Tim Worstall

That thing we always get told about? That we’ve all promised to spend 0.7% of GDP on foreign aid? And aren’t the Americans bastards for not doing so? Interesting point made: A pop quiz: What’s the largest U.S.-based international relief and development organization? It’s not Save the Children, and it’s not CARE — both terrific [...]

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MILLIONAIRE philanthropist Matt Stockdale has launched an energy company to slash bills and cut out the middleman. Not-for-profit At Cost Energy will buy gas and electricity direct from wholesalers and offer savings averaging £320 per year. Give it a few years, then see what the price difference is. A non-profit might have lower prices than [...]

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I basically believe people are born good. How can you think anything else when you see the innocence of young children? Rampant stupidity. If we were all nicey nicey from the git go then socialism would work. We’re not all such nicey nicies from the git go which is why capitalism works. Because it channels [...]

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At the ASI. On the economic stupidity of Geoffrey Lean.

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A bottle of Bells whisky could rise from £14.79 to £23.73 while Gordon’s gin, another favourite of middle-class drinkers, would increase from £12.79 to £21.17. Hmm….three reasons being given for this. The first is to “curb binge drinking”. Yes, I too have seen the gin and tonic set rioting and vomiting in the streets. The [...]

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So says Hilary Mantel. The 57-year-old novelist said that society ran on a “male timetable” which dictated that women should have babies at an older age. “Having sex and having babies is what young women are about, and their instincts are suppressed in the interests of society’s timetable,” she said. I can’t say I’m wholly [...]

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I’m sure others will be pointing this out but: “The power of nature has again struck our country,” Bachelet said, declaring six of Chile’s 15 regions “catastrophe zones” in the aftermath of the 8.8-magnitude quake…..”This is a catastrophe of immense proportions, so it will be very difficult to give precise figures,” Interior Minister Edmundo Perez [...]

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Here. UK banks building societies and UK branches and subsidiaries of overseas lenders would have a remuneration cap imposed. A low compensation ratio would be set at around 15%.32 Note 32 says: 32 The compensation ratio is the percentage of an institutions net revenue allocated to staff pay Well, we all know we can play [...]

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So I write at The Register on how manufacturing hasn’t declined. In the comments there is this: “I worked here and….” “I have a mate who…” yeah right – your insights are so much more knowledgeable than the blokes who put the original figures together. Post 701196 – we may not make the bullets but [...]

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People want government to do more on most things – controlling immigration, preventing globalisation stealing away jobs to China, Wow! How does that happen? Do they pack them up in containers at the dead of night, those jobs, and ship them out through Dover? Or is Polly simply being ignorant again? But the state can’t [...]

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Lads in Birmingham pull less often than lads in other parts of the country. LADS from the West Midlands are least likely to pull on a night out, a survey says. They spend the third most time flirting – but fewer than one in six get a result. Lucky for them really: if they succeed [...]

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So, now we know how much it actually costs. Immigrants with unpaid NHS bills could be excluded from Britain under proposals aimed at reducing foreign healthcare tourism. The Department of Health is trying to recover £22 million from foreign nationals who have had NHS treatment in the past two years and not paid their bills. [...]

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If you start off misunderstanding the very basics of capitalism then of course your prescriptions for making it better are going to be complete nonsense, aren’t they? But so should reward be proportional to our extra effort. It is a fundamental part of human beings’ hard-wiring. The scales symbolically declare that justice is getting our [...]

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Fashion Election Special: Sarah vs Samantha Their husbands are preparing to slug it out at the ballot box, but which of the first ladies of British politics will top the glamour polls?

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“Which brings me to your long point on FTTs: tell me what the real cost of a 10bp margin is and who will really lose.” OK. Taking the numbers you’ve given me here. Before the tax we have a 2 bps margin. We add the 0.5 bps tax. We then have a 10 bps margin. [...]

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So Greece, take a leaf from the book of Clever Trevor. Do the honourable thing. Take your lumps and stop giving out about the smirk on the face of the executioner.

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Although relatively few in number, large international banks dominate the global FX market. The ‘economic footprint’ of the CTDL would, in the first instance, fall upon these large financial institutions that are members of the CLS Bank and the Real Time Gross Settlement systems (RTGS). There is little doubt that they could comfortably absorb the [...]

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At the heart of R. Murphy’s ideas about the financial transactions tax is the thought that the tax will widen margins in the foreign exchange (forex/FX) business, well, actually all markets. Wider margins will lead to lower liquidity and thus lower profits for banks and thus lower pay for bankers. This is one of the [...]

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Signatories to a letter in The Guardian. Andrew Simms, Policy Director, nef Ann Pettifor, author, The Coming First World Debt Crisis Billy Hayes, General Secretary, CWU Dave Prentis, General Secretary, UNISON Gavin Hayes, General Secretary, Compass Neal Lawson, Chair, Compass Prof Gregor Gall, Universityof Hertfordshire Prof Prem Sikka, EssexBusinessSchool Richard Murphy, Tax Justice Network UK [...]

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So, I’m trying to, politely, get him to see my point: “I’m well aware conventional economists do not agree – and they have provided not a shred of evidence, let alone logic, to support their case as yet. They simply say the cost will be passed on to others – but when the customer for [...]

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