Tim Worstall

This is what makes me a lefty of course: But guaranteeing a decent standard of living for those at the bottom of the heap should be the mark of a decent society. I’ve no problem with that idea: agree with it. Having done so there’s a few interesting little questions that we need to grapple [...]

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Sting: Knighthoods are for the old Sting, the musician, says that only older people are awarded knighthoods. Yes, because you’ve got to show a bit of staying power and also reach the top of your profession. Things that, amazingly, tend to take a few decades.

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This is a bit of a well, D’oh, moment: Banks have increasingly turned to the bonds, considered an ultra-safe form of secured funding, because the market for straightforward securitisations is still struggling to recover from the financial crisis. Both forms involve repackaging thousands of loans, such as mortgages, into new bonds, but unlike securitisations, the [...]

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Much excitment from the likes of @richardjmurphy  about there only being 454 affordable housing starts in the first 6 months of this year. He tells me he’s right, the Minister has said so! Well, no, actually the Minister didn’t say that. Here’s the announcement. Headlines • There were 1,746 housing starts on site and 15,329 [...]

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Pissed off about high pay? Want to do something about it? Yes, this man has the right answer. You, indirectly, through your pensions, own vast chunks of these companies spewing out the high pay. So, get on to your pension fund managers, give them an earful and tell them to start making noises about that [...]

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Where he got this number from I’ve no idea at all: @RichardJMurphy Richard Murphy Want to know why we’re in recession? Just 454 affordable homes were built in first 6 months of this year. That’s why. That’s Torytown. Housing statistics are here. I’m using for England alone. We generally assume that “affordable housing” os social [...]

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Some more of the emails stolen from the Climate Research Centre in 2009 have been released. This time they are accompanied by a readme with out-of-context quotes that asserts the purpose of the release is information transparency, but that’s an obvious lie, since they’ve sat on them for two years and released them just before [...]

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Migratory animals migrate. Who knew?

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Go and read it.

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Wednesday’s report also found that the amount of investment needed to exploit gas reserves – about £32bn – would be enough to build 2,300 offshore wind turbines, which would produce enough renewable energy to meet government targets. Shale gas exploration also supports fewer jobs than renewable energy generation – hundreds of thousands of jobs could [...]

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Makes an interesting change actually, criticism from someone who actually knows stuff.

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Our anger over runaway top pay is more about merit than money I have a suspicion, more strong than sneaking, that it isn’t actually. Ah, comes the reply, but these are the cream of the international crop, among the very best bankers in the world. The commission report blows a hole in that tired argument, [...]

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Supermarket thieves caught when getaway car has no fuel Two supermarket thieves were caught when they forgot to put petrol in their getaway car. Giggle worthy, isn’t it? But that’s not quite what happened. Rose Devlin, 59, and Denise Egan, 52, stole £400 of alcohol from Asda in Chadderton, Greater Manchester, and were all set [...]

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Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, faces questions about his partner’s conduct after it emerged she sought lobbying work. If a politician starts bonking the PR help (and these days it’s hardly unusual, perhaps the modern replacement for bonking the secretary) then of course there’s going to be a bit of difficulty if they set up [...]

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Obviously, clearly, Ritchie wasn’t going to like it. But I do think he could have tried a bit harder in being coherent as he spluttered his way through a rejection of it. Second, Worstall argues that the tax will not raise revenue. This argument is wholly premised on the claim he makes that the proposed [...]

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Trying my hand at Seeking Alpha. A possible answer to what happened to the MF Global money

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If there happensto be anyone who is really bored: laid up with flu perhaps and idly tapping a mousepad while doing so, an interesting (umm, OK not very interesting at all which is why I’m not going to do it) task. How many of the FTSE 100 CEOs are not UK origin? The HPC report [...]

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Erm, excuse me, what are they on about? that pay must escalate in order to attract the best talent from abroad to UK companies, is a myth. Our own evidence shows that global mobility is limited, with only one successful FTSE 100 chief executive officer poached in five years – and even this person was [...]

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At the IEA. A little introduction to the piece on the Robin Hood Tax. Amazingly, no one at all who supports the RHT has seen fit to respond to the critique of it. Not even a Yah! Boo! You Smell! Wonder why?

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Kindle hackers give Nook a thorough rooting Fondleslab exposed to nerdy fiddling Strangely, it does actually make sense in the jargon.

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