IEA Podcast

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, Callum Price is joined by Director General Lord Frost and Editorial Director Kristian Niemietz to discuss the week in economics. The episode covers findings from the IEA’s landmark public opinion report on British attitudes to economic growth, a new poll from the New Statesman on the gender gap in political attitudes among young people, an IPR report on NHS reform, and the SNP’s proposal to cap prices on essential food items.

The panel examines the IEA polling which found that most Britons believe the UK is wealthier than comparable economies such as the United States, Australia and Singapore, when in fact it lags behind most of them significantly. The discussion moves to the generational and gender divides in political opinion, with Kristian noting that Britain is something of an outlier internationally, where young people across the board have moved left rather than following patterns seen in France or Germany. On the NHS, the panel critiques the IPR’s report arguing against a move to an insurance-based funding model, questioning whether it engages seriously with why some health systems outperform others and what role market mechanisms and incentives play.

The final segment takes on the SNP’s pre-election pledge to introduce price caps on staple foods including bread, milk and eggs. Kristian sets out why price controls distort the signals that coordinate supply and demand, and Lord Frost and Callum explore the practical consequences, including reduced supply, gaming of the system by producers, and the likelihood of follow-up interventionist legislation to paper over the failures of the original policy.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

In this episode of Free the Power, the IEA’s occasional series looking at free market solutions to problems in climate and energy policy, IEA energy analyst and COO Andy Mayer speaks with Catherine McBride, CEO of the Great British Business Council and lead author of the report Premeditated Industrial Destruction. They discuss how three quarters of UK energy is not electricity but oil, gas and coal, and why decades of green regulation have quietly hollowed out Britain’s industrial base. The conversation takes in the collapse of the chemicals sector, the carbon border adjustment mechanism, flawed emissions accounting, and why the UK’s claimed 50% emissions cuts shrink to 19% once imports are factored in.

Catherine and Andy examine the specific industries that have been lost or are disappearing, from aluminium smelting and titanium dioxide production to ceramics and cement, and why highly productive industries are being replaced by low-productivity service jobs. They debate the role of the emissions trading scheme, the windfall tax on North Sea producers, and how the Government’s planning and licensing regime has made the UK uniquely hostile to domestic energy extraction compared to Norway and the US.

The episode closes with Catherine’s three priorities for any future government: lifting the windfall tax and other levies on North Sea producers, scrapping the licensing restrictions that prevent new wells, and reversing the net zero framework that she argues has made no measurable difference to global emissions while destroying competitive industries. She also highlights the critical minerals sitting in old coal mine tailings across the UK and the safety risks of the proposed carbon capture pipeline through the Peak District.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

Britain wants growth. 87% of the public support it, cutting across age, income, and political affiliation. But there is a catch: most people do not believe they will ever actually see the benefits. While nine in ten expect big corporations and the wealthy to gain from a growing economy, barely half think it will improve their own lives. That gap between wanting growth and trusting it explains almost everything about British politics right now.

Matthew Lesch, public policy fellow and country manager at Freshwater Strategy, joins the IEA podcast to walk through a major new polling project of 3,000 people and a series of focus groups. The findings are striking. Two thirds of Britons think the country is heading in the wrong direction. Most believe their living standards are lower than their parents’. And when asked where the UK would rank if it were a US state by income per capita, the average guess was seventh. The real answer is 51st.

What does the public actually want? Lower energy bills, tax cuts for workers, more housing, and public services that work. Not ideology, not abstract GDP targets, just tangible improvements to daily life. Lesch breaks down the six political tribes driving opinion, explains why Reform and Green Party voters have more in common than anyone expects, and sets out what it would actually take to build a public mandate for pro-growth reform in Britain today.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, host Callum Price is joined by Director General Lord Frost and Editorial Director Kristian Niemietz. The episode covers the Home Office’s decision to revoke Kanye West’s travel authorisation, the Green Party’s push for rent controls ahead of local elections, and new evidence on the employment effects of the minimum wage.

On the free speech and visa question, the panel examines whether the government was right to bar Kanye West from entering the UK, whether non-citizens should enjoy the same speech protections as British nationals, and how visa denial powers tend to be applied inconsistently along political lines. Kristian argues the same standard applied at the border should mirror what would be permissible to say domestically, while Lord Frost contends governments retain a legitimate interest in controlling who enters the country, provided it is done within clearly defined rules.

The conversation then turns to rent controls, where Kristian sets out why near-unanimous economist consensus against them exists, distinguishing between first and second generation controls and explaining why both produce misallocation and supply problems. The panel also discusses Ryan Bourne’s recent Times column on the minimum wage, arguing that political pressure has pushed it far beyond the level at which negative employment effects can be avoided, and that the policies most often defended as helping low-paid workers tend in practice to harm them most.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

What really causes recessions? Tyler Goodspeed, former chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers and author of Recession: The Real Reasons Economies Shrink and What We Can Do About It, joins Daniel Freeman to challenge everything we think we know about economic downturns. Drawing on over 300 years of economic history across Britain and America, Goodspeed demolishes the idea that recessions are the inevitable consequence of booms — arguing instead that economic expansions do not die of old age. They get murdered.

From the 2008 financial crisis to the dotcom bust of 2001, Goodspeed reframes some of the most consequential economic events in modern history. Was 2008 really caused by reckless mortgage lending and greedy bankers? Or was a record-breaking energy price shock the real trigger? Was 2001 the dotcom crash — or was it September 11th that tipped the US economy into recession? And what does 300 years of data actually tell us about speculative bubbles, creative destruction, and the moral stories we tell ourselves when economies collapse?

The conversation also turns to Britain’s chronic underperformance since 2008, and why the UK remains at least 30% poorer than the United States. Goodspeed argues this is not the unavoidable aftermath of a financial crisis — it is the direct result of policy choices on taxation, land use, energy costs and financial regulation. For policymakers who claim to want growth, his message is clear: the first rule, as with medicine, is do no harm.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

Recession is available now in bookshops on both sides of the Atlantic.

Is the triple lock on the state pension sustainable? What does the future of free speech in Britain actually look like? And when does safety regulation cross the line into doing more harm than good? Kristian Niemietz, Lord Frost, and host Callum Price tackle three of the most contested policy questions in British public life right now.

The panel examines the case for and against the triple lock, exploring what a fairer, more sustainable pension system might look like and how the retirement age should relate to rising life expectancy. They also dig into the Adam Smith Institute’s proposed free speech bill, asking whether Britain’s long-standing reputation as a bastion of free expression still holds up when you look at the laws actually on the statute book.

Finally, the group debates the real-world costs of building safety regulation, and whether politicians and the media are willing to have an honest conversation about trade-offs. It is easier said than done, but without that conversation, good policy becomes almost impossible to make.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, chair Callum Price hosts the 33rd Hayek Lecture, introduced by Lord Frost, IEA Director General. Harvard Professor of Economics Edward Glaeser delivers the lecture entitled “Does Britain Need a Second London?”, examining the relationship between urban density, housing supply and economic growth. Kristian Niemietz, IEA Editorial Director, joins the panel discussion alongside Lord Frost to respond to the lecture and discuss its implications for Britain.

Glaeser sets out the economic case for cities, arguing that density drives productivity, innovation and upward mobility. He examines Britain’s chronic failure to build housing and infrastructure, tracing it to planning restrictions that have constrained London’s growth and throttled the capacity of other cities to develop. Drawing on data from across the United States, he argues that high house prices are a supply problem, not a demand problem, and that the places which build the most are consistently the most affordable. He also challenges the case for rent control, new state-built cities and large-scale rail investment, arguing instead for deregulation, brownfield densification and mass production in housebuilding.

The panel discussion ranges across Britain’s 18 years of near-stagnant per capita growth, the counterintuitive finding that planning restrictions worsened under Thatcher, the limits of government competence in directing economic development, and Lord Frost’s observation that government policy effectively killed Birmingham as a productive city in the post-war decades. The conversation closes with the argument that Britain is not physically full — it simply believes it is, and that changing that psychology is essential to changing the country’s economic prospects.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

Hayek’s Law, Legislation and Liberty is one of the most important works of political philosophy of the 20th century -- but it’s also one of the most difficult to read. Written over 15 years while its author battled illness, moved between continents, and collected a Nobel Prize, the book is uneven, repetitive, and densely philosophical in places. In this interview, Dr Eamonn Butler, director of the Adam Smith Institute, explains why he wrote a guide to make Hayek’s ideas accessible to a modern audience.

At the heart of Law, Legislation and Liberty is Hayek’s theory of cultural evolution: the idea that our most important institutions -- justice, morality, language, markets -- were not designed by anyone, but emerged gradually over millennia. Butler explains why Hayek believed this process produces a kind of accumulated wisdom that no government planner can replicate, and why attempts to redesign society from scratch -- from the French Revolution to Soviet Russia -- have so consistently ended in failure, repression, and corruption.

The interview also covers Hayek’s famous critique of social justice, his views on the proper limits of democracy, the difference between “law” and “legislation,” and what the most important lesson of the book is for policymakers today. Dr Butler’s guide to Law, Legislation and Liberty is published by the IEA and is available now -- link in the description.

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, Daniel Freeman, Managing Editor at the IEA, speaks with Dr. Gregory Clark, Professor of Economics at the University of Southern Denmark and author of A Farewell to Alms (2008) and The Son Also Rises (2014). The conversation explores why economic growth was almost non-existent before 1800 and what set Britain on the path to the Industrial Revolution, focusing on the relationship between social mobility, fertility patterns and the gradual transformation of human behaviour over centuries.

Dr. Clark sets out his argument that pre-industrial England was characterised by a consistent fertility advantage among the upper and middle classes, with wealthier families producing significantly more surviving children than poorer ones. He explains how this demographic pressure drove the slow downward spread of commercially useful traits through the population over many generations, contributing to declining interest rates, rising literacy, and falling rates of violence long before industrialisation took hold. The discussion also covers why other societies with comparably sound institutions, including ancient Rome, Babylonia and Qing Dynasty China, never made the same transition, and what role European marriage patterns, particularly the tendency to marry later and for love rather than family arrangement, may have played in shaping the distribution of abilities within society.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems. The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, Callum Price is joined by Kristian Niemietz, IEA Editorial Director, and Lord Frost, IEA Director General. They discuss the OECD’s latest growth forecasts, which place the UK as the hardest hit economy in the G20, the Government’s response to the energy price shock, and what — if anything — should be done about rising inflation.

The conversation then turns to the Government’s new towns plan, narrowed from 12 to 7 proposed sites. Kristian and Lord Frost debate whether these amount to genuine new towns or simply extensions of existing conurbations, whether the history of new towns offers any useful lessons, and whether the current planning system is capable of delivering the housing numbers the country needs.

The final segment examines a piece in The Critic by Steve Loftus arguing that AI will be so transformative that capitalism itself will need to be replaced. Kristian and Lord Frost push back, questioning whether AI is truly different in principle from previous technological revolutions, what the productivity figures actually show so far, and what Hayek’s insights about tacit knowledge mean for the limits of machine intelligence.

The Institute of Economic Affairs is a registered educational charity. It does not endorse or give support for any political party in the UK or elsewhere. Our mission is to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.

The views represented here are those of the speakers alone, not those of the Institute, its Managing Trustees, Academic Advisory Council members or senior staff.

0:00 Introduction

1:56 OECD Growth Forecasts & The UK’s Energy Crisis

11:20 New Towns: Central Planning or Pragmatic Housing Policy?

24:18 Will AI Replace Capitalism?