Tim Worstall

Comes in many guises. It is hard to imagine how important a freedom is if one is brought up to expect it. In Hope Against Hope, one of the best books written about life under totalitarianism, Nadezhda Mandelstam, the widow of the Russian poet Osip, who died in Stalin’s purges, describes a conversation with fellow [...]

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No, no, I think everyone’s got this wrong. We should indeed have a Museum of European History. Start with the Romans, the first attempt at a United Europe. The Germans were deliberately left out after they fairly bloodily insisted that they be so. Everyone else was killed until they agreed. Charlemagne similarly hacked up everyone [...]

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Traditionally, more people file for divorce in January than at any other time of the year because they decide to take action after a dysfunctional family Christmas. This January is expected to be no exception to the rule with the third Tuesday of the month likely to see the highest number of petitions filed, according [...]

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Now we know that David Ricardo was in fact wrong on this point: Ricardo’s prediction that most of national output would end up going to the landlords. And it got me to musing. Why was he wrong? The Law of Rent does pretty much imply that as a country fills up, as marginal land is [...]

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Economic liberalism needs social conservatism What’s Tim Montgomerie been smoking? Please, can anyone parse that for me? Other than as a trite platitude from an economic liberal and social conservative?

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Leftie egotistical twit who really does get right up my nose. Eddie Izzard that is. And also a mensch, and I know of no higher accolade.

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From Martin Kelly: I’ll give you another example. Britain’s imposition of free trade on India put its textile industry, 19th Century India’s best shot at developing an extensive manufacturing base, back 100 years. That was the real, and just about the only, imperial sin committed by the British in India. I’ll agree that the strangulation [...]

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So, if you were a Cuban, hearing this being said in a speech, what would your thoughts be? Cuba‘s president, Raúl Castro, has marked the 50th anniversary of the island’s communist government by predicting another 50 years of revolutionary struggle. "It is time to reflect on the future, on the next 50 years when we [...]

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John Christensen manages the Godwin’s to end all Godwins. There is a strand of thinking running amongst some of your correspondents that confuses liberty with licence. Freedom of expression does not always require that we must endure the type of hyper-aggressive abuse that you have been subjected to in recent days. It happens that my [...]

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Wish I’d actually gone ahead with some of these suggestions now. Oil back in April/May was around the $115-$120 mark. It’s now under $40. And I was looking for a put option at about $70. To put say £1,500 into. If I’d actually done it I’d be able to buy a pub by now I [...]

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He said the internet had been used to raise funds for terrorists in Afghanistan including the use of on-line gambling sites to launder cash. I know very well how to use a casino to launder cash (err, no, not from personal experience. It’s a staple of many a novel). But I’m really not sure how [...]

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So is this checking of everyone who becomes a "carer" for children worth it?

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In 2007 Britain was the most wealthy of the six leading economies in the world, even ranking higher than the United States, as measured by gross domestic product per person. This is the most accepted – if crude – way of measuring a country’s wealth, because GDP represents all the money the country’s individuals and [...]

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Absolute Unique Visitors in 2008. Iain Dale. 598,163 Guido Fawkes. 958,639 Tim Worstall’s Tabloid Edition. 1,174,169. The lesson being that tits and arse attract more attention than British politics. Maybe that Rupert Murdoch is on to something then?

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Every adult could be forced to take out private insurance to cover the cost of their care in old age under plans being considered by the Government. Don’t we already have a compulsory insurance scheme that everyone working has to pay into? Called National Insurance? The only problem being that they’ve pissed the money away [...]

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And I’m sticking to it. Too much thinking could make you fat, according to a new study.  

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After succeeding Fidel last year Raúl announced minor reforms: more privately-run farms and taxis, greater wage flexibility and permission to stay in hotels and buy computers, DVD players and mobile phones. You need government permission to stay in a hotel, buy a mobile phone, a DVD player or a computer. Yes, the place is a [...]

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Yes, I know, he’s now on the leader writing team at The Times. Still missing some understanding of economic history though (if one can say such things about such an august figure?) The issue of euro membership is whether the benefits outweigh the costs. A useful test is whether the opponents of the euro consider [...]

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I’m sure we all have a few. This one will be tough though. To double the number of visitors this blog each day Hmm. 50 today, 100 tomorrow, 200 on the 3 rd, 400 the 4th, 800…..I’m not very good at maths, but isn’t this 50 x 2 to the power of 365? (err, yes, [...]

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Over at Ritchie’s. Of course, it’s not censorship. His blog is his blog and thus his property and comments are published or not at his discretion. But I would just like to make one point, which, given my banning from his comments section, I can’t make there. The Adam Smith Institute copies a US right [...]

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