Tim Worstall

such as BP’s annual announcement that there is 40 years of supply or more, and no danger of supply falling short of demand, so ambushing oil-addicted economies. He keeps making this statement and keeps ignoring all of the attempts made to correct him on it. There is no such thing as demand exceeding supply: there [...]

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The arrogance of this: The political and financial pressure on BP escalated sharply yesterday as the US government demanded compensation for thousands of oil industry workers laid off as a result of a freeze on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The demand sent the company’s shares plummeting on Wall Street amid worries over long-term [...]

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“The mindset of European political leaders does not fit them to react flexibly to financial crises,” said Stephen Lewis of Monument Securities. “This is not a time for hidebound adherence to theory. Yet ideologies still infect political circles in Continental Europe. This is why euro zone politicians spend more time deliberating over bank levies and [...]

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This is something I hadn’t realised (shows how much of a city boy I really am): Under my crop rotation, I grow wheat five times in a decade, and produce nearly four tons an acre. My organic counterpart will grow wheat only three times, yielding around two tons per acre. In the time I have [...]

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The NYT gets all hot and bothered about the fact that a billionaire has died in this year when there is no estate tax in the US. A Texas pipeline tycoon who died two months ago may become the first American billionaire allowed to pass his fortune to his children and grandchildren tax-free. Well, actually, [...]

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John McDonnell has withdrawn A socialist can’t even get nominated, let alone elected, even in the Labour Party, any more. Truly, the world gets better by the day.

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My instinctive reaction to this story was that it’s bollocks: The first study to examine the possible effects of the ban on health in England suggests that there were 1,200 fewer heart attack admissions — a 2.4 per cent drop — in the year after it was imposed. The reduction in emergency admissions saved the [...]

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Isn’t it great that she has the choice, though? (I have found that this is what people tend to say at this point in the conversation.) Bollocks. What kind of a choice is that? If you choose, as I did, to stay at home, you do so knowing that you are losing your independence, that [...]

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So, a new paper from the TUC. Written, I suspect, by our favourite retired accountant. There’s the usual blather about an entirely unimportant hobby horse. The no VAT on packages under £18 from the Channel Islands…..this is 0.1% of the VAT tax take, even on their figures, and 0.02% of the total tax take. Rounding [...]

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The UK’s domestic properties need to be renovated to a high energy efficiency standard at a rate of 700,000 a year in order to have renovated them all by the year 2050. We need to do this because there are 28 million homes in the UK which are responsible for 27% of our greenhouse gas [...]

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I knew it had happened, buit not really thought about it, until I got this email: Dear TheyWorkForYou alert subscriber, We’re just writing to let you know that you are subscribed to an alert that won’t email you any time soon – for example, because the MP or Lord has left Parliament. Your affected alert [...]

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Here

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Well, yes, externalities should be paid for, this is true: A paper by the New Economics Foundation in 2006 used government estimates of the cost of carbon emissions to calculate the liabilities of Shell and BP. It found that while the two companies had just posted profits of £25bn, they had incurred costs in the [...]

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Now the Soil Association, Friends of the Earth, GM Watch and two other non-Governmental organisations have written to the FSA in support of Prof Wynne. In a letter to Lord Jeffrey Rooker, Chairman of the FSA, they complained that the dialogue is a “silly waste of money”. “As public interest groups who oppose the use [...]

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Well, from the knowledge front line at least, if not the geographic one. No, BP ain’t gonna go bust over this.

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“When your business manager marries a stripper, that’s a tell,”

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And then again it might not. Depends upon how much viral attention it gets. In concept it’s a little like that bloke who sold a million pixels on his site? But here it’s you bid to get your banner ad to the top of the queue ….once the queue reaches a few hundred or thousand [...]

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At the ASI. A housebuilder paying the bureaucrats more to process the paperwork than they spend on bricks doesn’t really sound like the best way of getting affordable housing built.

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Ex-Labour Ministers get £1.2bn in pay-offs Really? Nearly 100 former Labour Ministers are in line for ‘golden parachutes’ of up to £28,000 each – despite leaving the public finances in ruin. They are entitled to more than £1.2 million.. Ah…. But here’s the bit that really amuses: And Lord Mandelson, the former Business Secretary, gets the [...]

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