In this Institute of Economic Affairs podcast, host Callum Price is joined by the IEA’s new Director General Lord Hannan and Editorial Director Kristian Niemietz. The episode covers the OBR’s admission that it underestimated the fiscal damage from the Government’s employer National Insurance rise, the banning of American commentators Hasan Piker and Usman Khan from entering the UK, and Zach Polanski’s podcast discussion with French economist Gabriel Zucman on wealth taxes.
Lord Hannan argues that tax rises are always harmful to growth, pointing to the “triple whammy” facing employers from National Insurance hikes, the Employment Rights Bill, and minimum wage increases. The conversation turns to whether the OBR’s mandate should be reformed and whether a competitive market in economic forecasting would produce better results. On free speech, all three agree that banning the American commentators was petty authoritarianism, with Hannan and Niemietz both arguing that consistent application of free speech principles matters more than whether you agree with the speaker. Hannan raises the uncomfortable question of whether the liberal free speech consensus of recent decades was merely a temporary standoff between competing hegemonies.
The episode closes with Kristian Niemietz’s response to the Polanski/Zucman exchange on wealth taxes. Niemietz agrees that past wealth taxes have largely failed, but disputes Zucman’s claim that a broader, exemption-free version would succeed, arguing the valuation bureaucracy required would be enormous and the disincentive effects on business owners would be severe. Lord Hannan draws on his time in Brussels during Francois Hollande’s wealth tax to illustrate how quickly such policies drive wealth creators out, and argues that the true motive behind wealth tax proposals is egalitarian rather than fiscal.
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