Tim Worstall

Israel Moiseevich Gelfand was born into a Jewish family in the small southern Ukrainian town of Okny (now Krasniye Okny) in what was then the Russian Empire, on September 2 1913. Although he showed early brilliance in mathematics, he was expelled from school in his mid-teens and was unable to attend university as an undergraduate [...]

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Oh dear, another myth destrouyed by actual statistics: Nick Ross, chair of the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science, commented: “There is no evidence of widespread use of hypnotics in sexual assault, let alone Rohypnol, despite many attempts to prove the contrary. “During thousands of blood and alcohol tests lots of judgement-impairing compounds were discovered, [...]

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Lord Stern, author of the 2006 Stern Review on the cost of tackling global warming, predicts that eating meat could in the future become as socially unacceptable as drink driving. If there ain’t no cows crapping then there ain’t no fertiliser for organic farms is there? And of course meat eating ain’t all of it: [...]

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It always happens, doesn’t it? But Sir Roger Singleton, the chairman of the Independent Safeguarding Authority, said the scope of the database could increase significantly because companies would fear losing business if they did not have their employees vetted. So it won’t just be the 11.3 million people who the Govt says have to get [...]

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Nassim Taleb rather gets nailed here. I’ve no idea how true the allegation is but it’s an interesting put down at least: He has a theory: that he’s saying something really 1)new, 2)true, and 3)important. He says many things, often contradictory, but he never manages more than 2 of those attributes in any assertion.

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An interesting question, no? The answer is here for those who don’t already know. Some bits of economics really are simple……

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So, My Noble Lord Stern said that we can beat climate change at a cost of 1-2% of the economy per year. This should be done by imposing green taxes: Pigou taxes as they are technically called. Green taxes already make up 7 per cent of the Government’s tax take. The government’s tax take is [...]

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The creatives themselves are experimenting to find new revenue models. What they want is government policy that encourages such innovation. Because if, say, a “freemium” revenue model is found to work for a UK start-up such as Playfish — which gives away online games but successfully charges for pixellated extras — then let’s find the [...]

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The call comes ahead of a report to be published tomorrow by the Green Fiscal Commission (GFC), which will call for a dramatic £150bn shake-up in the country’s fiscal system – including a £3,300 tax on new cars and a tripling of fuel duties over the next decade, to be balanced by a cut in [...]

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A profusion of books on his life has poured from the world’s publishing houses. The first, Moonwalk in Paradise, was written in 36 hours by Jiang Xiaoyu and Xing Han, two Chinese students, and had sold a million copies before Jackson was buried.

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At the ASI. So, this neo-liberalism stuff of the last 35 years. What’s it all about? How about the most successful economic system ever used for the reduction of human poverty? That’s a fairly desirable thing in an economic system really……

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First they came for the crusties but I did nothing, for I was not a crusty, Then they came for the hippies and I did nothing for I was not a hippy…. All three units divide their work into four categories of domestic extremism: animal rights campaigns; far-right groups such as the English Defence League; [...]

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There may even have been a whiff of revolution in the air, not least because the Tsar – or T’sar as he was known in Yorkshire –

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Well, not quite, but Ambrose EP predicting a huge advance in commodity food prices. The major point: The UN says global farm yields must rise 77pc, which means redoubling Norman Borlaug’s “green revolution”. That’s a cumulative rise I think, to 2050. So a doubling (ish) of global yields in 40 years. Seems high? I wouldn’t [...]

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Here.

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It is astonishing to think that, 12 months after the bank rescue, lending to businesses is still falling. What? We’re in a recession fool! That means that there are fewer decent investments to be made, that there are fewer people looking for loans to expand operations and thus that lending to business will fall. Jeebus, [...]

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Yes, certainly, those reports about the numbers trafficked into the sex trade were rubbish. Objections to neutralised prostitution should not be discarded merely because Pentameter Two convicted nobody of trafficking. But, you see, the major objection to neutralised prostitution was that there was such sex slavery. If those engaged are consenting adults then what reason [...]

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Declared in the US: The emergency rules effectively cut through official red tape and free up resources to respond much faster in the event of a serious outbreak. Here’s an idea. Why not not reimpose that red tape after it’s all over? After all, the US is trying to make its health care system cheaper [...]

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At the ASI. Those feed in tariffs for solar PV, like wot the Germans ‘ave? Very bad idea indeed. No, we don’t want them here and Jeremey Leggett can go work for a living.

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Spring back… Did you remember to reset* your clocks? *See comment one.

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