director of Research, 80,000 Hours) on 'In Defence of Political Correctness'

Anonymous Mugwump on 'Should we be allies with autocracies?'

Dr Ashley Frawley (Senior lecturer in Sociology and Social Policy, Swansea University)

Tom Chivers (Science Writer)

David King (Senior Researcher, Conservative Drug Policy Reform Group)

Daniel Pryor (Head of Programmes, Adam Smith Institute)

Where?

The Comedy Store, 1a Oxendon St, London SW1Y 4EE

The nearest tube station is Piccadilly Circus (Piccadilly and Bakerloo Lines)

When?

10:00am to 5pm, Saturday December 7th 2019

Tickets

We want to reach as many students and young people as possible, so we're offering discounted tickets for under-30s. If you do take advantage of a discounted rate you may be asked to prove your identity at the door so please do bring along ID on the day!
GET TICKETS NOW! ([link removed])

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Elaine Sternberg on
'Spontaneous Order: Common Confusions, Unexpected Examples'
29th November


Spontaneous order is an extremely widespread phenomenon, crucial for understanding human institutions as fundamental as language and the law, morals, markets and money. It is also central to a key defense of individual liberty. But although the role of the 'invisible hand' is generally appreciated by economists, the operation of spontaneous order is seldom recognised by others, and is often misunderstood.

Elaine Sternberg will investigate this powerful notion, and unpack confusions that result from its typically being characterised as 'the result of human action, but not of human design'. She will explore ways that spontaneous order might operate in arenas ranging from literary criticism to science to the placement of street furniture.

Elaine Sternberg earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the London School of Economics, where she was a Fulbright Fellow and a Lecturer. She is a Visiting Research Scholar in Philosophy at the University of Miami (FL), and has held appointments as a Visiting Research Fellow of the University of Leeds, and as a Senior Visiting Fellow at the University of Buckingham. In the US, she has also been a Bradley Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center of Bowling Green University, and a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Ethics and Public Affairs of Tulane University's Murphy Institute.

Formerly an investment banker in New York, London and Paris, Elaine Sternberg founded and profitably ran the first two equity syndicate businesses in London. She remains Principal of Analytical Solutions, a consultancy firm specialising in business ethics and corporate governance, and is on the academic advisory councils of the Institute of Economic Affairs, and of Protect, the UK "whistleblowers' charity".

She has written extensively on subjects at the intersection of philosophy, politics and economics, including 'Defining Capitalism'. Her free market Just Business: Business Ethics in Action is now in its fourth edition (Phronimos Press, 2018).

We open doors at 6pm and the talk itself will begin at 6.30pm, with a Q&A session taking place after the lecture at approximately 7:15pm.
IEA's 2019 Hayek Memorial Lecture
Tuesday 3rd December
6.30 - 8.30pm Church House SW1P 3NZ

Every year our good friends at the Institute of Economic Affairs host an annual lecture in F A Hayek's name. This year acclaimed US author Professor Bryan Caplan will give the 2019 Hayek Memorial Lecture.

The acclaimed author of The Myth of the Rational Voter – hailed as ‘the best political book of the year’ by the New York Times – will unveil his latest project, POVERTY – Who’s to Blame?

Bryan Caplan is Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Virginia. He’s also author of The Case Against Education and Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids. He’s featured in many publications – from the Wall Street Journal to the Washington Post – and appeared on ABC, BBC, Fox News and more.

If you’d like to attend this must-see event, please RSVP by emailing ** [email protected] (mailto:[email protected])

This year and next we at the Adam Smith Institute are working to memorialise the great work and life or F A Hayek. You can find out more information by clicking the button below.
** CLICK FOR MORE INFO ON THE HAYEK MEMORIAL ([link removed])
Dr Anja Shortland on
'The Economics of Kidnapping'
22nd January

Dr Anja Shortland, Professor in Political Economy at King's College London, will speak about her latest book—** Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business ([link removed]〈=en)
—in which she explores the economics of kidnapping around the world.

Millions of people work, live, and travel in high-risk countries; very few are kidnapped and, of those that are, almost all come home safely - how can this be?

Anja Shortland begins her economic analysis of the ransom business by looking at it from the kidnapper’s point of view. Abducting people is relatively easy but how much is your hostage worth; how do you negotiate a significant ransom; and, most of all, how do you conclude the deal without being caught?

Kidnap is not the violent, chaotic, and ungovernable crime that it might appear. Shortland reveals for the first time the powerful private governance system created by Lloyd’s special risk insurers that takes control in transnational hostage situations to safely and cheaply retrieve kidnap victims.

Based on extensive interviews with those who deal with kidnapping worldwide – insurers, security consultants, victims’ employers and families, and professional negotiators on both sides - plus a full transcript of a pirate ransom negotiation, this is a compelling account of a hidden world.

Anja Shortland is Professor in Political Economy at King's College London. Anja was an Engineering and Economics undergraduate at Oxford and then did her Masters and Ph.D. in International Relations at the LSE. Before King’s she worked as a lecturer in Economics at Leicester, a Reader in Economics at Brunel University and as a consultant to the World Bank. Her research is in the areas of institutional economics and the economics of crime.

She works on the governance of tricky markets, such as hostages, fine art, and cultural property. Her book Kidnap: Inside the Ransom Business was published by OUP in 2019.

We open doors at 6pm and the talk itself will begin at 6.30pm, with a Q&A session taking place after the lecture at approximately 7:15pm.

Roger Bootle on
'Work, Wealth and Welfare in the Robot Age'
12th February

Roger, Chairman of Capital Economics, will speak about his latest book—The AI Economy: Work, Wealth and Welfare in the Robot Age—in which he argues that automation and advances in AI will be a huge positive influence on our lives in the coming future.

Extraordinary innovations in robotics and Artificial Intelligence promise to transform our lives. But will these changes be for the better or for the worse? In this talk, acclaimed economist Roger Bootle offers his views on this important question.

The dominant theme in most accounts of this subject is decidedly downbeat: supposedly humans face the loss of their jobs and even their freedom and identity as robots and AI take over. By contrast, Bootle gives a resoundingly optimistic view of our future in the Robot Age. Some jobs will disappear but others will take their place. What’s more, it will predominantly be the drudgery jobs that go and the new ones will centre on human beings’ unique qualities and on their relationships with each other. Far from a penurious future, we will be much better off.

One of Britain's best-known economists, Roger Bootle is the Chairman of Capital Economics, one of the world’s largest macroeconomics consultancies, which he founded after a long career in the City of London, including being Group Chief Economist of HSBC. Roger appears frequently on television and radio and is also a regular columnist for The Daily Telegraph. He is the author of widely acclaimed books including Making a Success of Brexit, The Trouble with Markets, Money for Nothing and The Death of Inflation. He has advised government, parliament and numerous businesses and has won several honours and awards. In 2012, Roger and a team from Capital Economics won the prestigious Wolfson Economics Prize.

We open doors at 6pm and the talk itself will begin at 6.30pm, with a Q&A session taking place after the lecture at approximately 7:15pm.
A lot of information there and a lot of events coming up. We've got a jam-packed schedule as we enter the roaring twenties in January so keep an eye on ** adamsmith.org/events ([link removed])
as we'll be putting all the details of forthcoming events as we confirm them!

In the meantime, I wish you all a lovely weekend.

Yours,
Matt
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