A National Social Care Service would be a total disaster Opinion Even if we generously assume that a National Care Service would not lead to efficiency losses, crude rationing of care services, and an explosion in waiting times, it would still be a bad idea, because it would lead to the politicisation of key decisions in the sector, says Kristian Niemietz Britain spends about 2.6 per [...]
Zohran Mamdani’s socialist superstore stunt won’t help poor New Yorkers Opinion Zohran Mamdani’s plan to open five state=owned shops with subsidised groceries will make little to no difference to the lives of New Yorkers, so why are you reading about it? Ask Kristian Niemietz New York City has a population of over 8.5m people, or close to 20m if we include the wider metropolitan area, and [...]
Even Zack Polanski’s favourite economist admits wealth taxes don’t work Opinion Gabriel Zucman has told Zack Polanski’s podcast that wealth taxes don’t work – so why are they both so keen to bring them back? Asks Kristian Niemietz “The historical experience with wealth taxation, by and large, is a failure. Pretty big failure.” Who said that? Was it an economist from a Tufton Street think tank? [...]
Burnham’s ‘neoliberalism’ critique is just Thatcher karaoke May 21, 2026 The British economy today is a million miles away from “neoliberalism”, even if we lack a catchy name to describe what has replaced it, says Kristian Niemietz For some countries, we have well-developed national stereotypes and associations. Everyone has an idea in their mind of what counts as “typically French”, “typically Italian” or “typically German”. [...]
Gary Stevenson is predictably wrong about wealth taxes May 6, 2026 Wealth taxes, as promoted by the likes of Gary Stevenson and Zack Polanski, are a terrible idea. Let’s make Britain rich instead, says Kristian Niemietz Wealth taxes are currently all the rage. Over the past few years, a massive hype has built up around the idea: 75 per cent of the public say they support [...]
Space is the new frontier in economics April 14, 2026 Property rights underpin capitalism here on Earth, they must do the same in space – a new book by City AM columnist Rainer Zitelmann argues A little over ten years ago, when smartphones were still sufficiently new to mention, I attended a talk by an economist who argued that it was a mistake to see [...]
Scrap inheritance tax! March 16, 2026 Inheritance tax is burdensome, distortionary and barely raises any revenue. Get rid of it now says Kristian Niemietz If you work in Westminster, you treat protest marches as part of the background noise. I have been working in SW1 since the late-stage Gordon Brown era, and I have certainly seen my fair share of those [...]
What’s so bad about a wealth tax? July 7, 2025 That "millionaires don't need all that money" misses the point. Wealth taxes hurt us all, writes Callum Price.
Back to the 80s to fix the housing crisis January 10, 2025 Experts have been warning about the housing crisis for decades – and the solutions have been staring us in the face for just as long, says Kristian Niemietz “[T]he planning system […] has significantly increased land and housing prices […] and distorted the economic structure, all of which have led to the British standard of [...]
How Poland and Vietnam escaped poverty October 17, 2024 In a new book, Rainer Zitelmann examines how Poland and Vietnam escaped the ravages of the Cold War to become some of the world’s fastest growing economies – and argues that poverty isn’t inevitable, it’s a policy choice says Kristian Niemietz Case studies in recent economic history typically deal with unambiguous success stories, or unambiguous [...]
