The Institute for Fiscal Studies fisked
August 19th, 2008
There’s an article with the above title on the Guardian’s Comment is Free site today, with the subheading:
A thinktank that claims to be unbiased is promoting dangerous tax policies that will widen the gap between rich and poor.
I recommend it. But there again, I wrote it. That though is not the reason for recommending it. The last paragraph is. This is what worries and motivated me:
Whatever the motive, the IFS’s claim to be unbiased appears to me shaky. Some of its proposals are very dangerous indeed and about as far removed from the characteristics of a good tax system for any open developed economy in the 21st century as it is possible to be.
I genuinely believe that to be true.
This debate will run.

Your article is the same as stuff you’ve posted here before. I agreed with you then and I agree with you now. I used to quite like the IFS but they have clearly lost the plot. OK, I dislike their mad plans for different reasons to you, but hey …