Tim Worstall

Yes, it is a real problem: The Association for Real Change (ARC) has been researching mate crime for the past year in Calderdale, west Yorkshire, and in north Devon, after a groundswell of concern among its members who are service providers for people with learning disabilities. Examples it has been told about range from perpetrators [...]

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Reading more about what’s changing in Cuba. There’s actually, well, possibly, a chance to make a really rather decent fortune in that. They’re freeing up farming and building, two fields where the Cuban State has been particularly appalling at managing to get anything done. If I were a couple of decades younger and had skills [...]

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In fact, this particular little piece of Catholic orthodoxy is really rather left wing, at least as far as the feminist wing of the left would have it. It was one of the unlikliest outcomes of the primary season, given that even a few weeks ago O’Donnell was widely regarded as being so far to [...]

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“Capitalist storm clouds loom over Havana“. Given that the average income is some $20 a month, plus a bag of beans and rice and, let us not forget, that free health care, perhaps a little watering of the economy from those clouds might be a good idea?

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Nice little report out and it’s from the ONS so there can’t be argument with the actual figures: In its September Economic and Labour Market Review, published yesterday, the national statistician reported that the average weekly salary for public sector workers in April last year was £539, compared with £465 in the private sector. The [...]

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Ritchie introduces us to the costs of higher education in the United States. He starts with a true point, that the cost of such has been soaring vastly higher than more general inflation. His explanation is amusing though: Note that his post is titled “The cost of privatising education”. They’re wrong, of course. The private [...]

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Would you be willing to translate content on Cif? Certainly. In fact I’d love to. Translate all that eco-wibble and the near endless misunderstandings of economics into straight English. For example, here is Peter Melchett’s next CiF piece: “Revoking the Corn Laws was a gross error, it is right that you plebs should pay more [...]

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It’s an important question: who gets to decide what is best and worst, what is good and bad, what should be valued and what should not be valued? Nottingham has been named as England’s least car-dependent city in a survey that exposes inconsistent planning across the country with one of the nation’s newest conurbations, Milton [...]

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The UK government intends to reorientate its entire aid programme to put the lives of women in developing countries at its heart, the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, will tell a United Nations summit. Women’s lives will get better when they are more valued within their own societies. It is economic growth which increases the [...]

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Could someone go and get that economic cluebat please and apply it firmly to Friends of the Earth? Ambitious targets to increase the amount of rubbish recycled in the UK could help create more than 50,000 jobs, a report suggested today. The study by Friends of the Earth said 51,400 jobs could be created if [...]

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Nicked from AEP. So, can you identify the point on that chart where US eligibility for unemployment benefits was raised from 26 weeks to 99 weeks? Another interesting bit: A new twist is an apparent decline in the “employment intensity of growth” as rebounding output requires fewer extra workers. As such, it may be hard [...]

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Organic farming is better for the long term health of the soil, according to a new study. Hmmm. The study of nine farms in England, published in the journal Environmental Microbiology, found that organic farms have a much more diverse range of fungi living in the soil than on conventional farms. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) [...]

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This will, of course, simply lead to disaster: “To imagine that the private sector is going to absorb so many people is a bit of a stretch,” he said. “It’s going to be major problem for the country.” Err, no, actually, it’s not here. But at least those who say we should be more socialist, [...]

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Here. Total spending rises (even in real terms) and current spending rises (even in real terms). So, err, what cuts are causing all the hassle?

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The study suggested that state schools were being encouraged to over-identify pupils to attract more funding from local councils and boost their positions in league tables that give weighting to schools with high numbers of special needs children. Just because things are in the state sector, just because everyone is a professional, motivated by absolutely [...]

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Err, no: A simple example provides clear illustration (and I quote the numbers from memory, but they’re near enough right). The UK spends a little over 40% of GDP on government services. About 8% of GDP – or about one fifth of government spending – is on health services, and the private contribution in addition [...]

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Here.

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The PCS union tries to tell us something truly amaaaazing: As a result of the UK government’s £1.3 trillion bailout to the financial sector, the government still owns over £850 billion in bank assets. This figure is roughly equal to the total UK debt. Excellent! Let’s sell ‘em! Woohoo! a get out of jail free [...]

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Anyone who has been reading here for any length of time will know that there are huge gaps in my knowledge of economics. Some tiny parts of the subject I know reasonably well. Others I’m as much use as a fart in a windstorm. Which brings me to one of those areas where I’m simply [...]

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Here. Regulation, regulators, yup, great, but when politics means that you don’t actually have any regulators…..

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