Economic Perspectives 111 – 1 January 2022– Emile Woolf Why governments practise currency debasement – and how to cure them [With my gratitude to Patrick Barron for his inspiration and insights I have written on the subject of currency debasement many times, but it is now reaching crunch-time – even for the pound, dollar, yen […]

EMILE WOOLF ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 109 [November 2021] Veteran observers of economic folly have the advantage of experience. They are already familiar with the failed policies being enacted, yet again, by unprincipled politicians whose sole motivation is re-election. In the meanwhile these pillars of ineptitude, incapable of linking cause and effect, remain blind to the […]

    “Conservative” government?……if only! [ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 104]   The Conservative government has strayed so far from the principles on which it was elected that it is scarcely recognisable as the party most people voted for.   Its colour on the political spectrum has undergone a blue-to-red shift with welfare-for-all at the top of […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 100 _____________________________________ EMILE WOOLF, MAY 2021 A well-designed tax policy would extract from citizens’ wealth what’s needed by the government to protect their lives and civil liberties. It would not be designed to achieve purely political objectives, no matter how dressed up.   The “Nanny State Index”, compiled by the Institute of […]

Economic Perspectives – 96           [EMILE WOOLF -7th March 2021]   GROWTH? NOT IN THIS BUDGET   We have just endured yet another March Budget in which the Chancellor sets out his strategy for balancing the nation’s expenditure plans with its available resources, principally from taxation. They are, of course, his spending priorities, and his tax-raising […]

Economic Perspectives – 94 POST-COVID CONJECTURES – FEBRUARY 2021 EMILE WOOLF While speculation is rife about what the post-Covid economy will look like, we must remember that economic fundamentals are not susceptible to alteration. They may adapt to changed circumstances, but no external modifications in society can affect the laws and principles themselves – for […]

  ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 84    [July 2020] Those of us struggling to get a grip on Chancellor Sunak’s latest relief-measures should note the terminology. He seeks to revive the Covid-stricken economy with a series of tax “giveaways”.  When anyone in government talks about giving something away, it’s instructive to ask yourself how they got it […]

ECONOMIC PERSPECTIVES – 78 and GOING POSTAL It’s not quite like having to start the economy from scratch, but this lockdown-induced recession warrants some detached assessment. We are aware that viable businesses have been forced to close their doors – or keep them open to serve a paltry trickle of customers. This has been happening […]

SIR – Allister Heath makes a powerful case for not taxing property (Comment, February 13). However he concedes that “long-standing homeowners have made vast, untaxed capital gains as prices have shot up.” He explains that the answer is to build more houses, not to tax unrealised gains via a mansion tax. He makes no mention […]

Dear Ronald Please feel free to submit this. You can give my name as author if you wish. Site value taxation This is a tax on land values, based on the value of the land alone – not on buildings or other improvements. Under this system development is encouraged because it has absolutely no effect […]