Tim Worstall

In these dark days of financial apocalypse and global unrest, here’s a cheering thought: red trousers are staging a comeback. Until recently, there was a danger that brightly coloured men’s trousering might go the way of the bowler hat: a once-great British institution killed off by the scorn of the young and hip. Only the [...]

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We are told that all this tax has to be levied for a reason: to account for the impact of cars’ greenhouse gas emissions, now and in the future, and to pay for the construction and maintenance of our roads. But the numbers don’t stack up. In 2009-10, we spent £9.9 billion on the road [...]

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Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, on Thursday admitted there was nothing British regulators could do to stop banks cutting back lending in order to help meet the new global capital requirements being imposed on them. You can’t both insist that banks have more capital and that they expand their loan books at [...]

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Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has warned Mr Cameron that unless he accepts unconditional changes to the Lisbon Treaty a split will take place, leaving Britain isolated and in a voting minority within the EU. “She explicitly told Cameron that if there was no treaty change at the level of the 27 EU members then [...]

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the president of the European Commission, has warned that the collapse of the eurozone would cause a crash that would instantly wipe out half of the value of Europe’s economy, plunging the continent into a depression as deep as the 1930s slump. The EU economy is around $15 trillion in GDP. Roughly. A collapse of [...]

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Arthur C once pointed out something along the lines of “when an elderly and distinguished scientists says something is possible, he’s usually right, when he says something is impossible he’s usually wrong”. Best my memory can do on the quote. But how should we reformulate that for politics? The leaders of Italy and Greece have [...]

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So, Oz out for 47. Their worst innings in a century. But, umm, they’ve still a decent chance of winning the match. Odd game, cricket.

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Anyone know more about this company? Circle? For I’ve had a look and as far as I can see it’s a workers’ co-op. Owned by the people that work in it. Which makes this allegation quite strange: Two of Circle’s major shareholders are Tory Party donors. What shareholders? Or is the structure of Circle more [...]

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Why reforms are destroying the essence of the NHS The NHS will be unrecognisable in 10 years’ time, says Bob Hudson, if the current bill succeeds – which it looks likely to do This is the aim and contention. The contention is that the NHS needs to be changed, the aim is to change it. [...]

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If the world is to stay below 2C of warming, which scientists regard as the limit of safety, then emissions must be held to no more than 450 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere; the level is currently around 390ppm. We see this point being made all the time. But I’m [...]

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“It is obvious what needs to be done,” said Tim Congdon at International Monetary Research. “The ECB must engineer a ‘boomlet’ by purchasing €1 trillion of bonds – boosting the M3 money supply by 10pc – to end all the agony. This means that Germany must put up with 4pc to 5pc inflation for while, [...]

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As the economic turmoil afflicting Italy and Greece threatened to engulf the entire European Union, Mrs Merkel called for a new “breakthrough” treaty that would give the EU greater fiscal powers to stop member states from running up dangerous levels of debt. You’ve not got the time to do that dearie. You’ve a few weeks [...]

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Hmm, this number looks suspiciously low: British banks have more than £42 billion of outstanding loans to Italy, including almost £10 billion to the government. Although maybe not actually. Most Italian government debt is actually owed to Italian households. Say Italy does default, there’s a 50% haircut (rather higher than I think there would be if it [...]

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Our man at the TUC. sorry, but he’s just completely ignorant. And of course, someone who is determinedly ignorant, not willing to learn from experience, is indeeed a shite. Well, he is if he wants to take your and my money and and piss it away on his desires: For example, a Robin Hood Tax [...]

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Difficult not to agree with this. ….is not handsome. His voice is not of a particularly pleasant timbre. He refuses to project a phony aura of likeablility, and is likely incapable of projecting a real one. He’s strange and prickly and inscrutable. It’s likely that all of the members of the band he’s playing with [...]

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So, if Parliament votes the wrong way on an EU referendum, change the question very slightly and ask it again. Sign up here.

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The Minimum Income Standard found that: basic out-of-work benefits provide well under half of the minimum income (net of rent and council tax) required for an adult with no children, and somewhat less than two-thirds for families with children. If the government goes ahead with this, the number of children in poverty – already due [...]

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I have to admit that this isn’t quite how I see it: @hal_berstram Hal Berstram @Van_Patten the problem for tim w is that richard m has an extremely deep grasp of economics whereas tim is a hack. it’s as simple as that.

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Growth is going to be low for many years, living standards are not going to rise, and the high levels of income inequality are all likely to contribute to increasing levels of social unrest. Erm, inequality has fallen over the past couple of years. It always does in recessions. Because the incomes of the top [...]

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There’s been that “my god aren’t comment sections awful” thing over the last few days. You know the stuff, women writers on the net get shouted at, insulted, threatened, in a manner that men don’t? I’m afraid that I have to admit to be a dreadful sexist on this matter. It’s true, I do hurl [...]

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