Tim Worstall

So there’s this beer, right? Running an advertising campaign, see? And the advertising campaign is about how billboards become occasionally perfect, see? Just like the beer, always pretty good, but occasionally, just perfect? And my, my, aren’t parts of Chicago just occasionally perfect stand ins for the arse end of South London sometimes?

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So, at least we know what amount a Monbiot is now. £75,000 a year gross or thereabouts. As opposed to a Toynbee which runs at £116,000 I’m told, or a Rusbridger which is £500,000 plus bonus and pension contributions. Entering into the spirit of things, my income from various sources: From corporate paymasters, spinners and [...]

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In August, the United States created no jobs at all. Zero. This simply isn’t true. It’s nonsense. The US created no net jobs is true, but the US created no jobs is nonsense. It is Mr. Dillow who has been pointing this out for years. All economies are creating and destroying jobs all the time. [...]

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So, this idea that Germany has benefitted from the euro and should thus chip something back in to help those who have borrowed. You do see this idea around at times. The Italian trade deficit is the German trade surplus in reverse. There is one handy response to this: The Germans should not accept responsibility [...]

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Over at the FT they’re having one. They do ask for work safe ones though and I’m not sure that my entry will be classified as such. So I’ll add it here just in case.  

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see more Very Demotivational

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He says, again, that he’s cracked it. A Robin Hood Tax – a financial transaction tax – is back on the agenda thanks to the EU, and rightly so. I wrote about this in 2010 in a joint publication called ‘Taxing Banks‘. In it I set out the data supporting such a tax, estimated how [...]

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Paul Krugman.

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He’s back in The Guardian. My comment on his piece: “It would be passed on to ordinary people? According to the IMF it would be paid predominantly by the richest.” That’s not actually what the IMF says, not completely and totally. The IMF report is here: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2011/wp1154.pdf In the short term the tax will lower [...]

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So this George Wright fella, found in a village in Portugal. I used to cycle through that village occasionally, when we lived up near Lisbon. It’s a lovely part of the world, that does have to be said. No, I’ve no stories of cheerful waves from an elderly black man or anything. Umm, bit boring [...]

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He added: “It is a question of fairness. If our farmers, if our workers, if all the sectors of the economy from industry to agriculture to services, if they all pay a contribution to the society, also the banking sector should make a contribution to the society.” Oh, right. Hadn’t thought about it like that [...]

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The FTT is therefore perhaps the first tax in history which is being proposed in the knowledge it will reduce tax revenues. There ain’t gonna be any extra money to spend on anything folks!

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For those with World Service on your dial I should be, barring mishaps, on at 4.30 on “Business Daily”. We’re going to be snarling about the end game of the euro/Greek default etc.   Update: Oops. sorry, that was when we were recording for broadcast Friday.

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Here. The EU seems to have agreed that it cannot legally apply it to FX transactions. Some of you know the markets much better than I do. I have a feeling that this means that everyone will just create synthetics which include an FX transaction and thus the tax will raise nothing. Your comments please? [...]

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I have spoken before how oil prices have climbed 400% in the last ten years for UK customers. But I am struck by how little coal prices have increased. You’re using the wrong numbers laddie. We in the UK don’t in fact use oil to generate electricity. Well, a tiny bit, the very last tippy [...]

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On the afternoon of 14 September, a courier returned the plaque which had been awarded to Johann Hari on winning the Orwell Prize for Journalism 2008. There was no note of explanation. The prize money (£2000) has also not been returned.

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The event is expected to be Tim Cook’s first outing as chief executive Not really, given the little spat over whether Tim’s choice of sexual partner was something we should all celebrate and point to or simply ignore as it’s just not important any more.

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You on Ed: To stop giving government contracts to asset strippers such as Southern Cross that buy and sell your granny was no more than common sense. A Our Man in York has pointed out: We know the answer for market processes: bankruptcy and loss of investment, followed, normally, by a reorganisation of the assets. [...]

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Karol Sikora is an extremely eminent man. Clearly bright. But somewhat lacking in logic: The fact that the populations of the Western world are ageing, together with our increasingly unhealthy lifestyles, is dramatically increasing the incidence of cancer. If we are all living longer then we do not have increasingly unhealthy lifestyles. Increasingly unhealthy lifestyles [...]

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Mr Schauble told Washington to mind its own businesss after President Barack Obama rebuked EU leaders for failing to recapitalise banks and allowing the debt crisis to escalate to the point where it is “scaring the world”. “It’s always much easier to give advice to others than to decide for yourself. I am well prepared [...]

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