Tim Worstall

Here.

[Read more →]

In one particularly bad-tempered incident, Lord Mandelson ordered Harriet Harman, the party’s deputy leader, to “shut up” and told her he did not want to hear from her again, in a dispute over election strategy. That’s almost enough to make me vote for him…..only the fact that he’s not standing prevents me…..

[Read more →]

Dear National Bank customer, As a loyal customer of our institute you were chosen to receive a reward of 99,- Euro. You can receive your reward by filling out the form (nbg.gr.reward.form) atached to this email. After completing the form, the reward process will take 3 to 4 working days, after this period the 99,- [...]

[Read more →]

I don’t swear enough.

[Read more →]

One of the mysteries of the financial crisis is how mortgage investments that turned out to be so bad earned credit ratings that made them look so good. One answer is that Wall Street was given access to the formulas behind those magic ratings — and hired away some of the very people who had [...]

[Read more →]

No-one would ever dare say “I don’t know how to use a telephone / DVD player / washing machine” but “I’m useless with computers” is still far too prevalent and indeed acceptable. It must be the Geek in him. I get horribly confused by DVD players *, washing machines** and anything other than simply dialling a [...]

[Read more →]

At the ASI. If Goldman Sachs are very naughty boys for having sold a CDO squared that they knew was likely to fail, aren’t those flogging the debt of California and Greece also very naughty boys?

[Read more →]

Families are facing a nightmare future of recycling confusion. In a regime set to spread across the country, residents are being forced to juggle an astonishing nine separate bins. At some point it becomes more efficient simply to throw everything in one bag and sort it out down at the depot. You know, this division [...]

[Read more →]

Actually, I’ve heard it suggested that you can get away with writing a newspaper column about the business of writing a newspaper column roughly once in a career. One of the important things in a newspaper column is attribution. That’s from Stephen Fry. And it’s two such columns: one is interesting and the second is [...]

[Read more →]

All the major parties are signed up to transforming Britain into a green, low-carbon economy to boost growth, as well as to combat climate change. It’s this “boosting growth” bit. OK, in the depths of a recession I’ll concede that putting manpower to work on something useful will increase growth. But as a general rule [...]

[Read more →]

So, the Greeks have begged for help and they’re getting it. I’m sure I’m missing something this early in the morning. But what would be the problem if they simply negotiated a haircut on the bonds. Negotiated a partial default? It wouldn’t be the first time such a thing had happened, after all. Wouldn’t be [...]

[Read more →]

Ooooh, yes. From you know who. The truth about Cameron and Brown. Brown. Cameron.

[Read more →]

Amusing this. Full paper here. The basic argument is that using tax havens is very bad indeed, oh yes! The Govt owned development corporations use tax havens and this is very bad indeed, oh yes! So they shouldn’t use them, oh no! Absolutely nowhere is there even the merest consideration of the alternative. That those [...]

[Read more →]

Via, the IMF’s report on financial sector taxation. is not focused on core sources of financial instability. An FTT would not target any of the key attributes—institution size, interconnectedness, and substitutability— that give rise to systemic risk. Its real burden may fall largely on final consumers rather than, as often seems to be supposed, earnings [...]

[Read more →]

Mr Clegg was an official at the European Commission and then Euro MP for the East Midlands between 1994 and 2004, during which time he is estimated to have received up to £1.6million in pay and personal allowances. MacShane loves talking about Nigel Farage’s pay and expenses of course. £2 million over a decade he [...]

[Read more →]

The trigger for Thursday’s wild moves was a report by Eurostat, the EU’s data agency, that Greece’s budget deficit last year was at least 13.6pc of GDP, and may be revised to over 14pc after a probe into “off-market swaps” and social security funds. Overall debt may be 5pc to 7pc of GDP higher than [...]

[Read more →]

7 OUT OF TEN BACK ENGLISH PARLIAMENT AS POWER2010 PROJECTS ‘HOME RULE’ ONTO WESTMINSTER Guerilla-style projection brands Westminster the English Parliament for St George’s Day Two thirds of voters (68%) in England believe England should have its own Parliament with similar powers to those of the Scottish Parliament, according to a new ICM poll for [...]

[Read more →]

Many thanks to those who contributed, in the comments, to identifying those regimes that had used children to inform upon parents. The results are here at Takimag. Crippled Jesus Christ on a crutch people, 1984 was a warning, not an instruction manual! I believe that payoff line is also stolen from somewhere or another….for which [...]

[Read more →]

At The Register. In which I take pot shots at the Robin Hood Tax and praise the adults who have opined upon it.

[Read more →]

Damn them all, these ballot lice with their jiggery-pokery of compassion and their pimping for virtue on the stump. The greater common good should get one where it will do some good. And here’s another for those who say they care-something for them to care about that’s big, shoe shaped and black and blue. To [...]

[Read more →]