Archive for September, 2011
The State of the Union
Posted by Natalie Hamill in European Union on 29/09/2011
Long anticipated plans to introduce a financial transaction tax (FTT) have come a step closer to fruition with the European Commission President announcing the proposal in his state of the union address. Speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday (Wednesday 28 September), José Manuel Barroso announced that the college of commissioners has already adopted the controversial proposal, which could generate revenue of more than €55 billion a year.
Crime, Poverty and Imprisonment
Posted by Nick Cowen in Crime on 28/09/2011
By David Fraser
The Secretary of State for Justice, Ken Clarke, has claimed that recent falls in crime have occurred at a time of increased prosperity. He concluded that therefore the way to reduce offending rates further was to improve prosperity levels generally, and added that there was no link between imprisonment and crime. However, such arguments are not only contradicted by recent empirical research, but by decades of experience from the UK and other countries.
- Read the full comment here.
Want to see a dramatic increase in homelessness? Just add rent control
Posted by Nick Cowen in Economics, Tax and Spend on 27/09/2011
A Guest post by Peter Morgan over at LeftFootForward offers a real blast from the past. He suggests introducing price controls on rental properties. His theory is that this will act as a simple transfer of wealth from property owners to renters (who spend more of their income), thus stimulating the economy far better than quantitative easing. Well-intentioned as this idea is, few other measures would be more likely to punish low-income renters.
A far from BAEsic problem
Posted by Stephen Clarke in Economics, Politics on 26/09/2011
Tomorrow will see BAE Systems disclose how many jobs the company will cut. Expectations are that around 3,000 jobs will be lost across 3 sites in Yorkshire and Lancashire. Unions and opposition politicians have called on the Government to take action, but is there anything useful the Government can do?
Boundaries in teen relationships
Posted by Anastasia de Waal in Education, Family, Marriage and the Culture on 26/09/2011
The Coalition Government is seeking to address violent teenage relationships with a new advertising campaign. Meanwhile, new light has been shed on the prevalence of such violence. In view of this new information, are we responding to the problem satisfactorily, asks Therese Wallin.
How Can Anyone Afford a Pension?
Posted by Nigel Williams in Economics, Social Security on 22/09/2011
This is part of a short series looking at questions raised by the Civitas publication “You’re On Your Own“, by Peter Morris and Alasdair Palmer.
Life’s an expense and then you die. The Office for National Statistics’ estimate of life expectancy for children born from 2007 to 2009 was 80 years, four years more for women than for men.
