Alex Singleton

Prominent American Prospect journo Matt Yglesias thinks that referring to the Cato Institute as a “leading liberal think tank” is an “um, interesting description of Cato”.
Why? In Washington DC, Cato is one of the the most liberal think tanks - and certainly the most prominent. But few Americans would describe Cato as “liberal”. The word […]

“Price-fixing is a bit like jumping off a tall building shouting “I abolish he law of gravity.” You cannot simply decree that something is worth more than anyone will pay for it or less than sellers will accept for it.”
- Robert Guest, Africa Editor of The Economist, writing in The Shackled Continent.

The Scotsman newspaper reports:
Tsunami-struck Thailand has been told by the European Commission that it must buy six A380 Airbus aircraft if it wants to escape the tariffs against its fishing industry.
While millions of Europeans are sending aid to Thailand to help its recovery, trade authorities in Brussels are demanding that Thai Airlines, its national carrier, […]

From the San Francisco Cronicle:
It should come as heartening news that 2004 was one of the most prosperous years in history. Not because the U.S. economy grew by a solid 4.3 percent, but because developing countries experienced an explosive 6.1 percent economic growth.
According to a recent study by the World Bank, 2004’s growth reflected “an […]

The Tobin Tax, heavily advocated just a few years ago, seems like a pretty dead idea. The tax is named after its inventor, Nobel prizewinner James Tobin, who argued that currency markets should have a tax on each transaction to help fight world poverty.
The Tobin Tax gets much of its appeal from the fact that […]

It is often argued, including by organizations like the Fairtrade Foundation, that we should buy “fair trade” coffee. The argument is that the free market has failed coffee farmers. So we should do out bit and pay a few pence extra for a cup of coffee.
Coffee farmers in Brazil did what all aspiring producers tend […]

One of the arguments used against globalization is that companies have too much power over individuals. Philippe Legrain shows this to be an intellectual error in his book Open World: The Truth About Globalisation. He dedicates an entire chapter to this, entitled ‘Giants with Clay Feet’. He argues that correctly that governments - with the […]