The future prosperity of the world hangs in the balance The wave of populism that has swept the world in recent years had its origins in a number of converging trends, including large-scale migration, globalization, and the financial crisis of 2008, all of which fueled a sense that legacy elites are self-interested and […]
Tag: taxation
Canada passed a free trade deal with itself – and it’s still not enough
“Interprovincial trade: Alberta in first place, Quebec in last” Courtesy of MEI While Canada continues to negotiate free trade agreements with numerous countries, the provinces maintain obstacles to trade within our own borders. The MEI and the Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) have listed them from best to worst in a ranking of Canadian […]
UK council finances are unsustainable, new model urgently needed
TPA responds to IFS report on council tax By Harry Fone, courtesy of Taxpayers’ Alliance A new report released by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has analysed funding for local authorities and made a series of recommendations. Few would challenge the IFS’ argument that the present funding model is unsustainable and alternative […]
“This is a mess”: QE isn’t working – and neither is government
By Erik Sass, TES Editor-in-Chief Collectively and individually the countries of Europe face economic problems that they are either unwilling or unable to confront due to a lack of political courage, despite the availability of effective remedies. That was the bleak takeaway from a panel discussion of economic and political experts at the […]
Time for a new generation of cities?
By Erik Sass, TES Editor-in-Chief One interesting (and paradoxically characteristic) aspect of our frenetic modern world is how rarely we found new cities. After all, for thousands of years it was perfectly normal to “pick up sticks” and start a new settlement. Most of the great cities of Europe are products of Greek, […]
Why a wealth tax would fall flat in the U.S., as elsewhere
“Wealth Tax Revenues” By Chris Edwards, courtesy of the Cato Institute Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have each proposed an annual wealth tax on the richest Americans. There are so many flaws with such a tax that it probably would not pass Congress. If it did pass, it would likely be […]
UK working class voters want real tax relief
“New polling from the TaxPayers’ Alliance shows tax cuts are key to winning working class votes” Courtesy of the Taxpayers’ Alliance Landmark national polling data, commissioned by the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) and conducted this summer, has found that working class voters back bold tax cuts, both on household income and on British businesses. […]
No, taxing the rich really doesn’t work
By Nicolas Lecaussin, courtesy of IREF and Contrepoints California is becoming the new France. Here we prefer the poor to the rich, and we do everything to tax and punish the well-off. Except it turns out it doesn’t work in California either — in fact it even has the opposite effect. In 2012, […]
Importing Bad Ideas: Let’s Not
“Foreign reference pricing” is just price controls by the backdoor The world is full of bad ideas that self-interested parties sometimes try to bring to these shores, swearing up and down they’re actually good: karaoke, kale, Neti pots, the Yugo, the Macarena, Gerard Depardieu — the list goes on. To this hall of shame must […]
Raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million
“Raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million” Duncan Simpson, courtesy of Taxpayers’ Alliance If the inheritance tax threshold was increased from £325,000 to £1 million, almost 25,000 fewer families would have to pay the hated death tax across this year and next. The government would still be raking in £7 billion […]