CNE Monatsmagazin Digest
January 2007

English Summary

New Year, new president: In an interview, Stephen Pollard talks about his plans as new CNE-President. "My main task so far has been looking at every aspect of our work and, in concert with our Managing Director, James Rogers, coming up with a Business Plan for 2007 which will give us even more focus and direction. I want CNE to be known and respected within the Brussels arena for penetrating analysis of EU public policy issues, and taken seriously as a contributor to the debates. We are already part way there", says Pollard.

JNE 3.2 in a nutshell: Claudia R. Williamson and Carrie B. Kerekes provide arguments supporting the view that informal institutions may be sufficient to stimulate economic development and that the codification of these institutions may not be necessary. Philipp Bagus offers a critique of the productivity norm doctrine and explains consequences of applying the productivity norm, namely involuntary unemployment and real income losses. Normann Barry pays his tribute to the late Milton Friedman, and Hardy Bouillon reviews Norms of Liberty by Doug Rasmussen and Doug den Uyl.

Goodbye, Milton: Normann Barry remembers Milton Friedman. "He was a fierce opponent of the draft and he said nearly as much about that as about inflation in the 1960s and 1970s. He was never attached to a political party despite being labelled as right wing by the unthinking left", says Barry and goes on: "Personally Friedman was a delight. Warm and friendly with a mischievous sense of humour he was prepared to talk to anyone: even me".

Breeding ground for innovation: A new anthology by Gerhard Schwarz and Ronald Clapham is devoted to the fruitful relation of free markets and innovations. It is great collection of arguments that demonstrate why it is so likely that liberal markets provide the breeding ground for technological advancement. They also warn that there is no historical law that determines this development. Alongside seminal classical papers by Popper, Hayek, et.al., the volume includes original contributions by Christian Watrin, Gerhard Prosi and other renowned German and Swiss authors.

Still shrugging: "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand. 50 years after its first publication, Atlas Shrugged is still moving. The "second most influential book for Americans today" after the Bible, according to a joint survey conducted by the Library of Congress, Ayn Rand's novel is the astounding story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world - and did. It is a metaphor of how willing, creative people are misused by lazy freeloaders and a passionate plea for individualism and capitalism.

The last word: "The last word" offers to our readership the opportunity to read regularly comments and blogs by CNE-President Stephen Pollard. It starts with a comment by Pollard on Ryanair's "premium boarding": "If Ryanair wants to charge £2 for priority boarding, there is not one valid reason why it shouldn't. If it wants to charge £500 for every flight, there is not one valid reason why it shouldn't. It can charge whatever it likes for whatever service it chooses, or doesn't choose, to provide. That's because it is a private company which stands or falls by the number of people who choose to fly with it, in one of the most competitive markets on the planet", says Pollard.

Click here to view the full Monatsmagazin in German.

Dr. Hardy Bouillon is Head of Academic Affairs at the Centre for the New Europe.