John Kay

When the Chinese ask how to establish the institutions to support a stable, prosperous economy, it is not enough to mumble: “Property rights and rule of law – go to Denmark and see.”

Restriction of business on moral grounds is not always unsuccessful but measures have to be applied with great care.

The objective of monetisation has not been to put money in the hands of consumers and businesses but to put money in the vaults of banks.

Should there be markets for sperm, surrogate motherhood or transplant organs?

The salient fact is that London could never have become a great business and financial capital if its residents felt an urge to vomit every time they went outdoors.

Physicists studying sport have established that many fieldsmen are very good at catching balls, but bad at answering the question: “Where in the park will the ball land?” Good players don’t forecast the future, but adapt to it.

Anyone who thinks the quest for scale economies is the primary explanation of the human desire for family life is strangely deficient in observational capacity, as well as common sense.

Manufacturing fetishism – the idea that manufacturing is the central economic activity and everything else is somehow subordinate – is deeply ingrained in human thinking.

The average historic return on the volatile equity market is central to calculations of the cost of capital and provision for future pension liabilities. But the figure has been debated for decades.

Wouldn’t it be simpler if poor people in work were just paid more in the first place? That is, apparently, predistribution.