Tim Worstall

There’s a bit of horse and cart here. France could be stripped of its triple-A credit rating before Christmas, raising new doubts about the survival of the euro, analysts have predicted. Well, OK. Analysts said that if France’s rating was slashed its borrowing costs would rise, making it more expensive for Paris to refinance its [...]

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Has it actually been published as yet? I know it was leaked to The Times, seen that report on it. But the actual report, has it been released yet? Not on the PAC page for example…..

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No, I’m not looking for someone to come and design a system for me. Rather, I’m just looking for a pointer to how I ought to be thinking about things. OK, so what I’ve got (conceptually this is) is a tailings/gangue pile. From a granitic greisen. Originally mined for Sn/W I know that this tailings [...]

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When Bruce Springsteen first met Paul McCartney, he couldn’t keep himself from saying, “Mr. McCartney, I have to tell you that you and your career have always been an inspiration to me in my music. I’m embarrassed to tell you that, though, because it sounds so corny.” McCartney replied, “Don’t worry about it. I once [...]

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This, layaway. Is it something that exists in the UK? If so, at which stores?

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He’s been reading Ritchie’s report and comes out with this: While the United States has one of the most effective tax regimes, especially for on-the-books wage earners and pensioners, and one of the smallest underground or shadow economies, it has the largest amount of tax evasion measured in dollars. Yes, having the largest economy in [...]

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I’ve forgotten. Stanford first began complaining of “extensive retrograde amnesia” from the jailhouse attack sometime after he arrived at Butner in February, according to the prosecutors’ filing. “Stanford has recently repeatedly claimed being ‘completely amnestic to his life prior to the assault, stating that 59 years were stolen,’” Costa said in the filing, citing the [...]

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At the ASI. Forward to the Middle Ages!

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Made a profit. CBO estimates that the net cost to the federal government of the TARP’s transactions, including the cost of grants for mortgage programs that have not been made yet, will amount to $34 billion. CBO’s analysis reflects transactions completed, outstanding, and anticipated as of November 15, 2011. That cost stems largely from assistance [...]

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Politicians are complete fuckwits, incapable of ordering paper clips. Therefore we must have much more government. It’s the “therefore” that grates so much.

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I do have to admit that I don’t quite get this. Birnberg Peirce and partners have commenced legal action against the Metropolitan Police on behalf of eight women who were deceived into having long term intimate relationships with undercover police officers. The five undercover officers* were all engaged in infiltrating environmental and social justice campaign [...]

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Insiders say the company plans to cut around 100 jobs in total, although a Guardian spokeswoman said she did not recognise that figure. “100“. “Ooooh, is that a number?”

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So, the wifie didn’t sleep well. Feeling a bit Meh. “I’m off for a deep hot bath. Maybe then I’ll feel like doing the housework”. “OK, although having the bath before the work is interesting….” An hour later. Wifie on sofa. “Didn’t the bath make you feel better?” “Yes, but how can I clean the [...]

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Who asks about my views on what actually should be done about the euro crisis. OK, we have two entirely different things here, the short and the long term. They’re all tied up with each other, of course, but they are different things and need different answers. 1) Short term. A falling, at least a [...]

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As Ritchie says: A little over a year ago UK Uncut began its protests, and the world looked on, bemused. Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t: I knew they’d hit the zeitgeist, although they and Occupy have done so in ways I could never have imagined. It’s been my pleasure to support both movements in the last year. Tomorrow [...]

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Sounds like a bloody good idea but Jeff Sachs is against it for some reason. He’s also, for an economist, remarkably slapdash with his figures. Outlays on public services and investments other than health care and pensions have been badly squeezed.  Non-security discretionary programmes, including education, early childhood development, energy, environment, roads, power, ports, dams, [...]

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I believe you’ve got your history a little telescoped here. The fact that no remedy has seemed to work has had remarkably little impact on policy. During the Depression Milton Friedman’s call for an increase in money supply proved ineffective when that increase was merely hoarded by stricken banks. Thus pumping up the banks is [...]

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French policymakers were angered last week when Standard and Poor’s, a ratings agency, threatened to downgrade eurozone nations — including France — if leaders did not act urgently to address the single currency crisis. But in an interview with Le Télégramme, a French regional newspaper, Mr Noyer said the downgrade did not appear “justified in [...]

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That figure is the share of US national income that goes to workers as wages rather than to investors as profits and interest. It has fallen to its lowest level since records began after the second world war and is part of the reason why incomes at the top – which tend to be earned [...]

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The hope here amongst people who understand what’s going on (many European leaders are not in this category) Rule by technocrats is all very well until you realise that the technocrats are ignorant.

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