John Kay

The blunt truth is that free markets are not a particularly efficient system for allocating resources. They are just – like democracy – more efficient than other systems and – unlike democracy – more innovative than other systems.

We make the poor better off not by holding back technical and economic progress, but by accelerating it.

There are historic lessons to be learnt from the recent high definition format war: the importance of the installed base and the unpredictability of consumer markets.

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.

The capacity of politics to get in the way of economic growth has dominated most of the economic history of most of the world.

The balance between present and future will be determined not by moral philosophy or economic models but by the decisions of ordinary savers, investors and voters.

Your country of residence is where you buy your clothes, eat your meals, draw up your accounts and write your board minutes. But the volume and value of all these domestic operations depends on the role the country’s producers play in the global economy.

That investment style of being in touch with the market but distant from it has impressive antecedents and performance.

The company headquarters should be the place from which the business can best be run. Location decisions often involve proximity to necessary resources. For banks, this nowadays means access to political and commercial capital.

The economic case for separatism is that it removes the focus of grievance and the source of subsidy and makes Scotland again responsible for its economic destiny.