Philip Booth – författare

This book provides an analysis of the current problems of pension provision in the UK and a radical plan for reform. The authors believe that the system of retirement income provision in the UK is so mired in complexity that nothing less than wholesale change is necessary. The authors believe that state pensions should only be offered on a contributory basis - there should be no automatic right to a 'citizen's pension', as has been proposed by many commentators. Attention should also be paid to the social security system to remove the perverse incentives of means testing. Anomalies and special treatment of favoured groups in the tax system should also be removed. The Way Out of the Pensions Quagmire proposes a holistic approach to pension reform that takes proper account of the interaction between pensions, tax, social security and financial regulation.

Socialists have never been shy of sketching out their dreams of a better world, but that better world has never materialised in socialist countries. Indeed, socialism has frequently achieved the precise opposite of what was intended by its architects. The first part of Towards a Liberal Utopia? outlines the dreams of liberal economists and political scientists. These are not the dreams of people who wish to achieve their plans through central direction and who believe they know the precise outcome of the process called liberalisation. Rather our liberal thinkers sketch out frameworks for policy, which, in increasing the domain for individual action, will give rise to beneficial results that cannot be foreseen in detail. This will not lead to utopia, but the authors are confident that greater freedom will lead to better and more prosperous society. The second part of the book shows how an earlier generation of liberal economists turned ideas into action. Led by Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, the authors writing for the Institute of Economic Affairs helped to turn back the tide of collectivism by undermining its intellectual foundations.They were so successful that no serious political party now proposes a platform of central planning. As the authors featured in the first part of the book make clear, however, that does not mean that there are no new dragons of collectivism to slay. Some battles may have been won, but the war of ideas continues. Towards a Liberal Utopia? is essential reading for all those who are curious to know how the liberal economic agenda will develop over the coming generation. I trust you get some satisfaction from how far the influence of the IEA has spread, directly and indirectly. Milton Friedman, 6th October 2004.

In March 1981, 364 economists agreed to write to "The Times" arguing strongly against the then government's monetary and fiscal policy. However, the Thatcher government decided to ignore these voices and continue the pursuit of policies to defeat inflation and restore fiscal responsibility. To the opponents of the 364, this decision marked a turning point in British post-war economic history: every other post-war government had capitulated and returned to policies of reflation and direct control of prices and incomes in the face of intense political pressures when the going was tough. The 1981 Budget, which precipitated the letter, was also a turning point in other respects: from 1981 there was continual growth, falling inflation and eventually, employment growth. Arguably, the 1981 Budget set the scene for today's benign macro-economic outlook and political consensus in favour of stable prices and fiscal prudence. Amongst the 364 were many economists who play a very prominent part in public life today. Some dissent from their former views and others continue to justify them.In this publication some of the signatories of the letter to "The Times", together with their opponents discuss the key issues raised and its relevance to economic policy today. Included is a list of the original signatories and other relevant historical material.

It is difficult to imagine financial markets without a state regulator. But it was not so long ago that financial markets in Britain developed their own regulation, without government intervention. This monograph examines the economic case for a statutory regulator of investment transactions and finds it wanting. Private stock exchanges can provide regulation at less cost and less intrusively than the FSA.

This monograph surveys the results of government intervention in the market for retirement income provision throughout the world. The authors begin by looking at high-income democracies in which governments have, to a large degree, taken over the function of providing pensions. They find that state provision crowds out private provision and places a considerable fiscal burden on developed country governments. This fiscal burden is then combined with complex regulatory systems that are imposed on the private sector and which make pensions incomprehensible. Furthermore, as the authors show, the ageing populations may make meaningful reform of government pensions programmes impossible, as 'grey' electors flex their muscles. The authors find the same patterns in middle-income and low-income countries. State pension systems are often found hand-in-hand with a lack of security, partly because of the problems of corruption and inflation. The state frequently does its best to crowd out private initiative, but, where they are allowed to, families make provision for retirement in all sorts of ingenious ways. The authors reject the World Bank blueprint of formal, structured pension systems.They suggest instead that governments focus on ensuring that the legal and financial infrastructure exists to allow people to make proper provision for their retirement. So-called 'market failure' will always ensure that the result is imperfect. But, by comparison, government failure around the world has had catastrophic effects.

This title features contributions from James Alexander, Michael Beenstock, Philip Booth, Eamonn Butler, Tim Congdon, Laurence Copeland, Kevin Dowd, John Greenwood, Samuel Gregg, John Kay, David Llewellyn, Alan Morrison, D. R Myddelton, Anna Schwartz and Geoffrey Wood. This book challenges the myth that the recent banking crisis was caused by insufficient statutory regulation of financial markets. Though it finds that statutory regulation failed, and that market participants took more risks than they should have done, it appears that statutory regulation made matters worse rather than better. Furthermore the fifteen experts who have contributed to this study find that government policy failed in other respects too. As with the boom and bust that led to the Great Depression, loose monetary policy on both sides of the Atlantic helped to promote an asset price bubble and credit boom which, at some stage, was bound to have serious consequences.Rejecting the failed approach of discretionary detailed regulation of the financial system, the authors instead propose specific and incisive regulatory tools that are designed to target, in a non-intrusive way, particular weaknesses in a banking system that is backed by deposit insurance. This study, by some of the most eminent authors in the field, is essential reading for all those who are interested in the policy implications of recent events in financial markets.

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 improvements in general well-being rather than improvements in national income. But is it really true that government policy has always been orientated towards maximising GDP? Is it true that well-being does not increase as income increases? Is it true that more equal societies are happier societies? Can we really improve well-being through workplace legislation? Is it right to orientate government policy towards the single aim of increasing aggregate well-being across society as. a whole? These questions and many more are tackled by some of the leading intellectuals in the field. Overall, this monograph provides a substantial challenge to those who want to put the explicit pursuit of well-being at the heart of government policy.

At the outset of the euro, there was strong opposition to Britain's participation from most free-market economists. However, economists took more nuanced positions with regards to participation by the majority of current euro zone member states. Indeed, continental free-market economists were generally supportive of the euro, believing it would reduce the tendency towards inflation and encourage economic reform. This book looks again at the debate when the euro was first introduced and traces the sources of its current problems. A group of leading monetary economists then propose radical solutions to resolve the long-running crisis of European Monetary Union which has - in all probability - merely been suppressed by the actions of member governments and of the European Central Bank. The authors are all agreed that we cannot return to the status quo if the current members of the euro zone are to prosper in the long term.

Price controls across many sectors are currently being hotly debated. New controls in the housing market, more onerous minimum wages, minimum prices for alcohol, and freezes on energy prices are very high up the agenda of most politicians at the moment. Even without any further controls, wages, university fees, railway fares and many financial products already have their prices at least partly determined by politicians rather than by supply and demand in the market. Indeed, barely a sector of the UK economy is unaffected in one way or another by government controls on prices. This book demonstrates why economists do not like price controls and shows why they are widely regarded as being amongst the most damaging political interventions in markets. The authors analyse, in a very readable fashion, the damage they cause. Crucially, the authors also explain why, despite universal criticism from economists, price controls are so popular amongst politicians.

Price controls across many sectors are currently being hotly debated. New controls in the housing market, more onerous minimum wages, minimum prices for alcohol, and freezes on energy prices are very high up the agenda of most politicians at the moment. Even without any further controls, wages, university fees, railway fares and many financial products already have their prices at least partly determined by politicians rather than by supply and demand in the market. Indeed, barely a sector of the UK economy is unaffected in one way or another by government controls on prices. This book demonstrates why economists do not like price controls and shows why they are widely regarded as being amongst the most damaging political interventions in markets. The authors analyse, in a very readable fashion, the damage they cause. Crucially, the authors also explain why, despite universal criticism from economists, price controls are so popular amongst politicians.

The UK has the most centralised system of government amongst major economies. This results in poorer services, lower economic growth and higher taxes. We have also developed an approach to devolution that is incoherent and unstable. This short book proposes an entirely new set of constitutional arrangements. It proposes that the UK should develop a federal structure of government with only a small number of functions such as defence and border control being determined at the UK level. All other functions would be the ultimate responsibility of individual nations within the UK, though Wales, Northern Ireland and England could combine together if they wished. The author also proposes further radical decentralisation of government. Local government should become responsible for a much wider range of functions and raise the revenue to finance them. In areas such as health and education, the government role would be diminished further as parents, families and civil society institutions are provided with finance to directly procure their own services. Overall, this is a radical plan to completely change the nature of government in the UK.It would return power to the people and reverse the long trend of centralisation that has happened since World War I.

The UK has the most centralised system of government amongst major economies. This results in poorer services, lower economic growth and higher taxes. We have also developed an approach to devolution that is incoherent and unstable. This short book proposes an entirely new set of constitutional arrangements. It proposes that the UK should develop a federal structure of government with only a small number of functions such as defence and border control being determined at the UK level. All other functions would be the ultimate responsibility of individual nations within the UK, though Wales, Northern Ireland and England could combine together if they wished. The author also proposes further radical decentralisation of government. Local government should become responsible for a much wider range of functions and raise the revenue to finance them. In areas such as health and education, the government role would be diminished further as parents, families and civil society institutions are provided with finance to directly procure their own services. Overall, this is a radical plan to completely change the nature of government in the UK.It would return power to the people and reverse the long trend of centralisation that has happened since World War I.

The UK has the most centralised system of government amongst major economies. This results in poorer services, lower economic growth and higher taxes. We have also developed an approach to devolution that is incoherent and unstable. This short book proposes an entirely new set of constitutional arrangements. It proposes that the UK should develop a federal structure of government with only a small number of functions such as defence and border control being determined at the UK level. All other functions would be the ultimate responsibility of individual nations within the UK, though Wales, Northern Ireland and England could combine together if they wished. The author also proposes further radical decentralisation of government. Local government should become responsible for a much wider range of functions and raise the revenue to finance them. In areas such as health and education, the government role would be diminished further as parents, families and civil society institutions are provided with finance to directly procure their own services. Overall, this is a radical plan to completely change the nature of government in the UK.It would return power to the people and reverse the long trend of centralisation that has happened since World War I.

This book makes a persuasive argument that the licence fee is no longer the right way to raise revenue for the BBC. While there was a case for this model when the only way to watch the BBC was through the ownership of a television, and there was no way to prevent anyone who owned a television from watching the BBC, technological developments have demolished this argument. Millennials consume more and more of their broadcast media through a tablet, computer or phone. Yet, non-payment of the licence fee now accounts for 10 per cent of all criminal convictions in the UK, so we may soon be in the invidious position where a majority of young people watch BBC programmes through devices that are not taxed, while older people who own a television but watch only ITV or Sky Sports are taxed and, in the case of non-compliance, subject to arrest. Those who support the continuation of the licence fee often do so using two arguments: that the BBC is vital for producing what has become known as 'public service broadcasting', and that the BBC produces news that is non-partisan together with unbiased coverage of current affairs.The authors of this book challenge both of these arguments and show that there are various ways in which the BBC could be made independent of the state and/or of compulsory funding.

The BBC holds a special place in the world of broadcasting. It derives its funding from a compulsory levy on people who may not even use the service. The protection it receives is justified on the grounds that it contributes to national welfare because of its role in ‘public service broadcasting’. The authors of this book argue that the BBC’s funding model is becoming untenable as technology changes. Furthermore, technology has also undermined the justification for government support for public service broadcasting.There is also major concern about bias at the BBC. However, the book concludes that bias is not confined to the BBC, but is common to all media providers. The problem is not bias as such, but the link between the BBC and the government, together with the compulsory funding model which does not allow people to not fund content of which they disapprove.Various options for reform are presented, concluding with a proposal for fullblown privatisation. It is concluded that this is the only way to realise the potential of an organisation that should be international in scope and which, under the current funding model, will become marginalised by media players operating worldwide across a range of platforms.This book is essential reading for anybody involved in public policy or the economics of broadcasting.

The BBC holds a special place in the world of broadcasting. It derives its funding from a compulsory levy on people who may not even use the service. The protection it receives is justified on the grounds that it contributes to national welfare because of its role in ‘public service broadcasting’. The authors of this book argue that the BBC’s funding model is becoming untenable as technology changes. Furthermore, technology has also undermined the justification for government support for public service broadcasting.There is also major concern about bias at the BBC. However, the book concludes that bias is not confined to the BBC, but is common to all media providers. The problem is not bias as such, but the link between the BBC and the government, together with the compulsory funding model which does not allow people to not fund content of which they disapprove.Various options for reform are presented, concluding with a proposal for fullblown privatisation. It is concluded that this is the only way to realise the potential of an organisation that should be international in scope and which, under the current funding model, will become marginalised by media players operating worldwide across a range of platforms.This book is essential reading for anybody involved in public policy or the economics of broadcasting.

Amidst the debates about 'austerity' a number of vital debates in public finance have been sidelined. Because the reductions in government spending - small though they have been so far- have been designed to reduce the government's borrowing requirement, there has been little discussion of whether the size of the state should be reduced in order to facilitate long-run reductions in the burden of taxation. This book traces the history of the growth of the size of the state over the last 100 years whilst also making international comparisons. There is a particular focus on recent and projected future developments which shows that, though the total level of government spending has not decreased significantly in recent years, there has been a big redirection of spending from some areas to others. The authors then examine the evidence on the relationship between taxation and economic growth. As well as reviewing recent literature, they also undertake new modelling that higher taxes are detrimental for growth. In the final part of the book, the whole UK tax system is reconsidered in a proper economic framework.The UK has one of the world's most complex tax systems and its incoherence has increased over the last five years.Sweeping reforms are proposed to the system which would involve abolishing around 20 taxes and the development of a simple, predictable tax system based on principles that should gain wide acceptance.

Amidst the debates about 'austerity' a number of vital debates in public finance have been sidelined. Because the reductions in government spending - small though they have been so far- have been designed to reduce the government's borrowing requirement, there has been little discussion of whether the size of the state should be reduced in order to facilitate long-run reductions in the burden of taxation. This book traces the history of the growth of the size of the state over the last 100 years whilst also making international comparisons. There is a particular focus on recent and projected future developments which shows that, though the total level of government spending has not decreased significantly in recent years, there has been a big redirection of spending from some areas to others. The authors then examine the evidence on the relationship between taxation and economic growth. As well as reviewing recent literature, they also undertake new modelling that higher taxes are detrimental for growth. In the final part of the book, the whole UK tax system is reconsidered in a proper economic framework. The UK has one of the world's most complex tax systems and its incoherence has increased over the last five years. Sweeping reforms are proposed to the system which wold involve abolishing around 20 taxes and the development of a simple, predictable tax system based on principles that should gain wide acceptance.

Amidst the debates about 'austerity' a number of vital debates in public finance have been sidelined. Because the reductions in government spending - small though they have been so far- have been designed to reduce the government's borrowing requirement, there has been little discussion of whether the size of the state should be reduced in order to facilitate long-run reductions in the burden of taxation. This book traces the history of the growth of the size of the state over the last 100 years whilst also making international comparisons. There is a particular focus on recent and projected future developments which shows that, though the total level of government spending has not decreased significantly in recent years, there has been a big redirection of spending from some areas to others. The authors then examine the evidence on the relationship between taxation and economic growth. As well as reviewing recent literature, they also undertake new modelling that higher taxes are detrimental for growth. In the final part of the book, the whole UK tax system is reconsidered in a proper economic framework. The UK has one of the world's most complex tax systems and its incoherence has increased over the last five years. Sweeping reforms are proposed to the system which wold involve abolishing around 20 taxes and the development of a simple, predictable tax system based on principles that should gain wide acceptance.

Today should be a Golden Age for free speech - with technology providing more ways of communicating ideas and opinions than ever before. Yet we're actually witnessing a growing wave of restrictions on freedom of thought and expression. In Having Your Say a variety of authors - academics, philosophers, comedians and more - stress the fundamental importance of free speech, one of the cornerstones of classical liberalism. And they provide informed and incisive insights on this worrying trend, which threatens to usher in a new, intolerant and censorious era.

Today should be a Golden Age for free speech - with technology providing more ways of communicating ideas and opinions than ever before. Yet we're actually witnessing a growing wave of restrictions on freedom of thought and expression. In Having Your Say a variety of authors - academics, philosophers, comedians and more - stress the fundamental importance of free speech, one of the cornerstones of classical liberalism. And they provide informed and incisive insights on this worrying trend, which threatens to usher in a new, intolerant and censorious era.

Politicians around the world have signed up to achieving carbon net zero by 2050. And several countries, including the UK and those in the EU, have struck a ‘new green deal’. This puts environmental taxes and subsidies at the heart of energy policy. But it’s created an immensely complex and costly merry-go-round in which even fossil fuels end up being subsidised. This chaotic system, say authors Philip Booth and Carlo Stagnaro, is wide open to regulatory capture – and to an ideologically motivated agenda. It is also less resilient to crises in energy supply, such as the one caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. In Carbon Conundrum they illustrate the incoherence, iniquities and inefficiency of this large-scale government intervention. And they warn that ‘climate change is too important a challenge to be approached in this way’. Instead, they argue for a rational ‘polluter pays’ system of taxing energy sources. This, they contend, would give individuals and businesses much more control over how they reduce carbon emissions. And it would stimulate greater levels of carbon reduction – at a much lower economic cost.

Spatial Planning Systems of Britain and France brings together a wide selection of comparative essays to highlight the fundamental similarities and differences between the spatial planning in Great Britain and France: two countries that are near neighbours and yet have developed very different modes of planning in terms of their structure, practical application and underlying philosophies. Drawing on the outcomes of the Franco-British Planning Study Group and with a foreword by Vincent Renard of the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, the book offers a comparative investigation of the basic contexts for planning in both countries, including its administrative, economic, financial and legal implications, and then move on to illustrate themes such as urban policy and transport planning through detailed analysis and case studies.From these investigations the book brings together planning concepts from both a national and European perspective, looking particularly at two current issues: the effects of urban growth on small market towns and the use of Public-Private partnerships to implement development projects. Spatial Planning Systems of Britain and France will prove invaluable to policy makers and practitioners in both countries at a time when national policy is beginning to look towards practice in other countries.The book is published simultaneously in English and French opening up a wider debate between the English-speaking and francophone worlds.

**Please note this is an unedited paperback reprint of the hardback, originally published in 2003**The British system of universal development control celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1997. Remarkably, the system has survived more or less intact but the experience of the 1980s has left large questions unanswered about the relevance and effectiveness of the system. This book traces the history of the development control system in Britain from early modern times to the present day.

As one of Robert Frost's last students, Philip Booth has for more than four decades written poems prized for their clarity and depth. As founder of the Syracuse University Creative Writing Program, he has been a crucial influence in the early stages of such individually distinguished poets as Thomas Centolella, Stephen Dunn, Carol Frost, Brooks Haxton, Larry Levis, Jane Mead, Jay Meek, Susan Mitchel, Barbara Moore, and Lucia Perillo. The New York Times Book Review has said that "anyone who cares about poetry knows his work."Gathering together selections from his notebooks, dreamlogs, memoirs, and essays of such poets as Frost, Robert Lowell and George Oppen, Trying to Say It particularly focuses on the ways that the tension between in-formed structures and lineation create poems which--in all senses--move. Employing the Thoreauvian sense of place for which his poetry is known, Booth probes the nature of poetry itself, as well as the poetry of nature--yielding insights that are rooted in the acute observation that catalyzes imagination. Infused with a restless spirit in search of a moving language commensurate with the complexity of being fully alive, the essays collected in Trying to Say It reveal the pulses of a teacher's mind and a poet's heart.Philip Booth is the author of nine books of poetry, and has been honored by Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the National Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Academy of American Poets.

The first part of this fascinating book outlines the dreams of liberal economics and political scientists. The thinkers sketch out frameworks for policy, which, in increasing the domain for individual action, will give rise to beneficial results and lead to a better and more prosperous soceity. The second part of the book shows how an earlier generation of liberal economists turned ideas into action. Led by Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon, the authors writing for the IEA helped to turn back the tide of collectivism by exposing its intellectual failings.

In the years since the publication of the best-selling first edition, the incorporation of ideas and theories from the rapidly growing field of financial economics has precipitated considerable development of thinking in the actuarial profession. Modern Actuarial Theory and Practice, Second Edition integrates those changes and presents an up-to-date, comprehensive overview of UK and international actuarial theory, practice and modeling. It describes all of the traditional areas of actuarial activity, but in a manner that highlights the fundamental principles of actuarial theory and practice as well as their economic, financial, and statistical foundations.

Booth''s eighth poetry collection, with its evocations of compassion, tenderness and invading darkness, implies that redemption will come only from having loved well and wisely. Publishers Weekly remarked, "Booth is a traveler keenly, almost mystically, aware that ''how you get there is where you''ll arrive.'' "