Published on
7 December 2010
Beyond Bureaucracy: The ‘Big Society’ After the Spending Review
Transcript coming soon.
Thomas More Institute
Papers Archives
Published on
11 November 2009
Whatever Happened to Honour? Reflections on Ethics in Business with Some References to Government
I retired about six years ago and have since been engaged on a number of projects as project developer (with the usual quota of failures) and so have been following current developments in banking and business as more of an outsider. I wanted to place the idea of ethics in business in a philosophical context but shied […]
Published on
26 January 2009
Greasing Palms or Oiling Wheels: The Impact of Corruption on Developing Countries
Introduction It is a commonplace that one of the main problems with developing countries is that their societies, starting with their leaders, are corrupt and that until and unless this corruption is eradicated these countries do not have a hope of achieving even a modest level of development. For example, Niall Ferguson in his introduction […]
Published on
22 October 2008
Credit Crunch, Character Crisis
‘Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice.’ Download Handout Adam Smith had it basically right when he described the essential pre-conditions for widespread economic prosperity. But if the current financial upheaval teaches us anything, […]
Published on
7 May 2008
Tax and the Role of Government
At the Institute of Economic Affairs for a long time now we have tried to explore, as part of what we do, the moral underpinnings and the moral framework within which a market economy has to work. There is a feeling among those who work in the field of economics that the battle of ideas has been won in regard […]
Published on
10 October 2007
The Role of the State in Economic Life
My aim tonight is to talk around some of the themes of this book, Catholic Social Teaching and the Market Economy. I shall not comment much on the chapters about consumerism, entrepreneurship and business, but those are very rich chapters. That on entrepreneurship by Fr. Anthony Percy from Australia is particularly so: there has been nothing quite […]
Published on
16 June 2005
Capital and The Kingdom: The Impact of Globalisation on Human Consciousness
I must start by admitting that this is not the first time that I have given a version of this paper. I gave it about six months ago in a different context, and perhaps it is worth opening up and explaining the context. It was in Lambeth Palace, to an organisation called The Tyndale Society, and […]
Published on
19 January 2005
Heavens Above! The Relation of Ethics and Economics
I: Introduction Peter Sellers, one of my favourite comic actors, starred in a slight but amusing film called Heavens Above! [1963] in which he played a Church of England prison chaplain who is mistakenly appointed to a living in a well-heeled area. He has all sorts of notions of social justice and fairness and attempts to put […]