Centre for Policy Studies Acting Director Tim Knox and board member Niall Ferguson were amongst the signatories to a letter to the Daily Telegraph today criticising the 6th June letter signed by 50 academics. It is reprinted below and can be seen here.
Taxes hinder recovery
SIR – Last Sunday, some 50 academics signed a letter warning that the economy was too fragile to withstand the Government’s planned spending cuts (report, June 6).
Only a minority of the signatories are practising mainstream economists, which might explain why they criticise the Government’s “break-neck deficit reduction plan” and propose higher taxes, more regulation and another “green deal”.
In reality, the Government is shaving just 0.7 per cent a year off real expenditure over the next four years and will still be running deficits a full seven years on from the financial crisis. And the academic evidence suggests that cutting deficits will not harm growth in highly indebted developed countries with floating exchange rates – like the United Kingdom.
Furthermore, existing “green” measures will already raise energy prices by 30 per cent at a time when companies are struggling under the weight of a government sector that absorbs over half of the nation’s income.
Tax, regulation and expensive, ill-designed “green” measures will not cure our problems. Indeed, the economic evidence suggests that they are strangling our recovery.
Dr Eamonn Butler
Director, Adam Smith Institute
Professor Philip Booth
Cass Business School
Professor Niall Ferguson
Harvard University
Professor Timothy Congdon
Lombard Street Research
Tim Knox
Centre for Policy Studies
Mark Littlewood
Institute for Economic Affairs
Miles Saltiel
Fourth Phoenix Research
Terry Arthur
University of Buckingham
Keith Boyfield
Leriba
Tim Ambler
London Business School
Ruth Lea
Arbuthnot Banking Group
Jim Bourlet
Economic Research Council
Dr Tim Evans
Cobden Centre
Date Added: Wednesday 8th June 2011
