Tim Worstall

These maps are interesting: Detroit was shown to have the most starkly segregated metropolitan area with a clear dividing line between black and white residents along 8 Mile Road, which runs across the northern edge of the city. Mr Fischer, 37, started with Washington DC where the results showed a clear divide between predominantly white [...]

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The question comes down to whether we want a society in which the rich take an ever-increasing share of the pie, or prefer to return to conditions that allow all classes to anticipate an increasing standard of living. They’re not mutually exclusive Professor Thaler. The rich could be getting an expanding share of an expanding [...]

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Richard Murphy has a new report out, Making Pensions Work. And My God it’s a stinker. This is fun from The Observer. Murphy, who is one of the country’s pre-eminent tax experts We’re screwed, aren’t we, if Ritchie is the best the country has to offer. Anyway, on to the report. Using data for the [...]

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At the ASI. Just what is too much public debt?

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Fears are growing of a “gentrification” of arts and humanities degrees as new figures reveal that the courses have become the preserve of wealthy students. Statistics released to the Observer by the Sutton Trust, an influential education charity, show that 31% of those who graduated in 2008 with degrees in history or philosophy were the [...]

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Just because GM is gaining popularity doesn’t make it right Well, yes. Just as it being unpopular before didn’t make it wrong.

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Not very economic actually.

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Speculation in food’s bad, M’Kay? So, err, why was Lord Keynes such a fan of speculating in food then? In this paper we address the subject of Keynes as a speculator. We look first at the primary sources of information, which are in the form of unpublished letters and broker’s statements. Secondly, we look at [...]

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Didn’t think I’d see this: I believe a large number value and want what the state supplies. I believe a large number will be willing to pay for it. I believe Labour has to give them that choice. If you’re to have a choice about whether you pay for state services then this inevitably means [...]

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Cuba: A leaked document from the Communist Party says that small businesses will pay between 10 to 40 percent of their gross income in taxes. On top of that, they will have to contribute 25 percent of their incomes to social security. As PJ O’Rouke quotes in Eat the Rich, the Cuban economy depends upon [...]

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At the ASI. We’re already over the Laffer Curve switcheroo for tax on tippy top incomes.

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Too funny. Son and grandson of Chinese Politburo members is a “member” of the ASI. Shows that even if it takes three generations it is possible for some to see the light……

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If customer mutuals are such a great idea, you know Building Societies, the Co Op, organisations owned and ultimately managed by their customers, why are schools run by parents (acting, of course, in loco parentis for the ankle biters who are the real customers) such a bad idea? Anyone?

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This is a right dog’s dinner of a document. First, the good news: Traditional speculation in agricultural commodities markets is based on market fundamentals – above all on the demand and supply for any particular commodity. Thales purchased his option on the oil presses because he expected the supply of olives to increase. The farmers [...]

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After leaving his Brussels job in Oct 2008, the Labour peer is still receiving a “transitional allowance” of £103,465 a year, which is funded by the taxpayer. The payment of £8,622 (€10,139) a month is set at 50 per cent of his former salary as European trade commissioner, a stipend paid at low rates of [...]

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During this afternoon’s little power nap I was troubled by rather gruesomely vivid dreams of having badly cut and heavily bleeding legs. During this afternoon’s little power nap I was troubled by having a large cat sleeping on my legs.

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But it’s also wholly irrational;. You see, a god is usually assumed to be a higher order of being, possessed of powers beyond the human. Usually that will involve omnipotence. That is, the power in this case to see the future – something economists believe we all have when building their models which is, however, [...]

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I’ll admit openly, as I have done a number of times, that I’m not all that good at macroeconomics. Mostly because I tend to regard it as akin to voodoo: as the man didn’t say, in the long run it’s all microeconomics. However, I am still able to spot the occasional error in macro elsewhere. [...]

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My grandfather’s stepfather, Bill Wilcox, “shot” oil wells in West Virginia and Southeastern Ohio from the 1890s to the 1920s.  Back in the day, fracking meant drilling a hole, filling a coffee can with nitroglycerine, lowering it very carefully down the hole, and then detonating it (hence the term “shooting” the well).  We have family [...]

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What? What on earth could it be that is more interesting? I will now proceed to pleasure myself with this fish Well, OK, if you say so Obo…..

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