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If you like this bulletin, tell your friends. If you don’t, tell us.
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IN THIS BULLETIN:
- THE MINIMUM TAX MISTAKE (is the word ‘minimum’ redundant here? — Ed.)
- FREEDOM WEEK — our annual summer freedom think-in for students
- ASI TEAM CHANGES — Morgan moves on (sob!)
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BUT FIRST...
This year’s Brit Awards fell as flat as my pancakes the other day. They went to some very dull candidates. Far better would have been President Putin’s macabre comic routine about nuking the world. He’s a genius at sick humour; in fact he makes millions of us pretty sick. Another good candidate would have been the dark, long-running psychological drama about how we’re going to scrap the Northern Ireland Protocol. Even the footage of Levelling-Up Secretary Michael Gove grooving with Donna Summer could have won a prize, though of course it would have needed one of those warnings that “some viewers might find the following images upsetting.”
Fruit and vegetables are being rationed by supermarkets following severe weather in the Mediterranean area that has damaged crops. Worst affected seem to be things like cherry tomatoes, baby cucumbers, olive oil and green peppers — so if the shortages expand to white truffles and vanilla pods, there could well be widespread starvation in Islington.
Roald Dahl has been censored by ‘sensitivity readers’, who among other things have removed every mention of the word ‘fat’ from his books. I mean, my fore***hers, the un***homable ***headedness of it. I can’t ***hom this ***wa on classic texts. It's like we’re living in some cali***e. I’m ***igued by the self-in***uation of these people.
But I digress…
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RECENT REPORTS
The minimum tax error
Former White House chief economist Tyler Goodspeed has done his sums and concluded that the UK’s rush to accept a global minimum company tax rate is really bad news for the levelling-up agenda, competitiveness and the UK’s important financial sector. It will undermine investment zones and freeports and mess up investment generally. And it won’t even raise much revenue. HMG must re-think this one.
See Dr Goodspeed talking about his report here:
Our Research bod Daniel Pryor also spoke to MPs about the paper at a meeting of the APPG on Insurance and Financial Services, emphasising the need for urgent action to delay the Treasury’s rushed implementation.
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Happy birthday, Adam!
This year, 2023, marks the 300th Anniversary of the birth of Adam Smith. I am speaking about Smith at events from Sacramento to Seoul, but I will update you soon on our own plans to celebrate this milestone.
In the meantime, the University of Glasgow, where Adam Smith taught, is kicking off the celebrations with a Global Reading Group, which will come together to study The Wealth of Nations. The aim is to encourage academics, students, business leaders, policymakers and the general public to read and reflect on the birthday boy’s writings and debate his relevance for today. It’s an opportunity to talk about The Wealth of Nations with Smith experts and enthusiasts over eight online sessions. Register your interest or visit the website for more details.
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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
Where would we be without rhetorical questions?
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Donate!
It’s Adam Smith’s 300th birthday year, and to mark it we’re establishing a dedicated Adam Smith Tercentenary fund (That’s Tricentennial to you American readers — Ed.) to expand and upgrade our highly effective educational work with young people. We go out to schools with half-day seminars on ideas they don’t usually get in the classroom, we run annual training sessions for students, and we have an awesome online presence. If you have given up on the present generation of so-called ‘national leaders’, help us invest in tomorrow’s. In Adam Smith’s 300th anniversary year, please click the button and support our ongoing work.
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FREEDOM WEEK
Our annual freedom boot camp for talented students goes ahead again this summer, from 21st-26th August. As usual, it’s an expenses-paid week in a Cambridge college — Sidney Sussex — with an array of talks by and discussions with some of the leading thinkers on and proponents of economic and personal freedom. And of course the punting, barbecues and other fun. The application window is March 6th - May 26th, so make a note in your diary.
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Pictured - Swank Cambridge college
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IFT ESSAY COMPETITION
Our comrades over at the Institute for Free Trade are running an essay competition.
The competition aims to engage young students and reward intelligent, constructive and persuasive arguments on issues of International Trade.
Questions are designed by IFT fellows to be approachable from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, including politics, philosophy, economics, trade law, jurisprudence, psychology, history and sociology. Questions are also designed to be approachable and stimulating for essayists with a range of qualification levels, from GCSE and A-level through to undergraduate level.
The candidate who submits the best essay overall will be the 2023 IFT Essay Prizewinner, which includes a £350 prize and certificate. You will also get to meet in-person the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, Kemi Badenoch to discuss your essay!
To find out more and enter the competition click here.
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PHILOSOPHICAL PHRIENDS
On March 19th, our friends at the Objective Standard Institute are hosting an Innovation Celebration conference in a swanky hotel in Milton Keynes (Not AOC’s famed economist Milton Keynes — Ed), where libertarian stalwarts Johan Norberg and our own Daniel Pryor will lead discussions on progress and technology. Organised by objectivist power-couple Thomas and Angel Walker-Worth (the former has even written for us before), it’s sure to be a thought-provoking event. Tickets are selling like hot-cakes, so get yours now!
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Earlier in the month, our Daniel Pryor was in The Times talking about the findings from the ASI’s Boomer and Bust paper. Plus, ASI friend Lord Daniel Hannan teased an upcoming ASI book in his column in The Telegraph on civil service reform.
Connor appeared on GB News to talk about intergenerational fairness. He was also quoted in City AM and Energy Central discussing planning liberalisation for nuclear projects to provide energy security. He’s also in the Daily Mail suggesting how GP and NHS reform can improve outcomes.
Plus, you can find Madsen’s piece on fixing the NHS as featured in the Express and one of our ASI research associates, Eddie Bolland had his first media appearance on GB News talking about environmental impacts of importing food.
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WORD OF THE WEEK
Submitted this week by HM Revenue & Customs
Tax avoider — someone who doesn’t drink, smoke or drive.
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THINK TANKING
ASI staff changes
We are sad to lose our Operations Director, Morgan Schondelmeier, after four years at the Adam Smith Institute. We’ve had some outstanding team members here over the years (You mean decades, old man! — Ed.) and Morgan is one of the outstandingest. She played a key role in redesigning the Institute’s output during the difficult times of the Covid lockdowns and in promoting our award-winning research on tackling the virus without giving up individual liberties. With her meticulous eye for detail and hatred of money being wasted, she went on to manage, tighten, and re-focus the Institute's whole operation. She’s moving on to a high-flying job with the beverage industry (Bring us back a few samples! —Ed.).
But, but, but…
New blood is welcome, with Maxwell Marlow, previously a Development and Research Officer (and scourge of cabbies), rejoining us from the world of lobbying as Director of Research. Although still green, he will be writing and editing at a rocket’s pace to ensure that our output remains at the forefront of think tanks here, there, and everywhere. If you’re interested in his day-to-day rambling, his Twitter can be found here!
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THE WORLD'S BEST THINK-TANK
It was Morgan, in fact, who went to New York to represent us as one of the finalists in the prestigious Templeton Freedom Award. OK, we didn’t win, but everyone figured that we came second, as a result of our amazing policy work during Covid, showing how the virus could be tackled more efficiently and lockdowns shortened. Now I see that the Atlas Network, which organises the award, has outlined our contribution in its magazine, Freedom’s Champion.
Sad footnote: Advocata, the excellent Sri Lankan think-tank that took the star $100,000 prize and a jazzy trophy, tells me that the Sri Lankan government demanded almost half the value of the trophy in tax! Looks like Advocata is going to have to work even harder to preserve economic freedom in their overtaxed country. But the Advocata team are inventive and hard-working folk. All power to them!
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ON OUR SUPERBLOG
Fifteen-minute cities? Nothing wrong with that, says Tim Worstall. A lot of people would like to ‘live local’ like that. What’s wrong is city planners imposing the idea on everyone else. As Jane Jacobs pointed out, the urban environment grows organically. We’ve seen it before with postwar ’slum clearance’ breaking up communities and anonymous housing blocks that people hate. We don’t want your planning!
Higher education funding. There’s a lot wrong with that, says Madsen Pirie. He notes that Australia has emerged as a world leader in student funding. Once they earn over a certain amount, Ozzie students’ loans are deducted automatically. They pay no interest, only an inflation adjustment. And that’s why the default rate in Australia, 17%, is a third of ours in the UK. Time to scrap our confusing and ineffective system.
Growth and innovation. Yep, they go together, says Madsen Pirie. Lower taxes stimulate economic expansion, create jobs and, after a couple of years, boost government revenues (Is that a good thing? —Ed.) And in particular, the tax system should encourage innovation. There’s a *** chance of that, with our present taxes on business, particularly new and small businesses. Time to do the right thing, Chancellor.
Long term thinking In his new book The Long View, author Richard Fisher provides a coherent and thought-provoking take on the role short termism plays in nearly every scope of our lives. As ASI research associate, Sofia Risino explains in her review, the reliance on immediate gratification within the scopes of Capitalism and Politics have been the main contributors to our short term thinking. It is worth a read if you are similarly frustrated by the lack of long term thinking and want solutions to overcome this urgent problem. Pre order here.
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SEEN ELSEWHERE
Nice piece on Adam Smith and his view that our human community is based, not on greed (as The Wealth of Nations is sometimes portrayed) but on beneficence and justice. It’s by the Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith, who unveiled our statue of Smith in Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, and marks the 300th anniversary of Smith’s birth in 1723.
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And I quote…
Bit strong, but it does fit the observed facts:
Alas! Power encroaches daily upon liberty, with a success too evident; and the balance between them is almost lost. Tyranny has engrossed almost the whole earth, and striking at mankind root and branch, makes the world a slaughter-house; and will certainly go on to destroy, till it is either destroyed itself, or, which is most likely, has left nothing else to destroy.
— Thomas Gordon
Bye,
e
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