Tim Worstall

It is all obvious or trivial except…

 

 

Entries from November 2009

Ms. Margolis on being outed as a sex blogger

November 16th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Gosh, do you know, I was outed as a sex blogger three years ago. It was horrible, tragic even, so much so that I moved to New York to rebuild my life without all those people whispering about all the sex I’d been boasting about having. In fact, it was so horrible that not only [...]

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Tags: blogs · Sex

Maddy Bunting’s new book

November 16th, 2009 · No Comments

Or rather, the reissue of her old one. Madeleine Bunting is author of Willing Slaves: How the Overwork Culture Is Ruling Our Lives That’s the one where she complains bitterly about how we’re all working much harder than we used to. Entirely failing to note that as we all have more leisure time than we [...]

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Tags: Books

Zac Goldsmith’s new book

November 16th, 2009 · No Comments

Not one I shall bother to read. There is an alternative: a constant economy. That is essentially his uncle, Teddy’s, concept of a stock economy (as opposed to a flow one) laid out in Blueprint for Survival. A useful concept and while Teddy was something of a nutter he did in fact come up with [...]

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Tags: Environmentalism

Snigger

November 16th, 2009 · 5 Comments

Yeah, right. Hugo Chávez calls for dieting in streets of Caracas Fat is a socialist issue, says president as Venezuelans pile on the pounds Nothing at all to do with having entirely cocked the agricultural and food distribution systems with price controls. Oh no siree, nothing at all.

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Tags: Food

Headline of the week (so far)

November 16th, 2009 · 3 Comments

Newspaper are, umm, about news, no? Bad weather to return after brief respite In November in England this is news in what manner?

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Tags: Newspaper Watch

Quite

November 16th, 2009 · 5 Comments

In a free society, people should be at liberty to hold intolerant views if they wish. Our public order laws are meant to mark the boundary between free speech and a deliberate attempt to whip up violence; Something that many seem to have missed the point of. Inside our heads we’re allowed to think absolutely [...]

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Tags: Civil Liberty

Seems obvious really

November 16th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Britain’s bankers have warned that tough new laws on pay and bonuses to be announced in Parliament this week could trigger an exodus of talented professionals and stifle economic growth. There is a market in such people: whether there should be, whether it’s justified, is another matter: but there is indeed a market there. If [...]

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Tags: Finance

Lesbians make better parents.

November 16th, 2009 · 9 Comments

This, once explained, seems obvious: Stephen Scott, director of research at the National Academy for Parenting Practitioners, has said his research shows children from lesbian couples do better in life than the offspring of heterosexual couples. “Lesbians make better parents than a man and a women,” Mr Scott told a meeting for the launch of [...]

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Tags: Sex

Bravo! Bravo!

November 16th, 2009 · 1 Comment

One has to admire the sheer cheek of this idea. Hsu Shian-ming, who was arrested on Saturday, allegedly posted photos of a youthful male model online, claiming to be that person, and attracted numerous calls from women interested in romantic liaisons, the China Post reported. Hsu would then use the telephone conversations to tell his [...]

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Tags: Sex

Excellent news

November 16th, 2009 · No Comments

World leaders have finally accepted that it will be impossible to come to a deal on climate change this year and have moved their attention to setting new dealines for a global agreement. We always knew that whatever did come out of it would be a right dog’s breakfast. However, the bad news is probably [...]

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Tags: climate change

Belle du Jour

November 15th, 2009 · 5 Comments

….is Dr. Brooke Magnanti. So, now we know. Whoop whoop.

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Tags: blogs

Willy Hutton’s ideas

November 15th, 2009 · 3 Comments

He really does seem to have a very odd idea of an economy: but the pace of economic recovery will be affected significantly by the banks’ attitude to lending – and whether their historic aversion to lending to support manufacturing innovation can be changed. It is of course possible to have a banking system which [...]

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Tags: Newspaper Watch

There are days when we like Nick Cohen

November 15th, 2009 · No Comments

Like today: when charities take the govt shilling they also end up passing over control to govt.

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Tags: Newspaper Watch

The Observer calls for a debate

November 15th, 2009 · 2 Comments

The underlying problem is a collective political failure to agree – or even to discuss – what constitutes work of genuine public good, Now that will be an interesting debate to have. What’s our opening bid? That only 50% of what government currently does is work of genuine public good? 20%?

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Tags: Your Tax Money At Work

Bleedin’ awful game, weren’t it?

November 15th, 2009 · 2 Comments

Yech. We’re gonna get creamed by Dan Carter’s boys.

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Tags: Sport

This is obviously fraud

November 15th, 2009 · No Comments

Mr Hirst tempted his clients with the promise of high returns, paid in monthly instalments with an end of year bonus. In a letter to an investor, he explained: “I trade movements on the Dow Jones Index, rather than buying individual shares, using technical analysis to give me a feel for which way the market [...]

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Tags: Finance

Timmy Elsewhere

November 15th, 2009 · No Comments

At the ASI. A lot of problems have already been solved: we just need time for them to work out.

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Tags: Timmy Elsewhere

Today’s Ritchie

November 14th, 2009 · 13 Comments

This is simply gorgeous from Mr. Murphy. Your comments on markets shows just how naive the whole basis of your thinking is Get over first year undergraduate economics There are no supply and demand curves Firstly – they don;t slope consistently, if they exist Second – advertising, monopoly power and externalities destroys them for most [...]

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Tags: Ragging on Ritchie

Superb number crunching of the day

November 14th, 2009 · 3 Comments

It’s likely, then, that there are more smackheads than Tory voters in Glasgow North East.

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Tags: blogs

From the department of strange but true

November 14th, 2009 · 1 Comment

We all know that the decline of pirates causes global warming. But only recently have we discovered that the crappiness of modern music is leading to peak oil. Now there will of course be those who reject this, simply some sort of correlation, not causation. But we should note that the proof here is substantially [...]

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Tags: Music