Can Government Funded 'Enterprise' Agencies do Better than Markets?

I came across a new Blog on the block a few days ago and I am recommending that you take a look at it over a week or so. It describes itself: “The Lockesmith Blog" which 'hopes to play an important role in the growing resurgence of the scholarship of classical liberalism through the exploration of the principles of individualism, private property and the free market, the rule of law, and social toleration.”

Yes, that’s John Locke and Adam Smith, complete with their likenesses on the heading line.

“LockeSmithBlog” (from a group at Belmont University, USA) post a typical piece, “Bad Policy for an Entrepreneurial Economy” by Jeff Cornwall (18 Sept)

“America is in the midst of an entrepreneurial economic transformation the likes of which we have not seen in over 100 years. Over half of the GDP comes from businesses under 200 employees, and for the past twenty years these small companies have created 70-80% of all new jobs every year.”

Visit LockeSmith Blog for the rest of its first posts, and scroll down its first few here.

Have a look at Jeff Cornwall’s post on ‘Socialised Entrepreneurship’. I wonder what he would make of Scottish Enterprise, which has done something similar for nearly years (declaration of interest: I occasionally worked for Scottish Enterprise, original Socttish Development Agency, as a consultant and tutor on negotiation since 1980). The post certainly made me think about this issue and the role of such agencies.

I think the LockeSmith Blog is written in an authentic Smithian tradition (so far). I think the good folks at the Adam Smith Institute in London would be interested in it too.