CEMEditor

My colleague, Dr. Dave Hebert, wrote a nice overview of different types of inflation and how they can affect people. He pointed out that the rate of inflation can be high or low as well as anticipated or unanticipated. He also explained how inflation is fundamentally a monetary phenomenon: too much money chasing too few goods. In this piece, I’ll explain some of the mechanics behind how central banks can stoke inflation unintentionally. I’ll also raise several phenomena that ordinary citizens can keep an eye on to determine whether their…

Subscribe to the CEME Substack   Inflation is a topic that plenty of pundits and talking heads have brought up on the news. For the non-economists, it might seem as if they do so ad nauseum. Despite its frequent coverage, however, few people understand why the U.K., like much of the rest of the world, generally accepts the idea that targeting two percent inflation is ‘good’ while inflation of any other number is ‘bad.’ Here, I want to provide some surface-level thoughts on these questions. While this will certainly not…

Inflation Is About More Than Money by our Founding Chairman and Senior Research Fellow Brian Griffiths has been named as a Best Book of Summer 2025 by the Financial Times in the economics category compiled by Martin Wolf.  The full list is available here. Full details about the book are available here. 

Conversations with the Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics Perspectives on contemporary issues There are growing concerns that capitalism and democracy are in crisis. Despite the success of free markets in creating global prosperity over two centuries, the recent slowdown in growth in Western economies, the persistence of inflation, increasing economic inequality, financial instability and the explosion in debt have called into question the value of market capitalism. Moreover, trust has been eroded in liberal democracies because of dysfunctional governments, a perceived lack of commitment to truth and political leaders…

Reproduced with permission of Church Times   ‘INFLATION is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon’, says the title of chapter 7; at the same time, it is, as the book’s title affirms, ‘about more than money’. Those are the two pegs on which the argument of this courteously erudite tract hangs. Published by the Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics, the initiative inspired by Lord Griffiths to research and advocate for a market with a strong ethical base, the book represents the distillation of his long-held convictions. They have been firmed…

  Inflation Is About More Than Money: Economics, Politics and the Social Fabric   On Wednesday 26 March, in conjunction with CCLA Investment Management, CEME hosted an event to launch the publication of a new book by CEME Senior Fellow Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach (Brian). The event featured a talk on the book by Brian with responses from Lord Glasman (Maurice), founder of the ‘Blue Labour’ movement, a conservative socialism that respects tradition, community and faith, and Andy Haldane, former Chief Economist at the Bank of England. In Inflation Is About…

The Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics (CEME) was pleased to host a roundtable event on the topic of non-executive directors. The full report is available to download here. The role of the non-executive director is essential to the proper functioning of corporate governance. The expectations on directors have been tested by corporate scandal. What are the reasonable expectations that society places on those that undertake this task and what are the appropriate legal responsibilities?  The event was chaired by Richard Turnbull and our main speaker was John Wood, Lecturer in…

The full article is available here Adam Smith's virtue ethics is of enduring relevance within contemporary business and societal discourse, also in the realm of e-commerce. Despite the widespread recognition of Smith's contributions to economic theory and business ethics, there has been a gap in the exploration of Smith's virtue ethics in the context of modern societal and technological advancements, such as digitalization. Smith's virtue theory, particularly his emphasis on prudence, offers valuable insights for understanding and evaluating ethical behaviors also in e-commerce. Prudence, as articulated by Smith, serves as…

This blog has also been published by the Catholic Social Thought website at St Mary’s University, where there are also many other useful resources on Christian social thought.   Despite the strong interest in property rights in Catholic social thought and teaching, their importance is rarely linked to the topic of the preservation of the natural environment. There is a clear prima facie case for doing so. It starts with what is often described as the ‘tragedy of the commons’. Imagine, we have a forest, and nobody owns the forest:…

On Thursday, 23rd May 2024 the Centre for Enterprise, Markets & Ethics (CEME) hosted an online event on the topic of Artificial Intelligence: Challenges and Opportunities.  The event was chaired by Revd Dr Richard Turnbull and our speakers were:  Dr Richard Zhang – AI Research Scientist at Google DeepMind. Richard is on the Google Vizier team and is co-creator of OSS Vizier. Currently his work focuses on hyperparameter optimization, Bayesian calibration, and theoretical machine learning. Dr Zhang also stewards the Global Christians in AI (CHAI) community, where AI practitioners, academics,…

What are the lessons we can learn from Wilberforce today? What about the continued challenges of modern slavery? The Centre for Enterprise, Markets and Ethics, together with CCLA, hosted an event on the topic on the 24th April 2024.