Tim Worstall

Not that he needs defending by me of course. But this thing that female sexuality is a little different from male, that if said sexuality were in fact the same then we’d be seeing female cottagers on Hampstead Heath. Umm, it’s not actually that different from Robert Heinlein’s comment, that only on Earth could we [...]

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At the ASI For all those who campaign against supermarkets: what’s it like when there aren’t any?

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But it remains a business, which exists by selling its users to its advertisers. Most on the net have yet to grasp that when they are on free sites – Facebook and Twitter as well as Google – they are not citizens enjoying a public service or customers whose wishes must always come first. They [...]

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I’m trying to find a number: anyone help out? What I really want to know is what is the amount of subsidy to housing from below market social rents? Now, a rough guide can be got from knowing how much is actually paid in social rents now: they’re about 50% of market rents, so if [...]

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“Edgar Allen Poe wrote this thing about music where he said, ‘People think that when they cry to music it’s because they’re being sentimental about the memories of a time gone past, but it’s not true. The reason they cry is because they get a glimpse of the banquet that gods are feasting upon.’ I [...]

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Spring back?

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In 1928, as Herbert Hoover campaigned for the presidency, the country was largely prosperous. But a depression was slowly spreading through the agricultural sector. European agriculture had recovered from the ravages of World War I, cutting demand for American exports. And, as more and more land once devoted to fodder crops for horses and mules [...]

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He does have a way with history, doesn’t he? Let’s start with the most hopeless and wildly idealistic cause – and see how it won. The first ever attempt to hold a Gay Pride rally in Trafalgar Square was in 1965. Two dozen people turned up – and they were mostly beaten by the police [...]

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One of the things I wonder about is the way that a certain section of the lefty intellectual set seem so angry about top people’s incomes. And I think I’m beginning to understand where some of it comes from. Jealousy. Take for example the Neil Lawson’s of this world: La Toynbee herself perhaps. The latter’s [...]

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I’ve been Mr Eugenides, and you’ve been a wonderful audience. Good night, and good luck.

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Drinking 1 can of soda a day can make you 10 pounds fatter a year. Depends. A can of Jolt a day (“All the sugar and twice the caffeine!”) could well lose you weight as you twitch and shudder your way through the day.

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Mike McKenna, director of Kronospan’s Chirk factory, said the subsidies for electricity generators which use biomass encouraged them to take “the easy option” of burning freshly felled timber. He told BBC Radio Wales: “The easy option for them is cutting down trees and burning them for electricity generation. “That’s because the subsidies are worth more [...]

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The average FTSE 100 chief executive earned £4.9m last year, almost 200 times the average wage, according to research group Incomes Data Services, with the gains largely due to sharp rises in bonuses and performance-related pay. Err, yes. Profits are up, share prices are up. What do you think should happen to the wages of [...]

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The importance of being Mohammed Mohammed – all variants combined – beat Oliver as Britain’s most popular baby boy’s name in 2009. What does that tell us? That there’s been a certain amount of immigration into Britain in recent decades?

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“In the four quarters following the end of the 1981-92 recession,” Yes, of course, it’s just a typo. But possibly just a tad of projection there too*? Three Republican Presidential terms couldn’t be anything other than permanent recession, could they? * By the Graun, not Dean.

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“How would Adam Smith fix a mess such as the current recessionary aftermath of a financial collapse? Sorry, but it’s fixed already. The answer to a decline in the value of speculative assets is to pay less for them. Job done. Don’t Vote (2010)

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I really do think the Froggies have got the wrong end of the stick here. She apparently didn’t see the funny side of the email however, and after tracking the man down via his IP address, Lyon’s Judicial Police raided his home and arrested him. Following 48 hours in custody, he faces a prison sentence [...]

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At the ASI On drunks, car keys and why most economic research gets done in rich countries.

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Here. And it is, of course, that Schumpeterian innovation which leads to greater productivity of labour which makes it so.

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This does bugger up some people’s theories: …the fiscal multiplier is relatively large in economies operating under predetermined exchange rate but zero in economies operating under flexible exchange rates;….

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