Tim Worstall

One from the TUC*. One from an actual economist**. See if you can guess which passage came from which? Although these trends have been fuelled by technological change and the rise of a global labour market, their roots lie in a fundamental shift in Britain’s underlying economic and political philosophy. From the early 1980s, successive [...]

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Some unskilled and semi-skilled jobs now pay little more in real terms – and in some cases less – than they did in the late 1970s. Blimey, technological change alters wage patterns, eh? Just what are buggy whip manufacturers’ wages these days?  

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As part of the nationalisation of Bank of Scotland my offshore account has been transferred to Lloyds TSB. They have managed to: 1) Insert a decade old telephone number onto the account. 2) “Forget” to set up the mortgage standing order/direct debit. 3) Employ someone who appears to be deaf in the call centre. 4) [...]

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Foolishly: Using a strategy used by many on the right, it sought to avoid the economic argument by playing the people who wrote the letter, claiming many were not economists. Apparently, for example, a retired economist is not really an economist. Nor is a historian allowed to comment on the subject. And heaven forbid someone working for [...]

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Figueres told the Guardian in an interview that governments should act now to save money: “We add $1tn to the cost [of tackling climate change] with every year of delay.” The technologies we might use to reduce (or even eliminate) the emissions which lead to climate change are falling in price precipitately. For example, just [...]

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OK, so it’s the blog that The Guardian tells us we should all look at. And there are indeed some interesting juxtapositions: Salvador Dali & Walt Disney There are some others that are a great deal less surprising. David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed, 1972 Bowie and Iggy were long time friends and collaborators [...]

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Nor the organic manure spread on them: Beansprouts are a common ingredient in salads and stir frys, but have previously been blamed for major health scares. They were held responsible for a serious outbreak of Salmonella in Britain last year and 17 E.coli-related deaths in Japan in 1996. On Sunday evening, Gert Lindemann, agriculture minister [...]

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Hundreds of protesters came under fire as they advanced towards the fenced ceasefire line separating undisputed Syrian territory from the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in the Six Day War of 1967. The march, led by refugees intent on reclaiming their homes lost to Israel in an earlier war in 1948, was the second of [...]

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Would you have sex with him? Not again 80% replied.

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As it happens, I know the opinion of two prominent past politicians held by someone who had had considerable first hand interaction with both. His view was that Barry Goldwater was an intelligent man although not an exceptionally intelligent one, and that Teddy Kennedy had a subnormal IQ. That is not the view of the [...]

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Two years ago the world was agreed that the aftermath of the banking crisis required the most delicate handling. World leaders were alert to the example of the United States in the 1930s and Japan in the 1990s after its financial crash. In both cases a too-early return to the principles of good housekeeping and [...]

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So, there’s an outbreak of e coli. Thus Ms. Blythman, our “food writer” decides to leap in with her prejudices: With food scandals now arriving in a steady stream, we need to understand that by its very nature, our industrialised, globalised food system begets public health problems. It is geared to churning out vast volumes [...]

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As economists and academics, we know the breakneck deficit-reduction plan, based largely on spending cuts, is self-defeating even on its own terms. It will probably not manage to close the deficit in the planned time frame and the government’s strategy is likely to result in a lot more pain and a lot less gain. We [...]

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Eh? Since the currencies of Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong have all been falling against the dollar, The Hong Kong dollar has been fixed against the US dollar for the past 28 years. The main victims of a rapid currency appreciation would probably be the likes of Apple, which would see its enormous margin trimmed. [...]

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At the ASI. You know the odl one. The US is a great place to be rich but a shitty place for the poor. Well, mebbe, but the bottom 5% of the US lives better than the top 5% of India. And yes, Mr. Redacto, it is “ventile”.

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So, we have those who say that economic development can only come from government picking winners, from infant industry protection, from high tariff barriers and the like. The Ha Joon Chang’s of this world and the like: you know, War on Want, Action Aid, various points left. And it’s certainly true that some countries which [...]

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Sums it all up nicely.

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At the ASI. Possibly the most gorgeous economics paper ever. Even at the 1929 peak, stocks were undervalued relative to the prediction of theory. It’s the theory that’s wrong then, innit?

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Via, this. It’s easy, you should get 13 out of 13. Sadly, I’d expect an awful lot of lefties wouldn’t.

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Hungary kept on pursuing sensible moderate measures, instead of punishing the population. They imposed taxes on the hugely profitable sectors of retail, energy and telecoms, and took funds from private pensions to pay the deficit. Stealing peoples’ pensions is “moderate” in HariLand. So when in 2001 the IMF found out the Malawian government had built [...]

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