Tim Worstall

I’ve the Thunderer column in today’s Times. Well tomorrow’s, today’s, umm, you know. I can’t link because it’s not linkable. You’ll just have to buy the paper. So there etc.

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Nice piece about binge drinking in China. Essentially, in business, you’ve got to do it. Sadly, it’s reportage, it doesn’t explain the real reason, which is that it’s a low trust society. Or, looking at it another way, a low rule of law society making it a high trust society. I got this when in [...]

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Recently I talked to many Birmingham manufacturers needing loans that used to be quite standard working capital, but are now refused. All complained that bank managers had no local knowledge, and were over-ridden by head office diktats wanting high short-term returns, with no risk. Hmm, over-centralisation, yes, it can be something of a problem. Project [...]

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Increasing a person’s wage can cause a significant drop in the amount of time they spend helping their parents with household chores, errands and transport. For every ten per cent rise in their salary women will spend 36 per cent less time providing care and men will reduce their input by 18 per cent. The [...]

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RBS shares closed at 19.67p, down 5.3pc, while Lloyds fell 2.9pc to 27.56p and Barclays closed at 146¼p, down 2.8pc. Shares in Standard Chartered, which had avoided much of the recent slump, fell 2.5pc to £13.29. Only HSBC avoided the losses, but still ended the day flat at 511p. The falls came as investors continued [...]

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According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), 11.2 per cent of all shops on high streets and in shopping centres are vacant. Isn’t that a surprising statistic? Based on ONS experimental Internet sales series, the non-seasonally adjusted average weekly value of Internet retail sales in July 2011 was £523.4 million which was approximately 9.1 per [...]

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Tragic but true: The rising prices of basic commodities such as wheat, sugar, coffee and vegetable oil – which form the basis of many breakfast foods – have been blamed for the inflation-busting increases. You’ll note that three of the four are foods which are used to manufacture biofuels. Yes, correct. This is collateral damage [...]

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I have a feeling that the Labour Party will have a good try here: also, that they’ll not get very far: A series of severance payments were made to former News of the World editor Andy Coulson for several months after he began working for the Tories, according to the BBC. The instalments totalled the [...]

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Time for a reckoning. It’s roughly my generation that is failing to break through into the top jobs. Women in their 40s and 50s who could now be running the country but aren’t, according to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report Sex and Power. Its analysis is that it’s a case of discrimination – [...]

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Apparently one of them does know how to get laid in a brothel. Knowing which one would make it easier to choose a Prime Minister of course…. I also look forward to the day we can have the same confidence in the ability of our own Labour politicians.

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And it was a mess because there were no words for a really close friendship that didn’t involve sex or sexuality. There was no status for it. What’s wrong with the word “friend”?

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I often wonder how low the senior management of banks can stoop and they always exceed expectations. This move shows the straightforward contempt of the directors and senior management of these banks for everyone else in the banks and in the world at large. Are you really surprised that I want these banks nationalised when [...]

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I wonder if a certain female police officer is going to find herself charged with damaging equipment? Assault even?

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Free Trade held out a mutually convenient if idealized concordat: politics kept out of business, and business kept out of politics. Please complete the PJ O’Rourke quote: when legislators decide what can be bought and sold…..

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The Guardian corrections column attempts to get to grips with the slippery numbers. Yes, the 6.5% number shouldn’t be used. But there’s another for people to complain over: The 2010/2011 Home Office statistics show that the sanction detection rate for violence against the person was 44.5%, and for rape 29.9%. The most obvious point here [...]

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Berry is being investigated over alleged corrupt payments to secure contracts for a different company in another African country, Nigeria. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO), in collaboration with Australian police, has made a series of arrests and raids during their inquiry into alleged multimillion bribes to Nigerians. Berry rejects the allegations, saying he is a [...]

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Ms Merkel told German television yesterday: “The markets want to force us into doing certain things – and that we won’t do.” She added: “Politics cannot and will not simply follow the markets.” We’re rather getting set up for another pantomime, aren’t we? “Oh no we won’t!” say the politicians. “Oh yes you will!” say [...]

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As he says: Raising the sails on the schooner, And that’s an extremely good way to die, drop the sails or lose all the skin on your hands while attempting to raise a sail. All those bits to the side are tools, tools created over generations of experience, to allow you to raise the sail [...]

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Mr. Shaxson’s thesis. The BBC hasn’t made a documentary about his book, Treasure Islands, one of the 100,000 or so books published in the UK last year, because the BBC is in the pay of the tax havens. Or something. No doubt they won’t make one about the Courageous State either for the same reason. [...]

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At the ASI.

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