John Kay

Corporation tax is a tax on corporate activity and on shareholders, and it is not well designed to achieve either purpose.

Most people have little time or energy to devote to politics, which enables small groups with a strong commercial, personal or ideological motivation to exert disproportionate influence.

British law might have said that the duty of directors is simply to promote the interests of the company’s members. But it doesn’t – and that is no accident.

Why do we devote more resources to training carrier pigeons and building fibreoptic links than to understanding military and business strategy?

The financial crisis left a few individuals responsible for it very rich while its consequences made millions not responsible for it much poorer. If this involves no crime, then we have failed to define or prosecute crime appropriately.

One of the paradoxes of modern business is that firms have never had so little need of capital or so much involvement with capital markets.

The inability of democratic politics to handle the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis has threatened to undermine the apparent consensus on liberal democracy and lightly regulated capitalism that emerged following the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Ambiguity is often attractive to politicians and costly to taxpayers.

If I represented the Scottish government in the extensive negotiations required by the creation of an independent state, I would try to secure a monetary union with England, and expect to fail.

The growth of the trading culture has encouraged the belief that the only measure of value is what someone is willing to pay. But this is a mistake.