Tim Worstall

I was wondering where Ritchie was getting his information on the way that the banks make billions out of seigniorage from. So I asked, and was told to go and read Galbraith and Keynes. Hmmm. I know they wrote a lot about money, about money creation, about the monetary system, but given that Sunday afternoons [...]

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Advice on how to ride the downturn published on the Department for Business website tells firms that cutting hours is one way to reduce overheads and ride the economic storm. Wages are a variable cost, overheads are by definition not variable costs. And, err, the department of he government supposed to deal with business matters [...]

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I am honoured! Tim Worstall is a man of the highest opinion, of himself. How kind of you to say so Richard. As far as I can tell he thinks almost everyone I know who has ever written anything is wrong. It’s a position he might sustain if he was forever correct. Unfortunately Tim fails [...]

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At the ASI. On our friends who know no economics.

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This is interesting: Harriet Harman, the women’s minister, said: “There is a major fear about women being targeted by their employers during the downturn. This is unlawful.” Another senior minister said women could be set back for “a generation”. The latest official employment statistics show that the number of women in full-time work fell by [...]

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Our reporters posed as lobbyists acting for a foreign client who was setting up a chain of shops in the UK and wanted to secure an exemption from the Business Rates Supplements Bill. We selected 10 Lords who already had a number of paid consultancies. The three Conservative peers did not return our calls and [...]

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The Observer says that those respponsible for the banking crisis must be called to account. OK, let’s do that then. Consensus is already emerging around the need for stricter capital requirements, so banks would be obliged to hold money back in good times to avoid cash droughts in bad times. I’ve a thought rolling around [...]

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Ooour Wullie is at it again. Here’s the bare bones of his solution. There are further positive measures. The government will guarantee any new issues of asset-backed securities, the packaged-up mortgages and suchlike that can be bought and sold, to get finance flowing again. It will even have the Bank of England buy them. This [...]

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If I could just make a small point, one that might in fact be rather important? Nor will the vastly complex, and vastly expensive, hunt be confined to Britain. To pick just one example, RBS acquired 26 other companies during Sir Fred’s eight-year reign, leaving it with £250 billion of foreign loans in the more [...]

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New powers will be unveiled for the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Agency, allowing it to take passports and driving licences directly from parents who refuse to pay money to their children, without having to go through the courts first. Two basic arguments against this proposal. The first is that it is insane. Given the accuracy [...]

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And eat boringly. National Farmers’ Union horticulture adviser for field vegetables and potatoes, Laura Drew, said: "The UK courgette growing season runs approximately from June through to the beginning of September. For the rest of the year, the UK relies on 100 per cent imported supplies of courgettes, which come predominantly from Spain and southern [...]

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more animals

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As for the families of those innocent civilians, they will no doubt be thrilled to get "closure" for their years of grief in the form of a cheque in the post from the government – if I may suggest an added touch of malice, why not get it countersigned by the Deputy First Minister of [...]

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AT BOTTOM, the argument between the guys who quote Hayek and the guys who quote Marx is simple enough. It centres on capitalism’s ability to offer the things that people who very sensibly do not give a toss about ideology – and that’s the vast majority of the public, of course – seem most to [...]

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Man suing over paternity fraud is not fit to call himself a father Erm, that’s the point isn’t it? That he’s trying to point out that he’s both not and should not be called a father?

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At the ASI. Poverty causes pollution

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The banking crisis is nowhere near over: tottering balance sheets hold 440% of UK GDP, with £30 of debt for every £1 of assets. Jesus. Crippled Jesus Christ on a bike. There’s a line in Polly’s latest book which says something like …..those who are so far out of touch with reality, should we really [...]

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Oh dear. Mr. Murphy advocates nationalising the banks because: 1) Bring  seigniorage back into state control for the benefit of all – which I believe will be a source of considerable future wealth for the common good; Umm, he seems to believe that fractional reserve banking leads to seigniorage profits for the banks. Umm, no, [...]

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The warning was delivered by economists and politicians after the Office for National Statistics revealed that the economy shrank by 1.5 per cent in the final three months of 2008 alone. The contraction follows a 0.6 per cent fall in gross domestic product (GDP) — the most comprehensive measure of Britain’s wealth generation — during [...]

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Yesterday afternoon, the relentless pace of thinking and doing that ususally characterises life at nef headquarters was momentarily put on hold as we gathered to watch the inauguration speech. Murmours rippled around the office whenever Obama mentioned a topic which strayed into new economics territory. That relentless pace of thinking presumably not including spelling lessons.

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