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The Capitalist

The Capitalist, from CapX

The Capitalist: where economics meets politics. New episodes every Wednesday.

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#92
Yesterday · 21 min
Helen Whately: young people need jobs, not handouts
What should we do about the nearly one million young people not in education, employment or training? The Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately joined Marc Sidwell on The Capitalist on the day the Conservatives unveiled their answer: a Get to Work plan that would require under-25s claiming benefits to join an intensive programme from day one, or lose their payments. They discuss the case for taking family finances into account when young people claim, as well as the party’s separate proposal for a prepaid benefits card for the long-term unemployed that would block spending on alcohol, tobacco and gambling. She also explained why she still sees Margaret Thatcher, not the 1970s Andy Burnham looks back to, as the model for a Conservative government. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
Thursday · 10 min
Best of CapX: Trump is right about Britain’s tech laws
‘American firms dominate the tech industry and so almost any domestic digital regulation a foreign government passes will land disproportionately on US companies.’ The Trump administration has admonished its British counterparts over digital regulations like the Online Safety Act. Ben Ramanauskas, a former trader adviser to the UK government, explains that the US feels hard done by because while the UK says these policies are neutral, they tend to affect American firms the most because of their size and revenue. For once, Trump is in the right on trade. These laws are non-tariff trade barriers and Andy Burnham should repeal them. Each week we bring you an example of the best writing from CapX, read aloud. For hosted conversations, listen to The Capitalist, every Wednesday. Get full access to the CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
#91
September 24 · 26 min
Chelsea Follett: the past was worse than you think
Why do so many people – on the Right as well as the Left – look back fondly on a pre-industrial world they would never actually want to live in? This week on The Capitalist, Chelsea Follett of the Cato Institute speaks with Marc Sidwell about her new book, ‘The Grim Old Days: An Introduction to the Preindustrial Past’. It sets out what life was really like before modern economic growth: famine every few years, streets that doubled as open sewers and a world in which parents put their surviving children to work instead of playing with them. We discussed why the fantasy of cosy village life is so persistent and how it feeds today’s scepticism about growth and AI. We also covered why the pre-industrial world was no environmental idyll, and what passed for entertainment when an execution was a family day out. Plus, the Dutch mob who killed and ate their prime minister in 1672. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
September 23 · 7 min
Best of CapX: Corporate welfare is Britain’s blind spot
‘You cannot reform what you cannot measure, and Britain cannot presently measure corporate welfare in any meaningful way.’ From support for wind farms to assorted tax reliefs, corporate welfare receives far less attention than voter welfare, but Alan Hibben argues it should be easier to cut – if we actually knew the true cost to taxpayers. Until Britain stops administering corporate support as a fog of overlapping schemes, exemptions and tax breaks, nothing will change. Each week we bring you an example of the best writing from CapX, read aloud. For hosted conversations, listen to The Capitalist, every Wednesday. Get full access to the CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
#90
September 17 · 37 min
Liam Halligan: Britain needs saving from itself
What does the fight for free markets look like in 2026 – and how can Britain escape its high-debt, high-tax, low-growth doom loop? Liam Halligan, the new Director of the Centre for Policy Studies – and so now in charge of CapX as well – joins Marc Sidwell on The Capitalist to explain why he decided to get more involved in frontline policymaking. He argues that our perilous fiscal position today looks alarmingly similar to the mid-Seventies, when the CPS was founded to break a failing consensus and Britain went to the IMF for a bailout two years later. Fifty years after that bailout, he says, the case for free enterprise and limited government must be won all over again. We discussed why Britain’s debt interest bill is a moral failure, not just a fiscal one; why he thinks the market will not fund upfront tax cuts, however much he wants them; and why he blames his own trade – economics journalism – for leaving the public unequipped to hold politicians to account. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
September 15 · 5 min
Best of CapX: Labour are a bigger threat to jobs than AI
‘The only thing more power-hungry than AI are, of course, leftist politicians themselves.’ Economist William Stanley Jevons noticed that making a technology more efficient means people will use it a lot more, rather than less — his example was coal and the steam engine. James Price argues the same holds for AI. In the US, AI has created a million jobs to the 200,000 job losses it gets blamed for. Britain is an outlier because Labour made hiring more expensive and firing harder. Each week we bring you an example of the best writing from CapX, read aloud. For hosted conversations, listen to The Capitalist, every Wednesday. Get full access to the CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
#89
September 10 · 30 min
Daniel Hannan: our debt is now a national security threat
Is Britain’s own debt now as dangerous as any foreign rival? This week on The Capitalist, Marc Sidwell speaks to Daniel Hannan, the writer, peer and former MEP who has just taken over as Director-General of the Institute of Economic Affairs – Britain’s original free-market think tank – at a moment when state spending sits at 46% of GDP. He makes the case that in an increasingly dangerous world, Britain’s economic weakness is a vulnerability we can no longer afford. With debt at £3 trillion and history suggesting our power abroad has always rested as much on deeper, cheaper capital markets as fighting spirit, he argues our stretched public finances risk emboldening our geopolitical foes. They also discuss how lockdown broke the public’s understanding of what ‘the economy’ even means, how Hannan plans to bring the free-market case to a new generation and why the electorate’s demand for spending deserves as much blame as any politician. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
September 9 · 8 min
Best of CapX: Don't let China win the AI standards war
‘The nations whose standards the world adopts win far more than the nations that merely rent their software by the month.’ The UK used to allow proprietary technology to compete alongside its open alternatives. Damian Green argues that as we enter the age of AI, our Government seems unsure how to deal with open-source models. But investing in open-source projects with the Americans is essential if we want to stay ahead of China. Openness helped put the internet in every pocket. We need to set AI free in the same way. Each week we bring you an example of the best writing from CapX, read aloud. For hosted conversations, listen to The Capitalist, every Wednesday. Get full access to the CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
#85
September 3 · 25 min
Julian Jessop: Burnham's growth plan won't work
Will the man who paints himself as the antidote to Thatcherism lead us back to the worst of the 1970s? This week on The Capitalist, as Britain’s borrowing costs spiked and Andy Burnham faced MPs as Prime Minister, Marc Sidwell spoke to the economist Julian Jessop about Burnham’s plans – and whether they can really get Britain back to growth. We discussed whether nationalisation is a recipe for reducing the cost of living, and Burnham’s curious belief that Britain’s current condition – with taxes at record levels and the state bigger than ever – can be labelled a failed experiment in neoliberalism. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
September 2 · 5 min
Best of CapX: Why can’t Britain build data centres?
‘In Britain, we can force £100 million to be spent on a bat tunnel; imagine what our planning system will do with a gigawatt campus.’ Britain is the home of the first data centre, which helped us win the Second World War. James Price says that nowadays we can barely build them, thanks to Nimby complaints gumming up the planning system. The UAE is building data centres in the desert. Singapore is building them – despite real land and water constraints. We need to catch up. Each week we bring you an example of the best writing from CapX, read aloud. For hosted conversations, listen to The Capitalist, every Wednesday. Get full access to the CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
#84
August 26 · 26 min
Jonn Elledge: how we invented the city
This week on The Capitalist, Marc Sidwell speaks to the writer and CapX columnist Jonn Elledge. His new book ‘31 Inventions That Built Our World’, surveys the technologies – from sewers to lifts – that make urban life possible. They discuss what it takes to keep a modern city running, and whether we are losing our nerve when it comes to building twenty-first century infrastructure. They also talk about the PT Barnum stunt that convinced the public it was safe to ride in a lift, why nowhere on Earth held more than about a million people until the 1800s, the speed limit that stood in the way of commuting and why market pricing – not more regulation – is the answer to the mess we’ve made of urban space. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
#78
August 24 · 8 min
Best of CapX: Red tape is a tax on time
Compliance costs British business around £52 billion a year. Damian Pudner asks how much of that is wasted on rules nobody has bothered to think through? Every hour spent on paperwork is an hour not spent selling, investing or training staff. Ministers are held to account when they spend public money. They should face the same scrutiny when they spend everyone else’s time. Each week we bring you an example of the best writing from CapX, read aloud. For hosted conversations, listen to The Capitalist, every Wednesday. Get full access to the CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
#83
August 20 · 24 min
Dalibor Rohac: capitalism can save the West
Are Nimbys a threat to national security? Britain’s inability to build houses and infrastructure is rightly at the heart of our domestic political debate. Dalibor Rohac thinks it needs to be seen as a geopolitical failing as well. This week on The Capitalist, Rohac, incoming director of research at Globsec, discusses his new book ‘Unshackled: How Economic Growth Can Defeat the World’s Dictators’. The conversation also covers how to defend Western institutions while still building fast, what Mancur Olson can tell us about vetocracy, whether letting China into the WTO was a mistake and why chasing foreign students out of American universities is an own goal. Rohac’s argument is that the accumulated sludge of special interests and regulatory stasis which reduces growth and stops houses and reservoirs being built has serious security implications – such as the shortfall in defence production across the alliance. Free markets can deliver in ways that more centralised systems cannot, but only if the shackles are taken off. He remains an optimist, on the grounds that free societies have a remarkable power for self-correction. But who will stand up as a new champion of the Western order? A new Reagan or Thatcher may be harder to find. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
#83
August 17 · 7 min
Despatch: A £3 trillion problem
Britain's national debt has just passed £3 trillion for the first time – and John Penrose says it's time to get it under control. But while Andy Burnham ruled out breaking Rachel Reeves's fiscal rules to borrow more, he's asked his Chancellor to find 'wriggle room' within them. Penrose argues that what we need instead is full transparency about the state's liabilities. Any honest reckoning would include the future cost of the state pension, already running at over 220% of GDP. Rather than fudging the figures yet again, Burnham should build Britain a proper national balance sheet. With an honest set of numbers, we can finally have a proper conversation about how to reduce the stock of debt. Each week we bring you an example of the best writing from CapX, read aloud. For hosted conversations, listen to The Capitalist, every Wednesday. Get full access to the CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
#82
August 13 · 32 min
Richard Hanania: Can you trust a populist?
Richard Hanania had a ringside seat for the rise of MAGA, as his Substack essays on anti-woke issues gained traction at the highest level of the new American Right. He had high hopes for Donald Trump’s second term, and coined the term ‘Tech Right’, hoping for an administration that worked productively alongside some of the smartest people in Silicon Valley. In practice, he says the second Trump presidency has proved ‘a nightmare scenario’. Hanania’s new book ‘Kakistocracy’ is an attempt to understand what went wrong – and the wider lessons as populism continues to gain ground around the world. He argues that populists, for all their promises of overthrowing corrupt elites, often end up replacing a flawed system with something far more damaging – ‘rule by the worst’. On this model, elites can be foolish and subject to groupthink, but they are held in check by a status game that rewards honesty and truth-seeking. Populists, by contrast, gain power from their unfiltered relationship with voters, which makes corruption and lies easier to get away with, and encourages zero-sum thinking. But what about the pro-market successes of a populist like Javier Milei? And what are the risks for the UK, where Reform UK have a real prospect of forming the next government? This week on The Capitalist, Hanania gives his take. He doesn’t rule out the prospect that a party like Reform could bring in radical reforms that are good for Britain. But it is a strategy with a big warning label: once these forces are loose, nobody controls where they end up. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
August 10 · 6 min
Despatch: The flaw at the heart of the EU
The recent Spanish border crisis – in which some 72,000 illegal migrants crossed into Ceuta from Morocco – should be a wake-up call for Europe, argues Mani Basharzad. Most of those who crossed the border soon returned home, but thousands remained and dozens died in the chaos. Even the most fervent Remainer ought to view these events with relief that Britain is no longer bound by the EU’s right to free movement. But Basharzad argues that the incident show a much wider failing in the EU: how the weakness of one member state can impose huge costs on the rest of the bloc. From fiscal policy to free movement, the union is rife with moral hazard. To rein in bad actors, it needs to restrict the benefits of membership to those who follow the rules. Each week we bring you an example of the best writing from CapX, read aloud. For hosted conversations, listen to The Capitalist, every Wednesday. Get full access to the CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
#81
August 6 · 22 min
Alex Tabarrok: Britain's equal pay madness
Britain’s ‘equal value’ pay rules go well beyond upholding equal pay for the same work, and mean that tribunals have the power to ignore the market and decide that bin men and teaching assistants should, in fact, be paid the same. These rules bankrupted Birmingham City Council, and the big supermarkets are already facing claims worth up to £8 billion for back pay. Now the Government wants to expand the law further, adding race and disability to the list of grounds on which you can bring a claim. Alex Tabarrok, Professor of Economics at George Mason University and co-founder of the blog Marginal Revolution wrote a viral post in 2024 on Britain’s ‘Orwellian’ approach to equal value pay. He walks CapX editor Marc Sidwell through the madness of trying to rule by committee on how to treat apples and oranges the same, and explains why trying to set a just price is like suing the weather. He says we’ve somehow ended up in the worst of all worlds: instead of the old Marxist fantasy of a scientific bureaucracy making economic decisions, we have a tribunal system everyone can see is broken, spending years and generating hundreds of pages of documents to produce nonsensical outcomes. Tabarrok argues our pay rules are part of a much bigger pattern: well-intentioned rules piling up like pebbles in a stream, until the stream – the economy, innovation and growth – is dammed. And sometimes only a sharp rap on the head from reality can restore policymakers to their senses. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
August 4 · 4 min
Despatch: Ben Houchen – we need real devolution
Give Andy Burnham his due. He has been arguing for devolution for the best part of a decade. But Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen says that’s what makes the Prime Minister’s recent announcements so dispiriting. Burnham says he wants Whitehall to give power away, but he seems determined to grip tighter than ever. Houchen argues that handing over a share of business rates and income tax counts for little if mayors are restricted from choosing how to spend the money – or whether to offer a tax rebate instead. The proposed arrangement is more like pocket money with strings attached – devolution in name only. Each week we bring you an example of the best writing from CapX, read aloud. For hosted conversations, listen to The Capitalist, every Wednesday. Get full access to the CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
#80
July 29 · 33 min
Who owns the Moon?
In June, SpaceX went public in the largest IPO in history. Three days earlier, a German historian published a book explaining why that moment had been 60 years in the making. CapX editor Marc Sidwell sits down with Rainer Zitelmann to discuss ‘New Space Capitalism’, Zitelmann's account of how private enterprise took over the final frontier. They also discuss how SpaceX cut launch costs by 95%, why the space shuttle was a fiasco, what cost-plus contracting does to a defence budget and who will own the land beneath the first city on Mars. Zitelmann argues that space is the one industry where the world has moved decisively towards markets rather than away from them – which makes it the clearest available demonstration of what capitalism can do. Of 324 rocket launches worldwide last year, 165 were SpaceX’s; if the company were a country it would rank first, well ahead of China. But he also warns that the next stage will stall unless someone settles the question the Outer Space Treaty left open in 1967: whether private companies and individuals can own property beyond Earth. Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe
July 28 · 7 min
Despatch: Helen Whately on welfare reform
Our new Chancellor has a problem: paying for Andy Burnham’s plans. Raising taxes will damage the economy, and won’t raise enough. Lower bus fares and VAT off energy bills are scarce consolation when people can’t get jobs. There is no other way. John Healey needs to find the courage to reform welfare. Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Helen Whately says the path to a stronger economy runs through work, not welfare – and the country cannot afford a government too timid to make that case. Each week we bring you an example of the best writing from CapX, read aloud. For hosted conversations, listen to The Capitalist, every Wednesday. Get full access to the CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co Get full access to The CapX Briefing at briefing.capx.co/subscribe

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