Tim Worstall

Now there is official acknowledgment that a country burdened by bank assets five times its GDP and chronically poor productivity is being dragged into the deepest and longest economic setback in modern times So that idea of yours, that banks should take on more assets by lending more to companies: if banks having too many [...]

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I should make a declaration of interest here: I have taken Press TV’s shilling. Did a few pieces with them when I was working in London. So, that said: If the clerical state bought British newspapers or set up websites, I would not call for regulators to compel them to be accurate and impartial, and [...]

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At the ASI. Merkozy and the ECB are playing a game of chicken.

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At the ASI. Bureaucratic regulation of life doesn’t work because we, collectively, are far more intelligent and creative than they, collectively, are.

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Costs money to get the actual articles but hours of fun there to be had searching for all sorts of things. There was a Worstall wounded in the Crimea for example…..who knew?

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Financial institutions that granted unrealistic mortgages at the height of a market they inflated themselves should be taking the hit here. Mortgages that default as interest rates rise need to be put under the control of local authorities, who will rent to a home’s former owners at rates reflecting the fact that they have acquired a [...]

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Now the Lords’ European Union Committee has attacked the FTT, questioning its viability. In a letter to Treasury minister Mark Hoban, Lord Roper, the Lords committee’s chairman, said: “We note with concern the EC’s impact assessment concludes that the tax is likely to induce a loss in GDP between five and 20 times larger then [...]

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Bit difficult not to support it really: military family, Devon born, brother is out there running the logistics for them, cousin is pumping the oil over the mountains to them, sister is a choirmistress pulling together very similar groups (although not on TV). And what is this X-Factor of which people speak?

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A report today: A European tax on financial transactions could cost Britain’s economy up to 20 times the amount it raises, a committee of lawmakers said on Friday. Britain has said a transaction tax, dubbed a Tobin Tax after the U.S. economist who devised it in the 1970s, would only work globally and the EU [...]

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The Euro just a week left to be saved. The economy as we know it is under massive threat, and democracy with it. And where is the discussion of the alternative economic agenda that has been the subject of so much comment here, and elsewhere, over the last few years? Is a new economic architecture [...]

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The UK must amend its legislation on the tax treatment of controlled foreign companies, as it fails to fulfil European Union (EU) Treaty obligations or adequately take into account relevant court rulings, the European Commission has said. The formal request was made on May 19, and takes the form of a reasoned opinion, representing the [...]

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The populations of much poorer countries are less happy than people in the rich developed countries. But above some threshold that Britain passed a generation ago, further economic growth doesn’t seem to help. Easterlin Paradox, above a certain level more income doesn’t make you happier. Wrong. Although economic growth is what has transformed the quality [...]

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Climate change report: In the last decade wind and other renewables have grown to the point that they now provide nearly a tenth of UK generating capacity. With nuclear power generating 16% of total UK electricity, a quarter of electricity generation is now low carbon. There’s a difference between generating capacity and generation isn’t there [...]

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Cameron and Clegg on climate change: This plan shows that moving to a low carbon economy is practical, achievable and desirable. It will require investment in new ways of generating energy, not a sacrifice in living standards. Investing in low carbon stuff means that we don’t invest in something else which means that we have [...]

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Hurrah! “This proposal will lead to a subsidised plant creating subsidised fuel so that subsidised operators can produce subsidised electricity ….” That sticks it to those windmill and solar people! Yeah! Hmm, what? They were talking about Sellafield? Oh, sorry, mumble, mumble…..

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Fuel rods inside one of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant may have completely melted and bored most of the way through a concrete floor, the reactor’s last line of defence before its steel outer casing, the plant’s operator said. Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said in a report that fuel inside reactor [...]

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Allowing women to drive in Saudi Arabia will be ‘the end of virginity’ For as has been pointed out, perhaps the greatest social effect of the Model T was the decline of virginity at marriage as people worked out what the back seat was for.

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Ministers believe the current system is too reliant on parents declaring their true earnings voluntarily. Under the reform plans, child support officers will check the incomes of absent parents against their tax records to make it more difficult for them to lie about their earnings. Anyone know? Is this a breach in the privacy wall [...]

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The French president admitted that European infighting had led to markets and consumers being “paralysed by fear” and vowed to stop the bitter argumentswith Germany to ensure the euro is properly supported. “It must be made clear that a debt of a euro member will be repaid,” he said. “It’s a question of confidence.” We [...]

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Not there’s any link implied or in reality Loved ones not always told their relative is on controversial ‘death pathway’ NHS doctors are failing to inform up to half of families that their loved ones have been put on a scheme to help end their lives, the Royal College of Physicians has found. Rise in [...]

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