John Kay

The notion that extending intellectual property rights in the music industry would provide pensions for ageing and impoverished crooners is an engaging fantasy.

The political consequences of international trade are different from the political consequences of international investment. Yet the willingness of business to transcend political divisions in pursuit of commercial advantage is basically a force for peace.

Active financial systems don’t build more schools and factories, shops and offices. They are associated with higher shares of consumption and lower shares of investment in national income.

Socialist planning requires that those who would undertake it hold information that they do not have and to which they cannot realistically aspire. In an uncertain world, successful economic development – whether directed towards economic growth or environmental friendliness – is piecemeal, tentative and adaptive.

The market economy promotes diversification when the future is uncertain and there are differences of view. This is one of its fundamental strengths. But the market economy does not achieve enough diversification when the future is uncertain and there is commonality of view. This is one of its fundamental weaknesses.

The spread of the concept of discrimination to more and more areas of activity is a striking example of the power of emotive language to extinguish critical thought. The practice and consequence of declaring non-discrimination a governing principle is to give power to regulatory bureaucrats and politically motivated obsessives.

What if a government decided to leave the European Monetary Union and abandon the Euro? A realistic question, and yet nobody dares to ask.

Recent immigration flows from EU accession states have again shown that policy based evidence does not work. Unfortunately, academics who seek public attention and official research funding are too easily co-opted into this process.

The value of counterfactual history lies not in the questions it raises about the past, but the questions it raises about the present and future, and in the reminder that there is nothing inevitable about the world we observe.

Micro states, like Monaco, depend for their existence on the acquiescence of their larger neighbours.