Writing over 230 years ago, Adam Smith noted the 'juggling trick' whereby governments hide the extent of their public debt through 'pretend payments.' As the fiscal crises around the world illustrate, this juggling trick has run its course. This paper explores the relevance of Smith’s juggling...

In spite of general reductions in government spending, the prime minister has found room in the government's budget to spend money on a major survey of what makes the British people happy. This will be used, in the prime minister’s own words, to guide government policy towards improvement in...

The author argues that the decay of liberal capitalism is the consequence of social rules that leave unconstrained the unwarranted intrusion of government into our economic affairs and reward leaders who can succeed in this process of power politics

The authors offer perspective on the world financial crisis. Specifically, they claim it was a perfect storm of policy errors that caused the housing bubble and then perpetuated the recovery period into an over-extended recession

The authors highlight under-appreciated problems with implementing a Basic Income Policy, even in the case of simple cash transfers which, given the existence of redistribution, are preferable to the bureaucratic machinery necessary for rationing specific goods

We argue that the policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic by all levels of government around the world is not consistent with recommendations from standard welfare economics. Thus, it is important to ask why such policies have been adopted. That opens the door to examining the political economy...