Tim Worstall

She had flings with two of Liberace’s boyfriends and, after renouncing a somewhat free and easy lifestyle,

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How far will Berlin go to save the euro? Not far enough and too late to boot. That’s my prediction at least.

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Lordy, she does ladle it out, doesn’t she? Meanwhile, the view is gaining ground that social democracy, with its safety nets, its costly education and health care for all, is unsustainable in the bleak times ahead. The reality is that it is the only solution. Really? Amazingly, no one at all is suggesting that either [...]

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The more I hear about what AIG used to be doing the more I’m wondering what in heck was going on there? The suit, which was filed in New York, alleges Bank of America conducted a “massive fraud” over the sale of mortgage-backed bonds to AIG before the crisis. The insurer, whose $182.3bn bail-out was [...]

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Entrepreneur Joe Cohen explains why he’s backing Devcamp, a series of summer workshops designed to give East London students from disadvantaged backgrounds the skills to compete in a digital economy. Can’t see any reason why it shouldn’t work and plenty of reasons why it should. We’re talking about exactly the same recruiting ground that The [...]

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Reports of looters queuing? If nothing else, we’ve been able to teach them that part of Britishness.

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Might work, might not….we’ll know more when he’s done more than just announce himself.

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The report is that the bullet that lodged in the police officer’s radio was actually a police issue bullet. Well, sorta. From what I’ve seen it’s a hollow point. Which is indeed what is police issue. And yes, it is illegal for most of us to get ahold of such ammunition. Except if you happen [...]

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In other words, the economists – as is only right and proper – give us very interesting economic arguments. What they do not tell us is how to make the right political decisions. For economics is not politics. Allow me to be very generous indeed about politics: allow me to make the assumption that politics [...]

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There were no buyers at the auction of a 1940s film that an events promoter claims shows an underage Marilyn Monroe having sex before she became a movie star. Obviously. If it’s fake then it’s just another stag reel. If it’s not fake it’s child porn. Be duped or go to jail.

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The blockade also restricts access to long-term credit which means Cuba is often limited to dealing in cash transactions or expensive short-term credit. This makes bilateral trade more costly for the island and significantly stifles their economic freedom. Not quite as much as the Cuban Government’s denial to its citizens of any form of economic, [...]

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Cretins, we’re surrounded by cretins. There’s really only two problems with this idea. 1) It would not be the banks, not even the bankers, paying the RHT. There really is something called tax incidence, no, really, and it will be all consumers of financial prodcts that pay the tax. That’s us, the citizenry then. Heck, [...]

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Women are being priced out of the job market because of deep government cuts in state funding for childcare, according to research published on Sunday. The study by the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank challenges the claims made by ministers that their flagship welfare reforms will “make work pay” and encourage people off [...]

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But truth must be faced. Britain should provide a lead – both for its own economic fortunes and to set the new international standard. As a minimum it should announce a new programme of quantitative easing, in effect printing money; insist the Bank of England uses the money it prints to buy the broadest range [...]

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At the ASI. What’s causing the food price rises? It really is the entirely stupid, damn fool, biofuels movement which is causing the food price rises. That US and EU politicians have insisted that all fuel used must be made of a certain percentage of plant derived material. It really is the entirely stupid, damn [...]

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Unpublished research from a leading business group shows that one in five employers is planning to cut their use of temporary workers to avoid costly new legislation, which they believe will drown the UK’s flexible temping industry. There are always trade offs. Those who argued for an extension of thse “workers’ rights”. Well done, you’ve [...]

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There are nearly 4 million families who cannot afford to own a home in the UK that are forced to rent privately. Private rents are more than double the cost of social renting. This means that each family who cannot afford to  buy a home faces a £4,000 a year de facto fine from the [...]

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Our expert in Irish feminist history is having a rare old time with his access to the statistical database. There has been a sharp rise in the numbers of companies going bust in the past 7 months. Scarily this graph only goes to June 2011, so it actually misses the collapses in July which on [...]

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Left Foot Forward is having an awards thingummybob. We are now taking nominations for the title of the most influential left-wing thinker of 2011. You can send in your nomination by emailing us at daniel@leftfootforward.org and putting “Nomination:” followed by the name of the person you wish to nominate. If you would like to argue for your [...]

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Three questions come to mind. First, who elected David Beers or his Moody’s and Fitch counterparts? By what right do they decide on the fate of governments, economies, debts and peoples? The answers being, in order, nobody and none. Because you don’t have to be elected in order to give your view of matters and [...]

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