Tim Worstall

At the ASI. Don’t blame the speculators in Greece. The CDS market is actually reducing the interest rate on Greek Govt bonds.

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Power to require that British newspapers are owned by EU, if not British, nationals who pay UK tax and conform to British competition policy. Will Hutton, the man who writes for a newspaper owned by the Scott Trust: an entity which does not pay UK tax as it is a charity. I do wonder whether [...]

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Euro-zone leaders are attempting to get round objections from countries such as Britain by invoking Article 122 of the Lisbon Treaty, intended to enable a collective response to natural disasters. This does not need unanimous agreement. By doing so, Mr Sarkozy has ensured a speedy confrontation with a new British prime minister and other leaders [...]

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At the ASI. Whether you want redistribution or not you still need economic liberalism underneath it.

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It is a sign of the gun lobby’s growing confidence that it feels free to keep up the pressure, public and private, after the near-disaster in Times Square. Nutter plants bomb. This shows that guns must be controlled. Err, wouldn’t it make more sense to claim that propane tanks and fertilizer should be controlled, for [...]

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With coppers! And snow! Woo Hoo!

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Monbiot on changing the electoral system: Most encouragingly, some of the big environment groups – Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the New Economics Foundation – have joined the coalition, knowing that much of what they hope to achieve is impossible under the corrupt old system. Electoral reform so that nef gets to run the country [...]

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in NI.

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So they’re to have more golf courses there. Then we get to the comments section: Games like golf and tennis are the product of a decadent, reactionary bourgeois culture that are alien to the values of a socialist society. They support a vulgar, individualistic morality and cater to poor taste. They show no comradeship or [...]

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Barking Moonbat he* may be but he’s spot on here: “In most countries in the world, it is still true that if you want to change your leaders you require a military coup, an insurrection or some other form of revolution or uprising. In this country, a little old lady, armed to the teeth with [...]

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For some 15 years now, long before the invention of this blogging thing (harking back to the Good Old Days of Usenet), I’ve been saying to all and sundry that the problem with the euro is that it simply isn’t an optimal currency area. Therefore it shouldn’t try to have a single currency. Finally we’re [...]

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Comes to you this year from PJ O’Rourke, just as your election advice last time around came from PJ O’Rourke. Indeed, it’s the same advice. Simply remember these two simple facts. 1) All politicians are stupid. 2) All politicians are thieves. You should therefore always vote against the incumbent. They new guy will be just [...]

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For Greece has not – as is often claimed or implied – lagged behind Germany in raising productivity: on the contrary hourly labour productivity increased more than twice as fast in Greece than Germany during the ten years of the euro since 1999. Nor do frequent claims in the media of Greek ‘laziness’ stand up [...]

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High-tech fishing boats in the UK have to work seventeen times harder for their catches than their sail-powered counterparts from 118 years ago, a new study has revealed. The startling inefficiency is due to a drop of 94 per cent in stocks of seabed-dwelling species over the period, according to information that is routinely collected [...]

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It concludes that organic farms produce less than half as much food per hectare… Or, if you prefer, if we all go organic then we’ve got to plough up just about all of the remaining wild areas in order not for everyone to starve. So not a good idea then. The defence is a nice [...]

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Ritchie is now bringing out “Economic Briefings”. The first one is on the Washington Consensus. Let’s say it’s, well, let’s just say it’s amusing. Almost as amusing as Ritchie issuing “economics briefings”.

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German Chinese food: a half hour later, you’re hungry for power… Anyone have any variations on this? Italian Chinese, half an hour later you’re ready to surrender? Umm, no, perhaps not….

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My friend and writing colleague George Irvin makes a simple but highly effective point. Greece still has a choice. It could abandon the euro and default on the bulk of its debt. After all, it worked for Argentina when it defaulted in 2001-02. What is more it would nip contagion in the bud. While I agree that Greece can indeed [...]

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Tough penalties will be put in place for fraud in procurement of a fraud-proof social security card.

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