Tim Worstall

At Charles Crawford’s.  

[Read more →]

as other credible leftist advocates like Martin Jacques, Neal Lawson and John Harris already have Describing Neal Lawson as "credible" rather undermines the rest of what you say really.

[Read more →]

And just how, Willy, will someone demonstrate this? Banks need to report more extensively and exhaustively on their operations…….. and how their lending has created genuine economic value. And more importantly, why will they have to do this? We don’t insist that a baker demonstrate that he’s creating "genuine economic value"….nor a car maker, nor [...]

[Read more →]

At the ASI. Amazingly, we’re going to give more regulatory power to the people who got things wrong rather than those who got things right.

[Read more →]

What joy, eh, to be living in such a system? Soca – which last year replaced the Assets Recovery Agency, after it had spent £65 million to recover £23 million – assumes that if someone has benefited from the proceeds of crime for more than six months, he is living "a criminal lifestyle". Everything he [...]

[Read more →]

So he’s complaining that the rise in his pension contribution wipes out the rise he’s just had in his pay. Quite right too. After all, at 71 he should be drawing a pension, not contributing to one, no? How many political types would prefer this solution I wonder?  

[Read more →]

Or is pot a gateway drug to further deregulation?

[Read more →]

At the ASI. Some people still don’t get this comparative advantage thing. The "globalisation of innovation" isn’t a threat. It’s a blessing, a joy to be welcomed rapturously. Good grief, do you want a few hundred million already rich people thinking about how to make your life better or all of humanity, all 6 or [...]

[Read more →]

What absolute bastards these people are: Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley have been accused of profiting from the misery of repossessed families by disposing of their homes in showbusiness-style sales. Critics claim that the high commission charged to buyers by Real Estate Disposition Corporation (REDC), which claims to be America’s biggest seller of foreclosed [...]

[Read more →]

More than 23,000 children are suffering from diabetes, with obesity responsible for a small but growing number of cases, the first official audit of the condition shows. The survey has prompted calls for greater support for children with diabetes, particularly within schools. It confirms that the vast majority (97 per cent) of childhood cases are [...]

[Read more →]

This kind of research is at the interface of medicine and social policy: it’s an accident of history that a few people from a science and public health background got involved in the project and did a trial, to get evidence to see if the policy hunch was correct. Robust trials on social policy could [...]

[Read more →]

The idea may be economically illiterate and Cameron and Osborne may know it, but the Keynesian spending doctrine is counterintuitive: to spend more when in debt runs against the popular instinct. Err, I don’t think that’s actually what Keynes said. In fact, I’m pretty certain that he said no such thing. He did say that [...]

[Read more →]

Paedophiles, rapists and other sex offenders will have to take lie detector tests from next week under new moves designed to check if they still pose a risk. Sigh. Lie detectors do not work. Yes, they’re shiny and expensive pieces of technology, but they still really do not work. So why waste money on them?

[Read more →]

Britain should not be afraid or ashamed of taking money from the International Monetary Fund, a senior Cabinet minister has told the Daily Telegraph. There’s no shame for Britain in asking for such help. No shame for Britons either. Just as someone attacked by thugs should not feel shame in asking for help from nurses [...]

[Read more →]

Something that I´d like to find out. How much is Jonathan Porritt paid to chair the Sustainable Development Commission? It´s not in their annual review and as a company limited by guarantee I´m not sure that they have to reveal anything in their accounts. So, anyone know how I can find out? Actually, they don´t [...]

[Read more →]

Appeals delayed the execution of his sentence, but the verdict was affirmed, and Neu mounted the scaffold on February 1, 1935. Before the trap was sprung, he treated witnesses to a spirited rendition of an original song composed especially for the occasion. Its title: "I’m Fit as a Fiddle and Ready to Hang."

[Read more →]

How Ghastly! Governments have introduced financial measures into the public sector…. Disgusting, eh? The people who piss away nigh on half the nation´s entire production are using "financial measures" to do so! Jeebus. They´ll be using balance sheets, auditors and spreadsheets before you know it.

[Read more →]

For 30 years, the wages of American workers rose as they became more productive. That era is over. Blue collar wages have stagnated since 2001, partly because jobs have been moved offshore. The rich have got richer but the middle class is working harder to stand still: in Europe, average real disposable incomes hardly rose [...]

[Read more →]

Moreover poorer emergent economies will qualify for $250 trillion of SDR’s, IMF paper money, resources from IMF gold sales and access to $250 billion trade credit fund. You what? The IMF is going to issue SDRs amounting to 5 times global GDP? Or are Willy and the sub editors simply innumerate?

[Read more →]

Amazing really. Those who would take your money to piss away on their pet vanity projects have agreed that you shouldn´t be able to hide your money away so that they can´t find and take it to piss away on their pet vanity projects. Really, who could have predicted this?

[Read more →]