Adam Smith can teach us a lot about succeeding in sports
Adam Smith’s most profound insight was the relationship between the division of labour and the extent of the market. The old sage...
‘Trust me, I am a financial adviser’ is not good enough
Last week, the Law Commission produced a report on fiduciary duty in financial services (it was a recommendation of my 2012 Report on e...
A British identity crisis has hobbled the No campaign
The referendum on Scottish independence is now only two months away. Opinion polls have never shown a majority of the Scottish po...
The ‘best’ health care is not always the one that keeps us alive
‘NHS is the world’s best healthcare system’ was a headline last week in The Guardian newspaper. However, six paragraphs into the ...
The problem of finding fair value in fine art and finance
The National Trust, which helps preserve England’s heritage, is pleased with itself. The Trust announced last week that a painting of a...
How the health and safety culture can curb moral hazard
Steven Pinker recently wrote controversially of the victory of the better angels of our nature: we are, he claims, less likely to suffe...
Why banking crises happen in America but not in Canada
Tim Geithner tells us of his life as a fireman: constantly on call to extinguish a fresh blaze. His baptism of fire, as it ...
Drizzle alone will not provide a path to prosperity
Sitting in the sun on a holiday weekend is an opportunity to reflect on one of the oddest questions in economic geography. Why ar...
Angry economics students are naive – and mostly right
Students of economics are in revolt – again. A few years ago, they established a ‘post-autistic economics’ network. In 2011...
How a proud corporate history can lead to poor governance
Only a few pages into Lord Myners’ report on the UK Cooperative movement I had the feeling I had read this before. Soon after I r...