The Financial Times pays tribute to John Blundell

The Financial Times quoted the ASI's Dr Madsen Pirie in their tribute to John Blundell, former Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs and lifelong friend of the Adam Smith Institute. Read the article here.

Sam Bowman's Green Belt proposals are featured in The Guardian

The ASI's Research Director's proposal to roll back the Green Belt in London to solve the housing crisis was featured in The Guardian article: "Let's at least talk about building on London's greenbelt." Read the article here.

The right leaves it to its think tanks to make the case for setting market forces free. That's what Sam Bowman of the Adam Smith Institute has done in a short film for BBC London. He accepts that some types of greenbelt land should continue to be protected, especially sylvan treasures the public can enjoy. But he argues that parts presently used for intensive farming should be considered for re-classification, liberating farmers to sell their fields to developers and letting laissez-faire do the rest.

ASI Senior Fellow debates corporation tax in the New York Times

The Adam Smith Institute's Senior Fellow, Tim Worstall, was featured in the 'Room for Debate' section of the New York Times, arguing that corporate taxation is inefficient. Read the article here.

Tax inversions do not change the taxation of profits made inside America one whit, not by one red cent. Under law, AbbVie, Walgreens, or any other company would still pay exactly the same amount of U.S. taxes on their profits made in the U.S. after an inversion as they were before. That part of the debate is simply a red herring.

The broader problem is the corporate income tax.

Sam Bowman's short film on the Green Belt airs on BBC News London

ASI's Research Director, Sam Bowman, worked with BBC News London to create a short film on the benefits of rolling back the Green Belt in London to solve the housing crisis. It aired on Monday, July 21st at 6:30 PM.

Sam Bowman's Green Belt proposal featured in BBC News article on London housing crisis

Sam Bowman's proposal to roll back the Green Belt in London was featured in a BBC News article as one of the five controversial solutions to solve London's housing crisis. Read the article here.

ASI Senior Fellow is running for Parliament in New Zealand

Dr Jamie Whyte, Senior Fellow of the Adam Smith Institute, is running as the ACT candidate in Pakuranga - one of New Zealand's 63 parliamentary electorates.

Dr Whyte was elected ACT Leader in February. Since then he has been travelling around the country meeting New Zealanders and talking about ACT’s key messages of low, flat tax, cutting green tape, getting tough on crime, and "one country, one law."

Read more on the Pakuranga election here.

Sam Bowman discusses the benefits of rolling back London's Green Belt on BBC London Radio

The Adam Smith Institute's Research Director, Sam Bowman, spoke to BBC London Radio's Breakfast Show about the benefits of rolling back London's Green Belt to make more green space affordable and accessible to London residents. Listen to the interview here.

Sam's short film for BBC London News on the Green Belt will air  tonight at 6:30 PM.

ASI guest lecturer debates the economic necessity of sweatshops on BBC World Service

Adam Smith Institute guest lecturer Dr. Ben Powell appeared on BBC World Service to debate the economic necessity of sweatshops in developing countries. Listen to the full debate here.

Dr Powell delivered an ASI lecture - "Sweatshops: Improving lives and economic growth" - in June, 2014. 

Press Release: Semantic shifts were key factor in decline of classical liberalism, argues new study

Key concepts central to the Western tradition of classical liberalism have shifted dramatically in meaning since the late 19^th Century, according to a new scholarly website, Lost Language, Lost Liberalism (4L), released today (Tuesday) by Professor Daniel Klein in partnership with the Adam Smith Institute. 4L shows that the English-language discourse of Western Civilization underwent a watershed change during the period 1880-1940. 4L focuses on changes in the meaning of words, and suggests that these changes played an important role in the decline of classical liberalism in the politics of the English-speaking world.

Ten central words are treated: liberal(ism), liberty, freedom, justice, property, contract, equality, equity, law, and rights.

Up to about 1880, people understood these terms particularly for certain salient classical liberal meanings. But then, from 1880, the culture changed and meanings became upset or confused. 4L provides vast compendia of quotations in which the central words are used. The changes were a move toward collectivization, a favor for greater governmentalization of social affairs.

For each of the ten words, the website provides quotations showing how collectivists innovated, often assaulting the classical liberal meanings and flaunting innovation. The website also provides many rejoinders by authors who objected to the assaults. The site shows the debate over the meaning of each word.

The website presents tables capturing the classical liberal meanings of the words, and the changes.

The site also provides many ngram diagrams, verifying that a profound shift occurred from 1880.

The site also provides a vast collection of quotations testifying that the shift came by new generations, which talked one way, displacing older generation, which had talked another way.

4L shows that Western Civilization not only changed direction after 1880, it altered the meanings of its most important words.

Klein claims that today we are still stuck in the ruts of those changes; his message is that we need to recover the meaning and culture of the original liberalism. 4L is part of Klein’s broader ambition to advance understanding of the original arc of liberalism, its ascent, its decline, and its bearing on today.

Daniel Klein is professor of economics at George Mason University, where he leads a program on Adam Smith. He is also JIN Chair at the Mercatus Center at GMU and Associate Fellow of the Ratio Institute, Stockholm. He is the editor of Econ Journal Watch, and the author of Knowledge and Coordination: A Liberal Interpretation (Oxford University Press, 2012). The Adam Smith Institute recently interviewed Klein about another project called Liberalism Unrelinquished.

4L is authored by Klein, but the collecting of quotations was chiefly the work of Ryan Daza, an independent research and collaborator (and former student) of Klein’s.

For further comment or to arrange an interview with Daniel Klein, please email dklein@gmu.edu. His home page is http://econfaculty.gmu.edu/klein/index.html.

Forthcoming ASI research on education quality is featured in City AM

A forthcoming report on the link between education quantity and economic growth - written by ASI Fellow Gabriel Heller Sahlgren - was featured in City AM. Read the article here.

In a forthcoming report for the Adam Smith Institute (ASI), Gabriel Heller Sahlgren has shown that “the relationship between education quantity and economic growth is shaky at best”. Indeed, “there is currently no robust support for the idea that education quantity increases countries’ economic well-being (at least in developed countries).”

In contrast, Sahlgren’s own econometric research and global literature review in the ASI report shows that education quality – as measured by international test scores, for example – has a very powerful impact on economic growth. In fact, the results are stunning.