Welcome to the IEA Weekend Newsletter!

 

• Eureka!
• Poverty and the blame game
• Why doesn't democracy deliver?
• Election watch...
• More bang for your books
• Ignoring the lessons of history

Eureka!

This week sees the release of the IEA’s latest book How Many Light Bulbs Does It Take to Change the World? by acclaimed author Matt Ridley.

The book examines the nature of innovation – an often-mysterious and underrated process that, as Ridley contends, we discuss too rarely, hamper too much and value too little.

The author begins by looking at the invention of the light bulb. Whilst Thomas Edison is traditionally credited with its invention, at least 20 other people can lay claim to this breakthrough moment. Ridley demonstrates how the combined technologies and accumulated knowledge of the day meant the light bulb was bound to emerge sooner or later.

Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist, The Evolution of Everything, Genome and more, underlines the fundamental importance of innovation – how it drives economic growth and how it naturally evolves from trade and exchange.

And he describes how big companies and state bureaucracies often seek to stifle innovation – and how the ‘precautionary principle’ is used by vested interests to prevent new technologies getting started, even when these are safer and better than existing technologies.

How Many Light Bulbs is based on his 2018 Hayek Memorial Lecture for the IEA. You can read it here.

Poverty and the blame game

This year’s Hayek Memorial Lecture took place earlier this week before a packed house at Church House, Westminster.

Acclaimed US author Professor Bryan Caplan posed the question: POVERTY: Who’s to Blame?

In his thought-provoking lecture, Bryan Caplan - Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Virginia - asked whether unrestricted immigration harms an economy, or boosts it; whether bad government policies cause and prolong poverty; and whether poor people should take responsibility for their own lifestyle choices.



Professor Caplan, whose latest book Open Borders: the Science and Ethics of Immigration is currently sitting high on the New York Times bestseller list, explored both the moral and social aspects of poverty.

You can watch this year’s lecture, kindly sponsored by CQS, here.

Professor Caplan also appears in this week’s IEA podcast.  See ‘Why do democracies choose ‘bad’ policies?’ below.

Why doesn’t democracy deliver?

On our podcast this week, Digital Manager Darren Grimes is joined by Professor Bryan Caplan to discuss why democracy sometimes doesn’t deliver.

The current general election campaign has seen a slew of spending commitments, politicians of all hues talking of the ‘good’ government can do and expressing the opinion that it’s the job of government to identify and correct market failure - at the expense of groups like consumers and taxpayers.

Professor Caplan's sobering assessment in his book The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies, argued that the greatest obstacle to sound economic policy is not entrenched special interests or rampant lobbying, but the popular misconceptions, irrational beliefs, and personal biases held by ordinary voters.

The Myth of the Rational Voter takes an unflinching look at how people who vote under the influence of false beliefs ultimately end up with government that delivers lousy results.

Are the irrational preferences described by Professor Caplan in his book inevitable and hard wired? If so can they be countered? Is the only way to educate people in the sphere of economics, and if so does that imply that only people with an economics degree should be allowed to vote? 

What does Professor Caplan think about Jay Brennan's notion of epistocracy? As well as Brennan’s argument that if you are not well informed, and know you are not, you have a moral duty not to vote? They're all topics covered within the podcast.

Listen to the full podcast here.

You can also subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Podbean.

Election watch...

Over the last few weeks, IEA spokespeople have been keeping a close, free market watch on further developments in the general election campaigns. 

Director General Mark Littlewood appeared on Sky News to discuss the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ (IFS) manifesto report, which questioned the credibility of Labour and Conservative spending plans.

Mark argued that there is no longer a party of “fiscal prudence” and that the parties need to be honest with the public about the trade-offs involved when it comes to increased spending.

Also on Sky News, Associate Director Kate Andrews reacted to the Labour Party’s claim that leaked government documents reveal the NHS is “up for sale” in a post-Brexit trade deal with the US.

Kate argued that the documents revealed no such thing, and that the narrative created around the NHS’s delivery for patients did not match up to the reality of poor outcomes.



Writing his fortnightly column in The Times, Mark highlighted the benefits of buying NHS drugs and general equipment from US companies if they can offer them at a cost saving.

Meanwhile our Head of Regulatory Affairs Victoria Hewson wrote a piece for BrexitCentral, in which she argued that politicising the NHS undermines integrity in political debate, as well as the trust between allies at a vital time for the UK.

Kate also took part in a debate piece for City AM on the topic, which you can read here.

Kate wrote a second column for City AM on the absence of immigration from the general election campaign. Kate argued that it’s largely been left to the smaller parties, like the Liberal Democrats, to make the positive case for immigration.

Off the rails...

Meanwhile, IEA Editorial and Research Fellow Professor Len Shackleton responded to the Labour Party’s election pledge to cut season ticket rail fares by a third and introduce free fares for under 16s. 

Len commented in the Daily Express that the proposal was “ill-thought out” and would increase overcrowding and shift government spending from improving local infrastructure to subsidising leisure travellers.

Meanwhile, Economics Fellow Julian Jessop was quoted in The Daily Telegraph. Julian pointed out the move will be detrimental to income and regional inequality - as most people who use rail regularly are relatively well off commuters.

Our Head of Communications Emma Revell wrote for 1828 on the topic - which you can read here - and she took part in a debate column for City AM, which you can read here.

Bricks and rent controls

Dr Kristian Niemietz appeared on Sky News to discuss the housing crisis and the Labour Party's proposals to introduce rent controls. 



Kristian argued that this would make make the shortage of affordable homes worse, not better.

100% proof?

IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon featured in the Daily Mail, responding to ONS data showing that alcohol-related deaths have risen in Scotland since the introduction of minimum unit pricing. 

He argued the evidence so far suggests minimum pricing has been “an expensive flop”.

Universities challenged

Elsewhere, our Research Fellow Radomir Tylecote featured in the Spectator on the importance of free speech in universities, arguing there is more intellectual freedom among students in Bucharest than at the University of Cambridge.

Read his full piece here.



Political capital...

Our Media Manager Emily Carver wrote for 1828, arguing that attacks on the super-rich are an obvious vote-winner for the economic left on both sides of the Atlantic - but this doesn’t translate into good policy making.

Read her full piece here.

Seen (and heard) elsewhere 

Kate took part in the Sky News paper review, the BBC News paper review and joined Adam Boulton on Sky’s All Out Politics, while Emma and Emily joined Julia Hartley-Brewer’s talkRADIO breakfast show to discuss the news of the day. 

More bang for you books

The IEA Book Club is a brand new offering bringing you:

• Priority copies of the latest IEA Books

• Invitations to exclusive book launches and interviews

• The opportunity to hear from – and engage with – internationally-acclaimed and award-winning writers.

• The chance to network with leading think tank figures and become part of an exclusive community of individuals with a shared love of books, individual liberty and free markets

It was IEA books that inspired IEA  Academic and Research Director, Professor Syed Kamall to embrace free-market ideas.

Read his remarks here on his aspirations for our future publications and the role our book club can have in the current battle of ideas.

You can sign up here, or for more information get in touch with us at [email protected] 

IEA Book Club events



Join now and receive an invitation to two exciting and exclusive BOOK CLUB events, with Charles Moore and Sir Anthony Seldon, where we will be celebrating their newly published biographies on the UK’s two women Prime Ministers.

Ignoring the lessons of history

This week on our blog, the IEA’s Head of Political Economy, Dr Kristian Niemietz, examines the rise of ‘Millennial Socialism’, in an extended version of his recent comments at an IEA panel on the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

Ten years ago, it was very hard to fill a room with an event on socialism - there was very little interest in it. It was seen as a topic of the past. 

Even in 2009 after the financial crisis, this had not yet led to a renewed interest in socialism. In 2009, mainstream opinion was anti-capitalist – but it was not specifically socialist.

Now the situation is very different. Today, you just need to stick the word ‘socialism’ into the title of an event, and the room will fill itself. Socialism is all the rage, and even its opponents have to engage with it. Ignoring it is no longer an option.



So what are the lessons from the fall of the Berlin Wall, the lessons from the experience of the GDR and the old Eastern Bloc, that today’s Millennial Socialists refuse to learn?

Read Kristian’s full blog here.