A quick position statement

Taxes

Unlike other forms of tax, taxes on the rental value of land and other natural amenities and also on the extraction of raw materials do no economic harm. They are also easy to collect, hard to avoid and could theoretically fund all our public services.

Intellectual property

The point of patents and copyrights is to encourage innovation in the arts and manufacturing, not to provide monopoly profits over and above the costs of development. The law should reflect that.

International Trade

Large and long-lasting balance of payments disequilibria are destabilising and harmful. A country incapable of supporting itself in the supply of food and energy is strategically vulnerable. The global trade of manufactured goods is largely unnecessary and its social benefits over-stated. The social costs of exposing a national labour force to competition with cheaper labour overseas is significant.

International Finance

Banking should never have been allowed to escape national boundaries. The unrestricted flow of national currencies across national boundaries is harmful. The Eurodollar market has been a dangerous mistake and needs to be closed down.

Currencies

The Euro is a mistake and will fail because the Eurozone is too large and the degree of economic convergence across national boundaries that it requires is too large. Large currency areas impoverish those regions unable to support themselves in trade with other areas. Even within national boundaries, a single currency can impoverish those parts of a country unable to produce as much value as they consume. Only large transfer payments make such impoverishment feasible.

That’s it for now.