Tim Worstall

Finding a self-confessed Green backing breeder reactors. But respek to Mr. Monbiot for (sometimes) following where the evidence leads him.

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It really is amazing what people won’t see in Japan’s stagnation of the last 10-20 years. Throughout the past 20 years, the government has gone in for fiscal stimulus – as evidenced by its annual big-budget deficits – so that the infrastructure has been constantly renewed. In Britain, the coalition plans to slash spending on [...]

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By attempting to address the long-term problem before the immediate one, Germany has chosen a curiously back-to-front approach to the crisis. Ah, say the markets, but that’s how the Germans like it. They want the cart before the horse. Once the cart is in place, then they can start talking about the horse. That’s the [...]

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The draft proposals will aim to modify the Controlled Foreign Companies legislation, which taxes UK-based companies on their overseas earnings. Companies, including Sir Martin Sorrell’s WPP, have left the UK over the tax. The current CFC rules are illegal under EU law. As they found out with Cadbury and Vodafone. And a measure that will [...]

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The “lack of progress the European policy-makers have so far made in controlling the spread of the financial crisis may reflect structural weaknesses in the decision-making process within the eurozone and European Union,” the agency is said to have told them. Well, yes, I think “structural weakness in decision-making” is something that we’ve seen ample [...]

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Yes, Germany’s financial sector support was more than the UK’s. So much for concentrating on manufacturing and not being over-whelmed by finance, eh? And the tax loss due to recession? The UK’s being much larger than everyone else’s? Just shows how Brown really, really, should have been running a budget surplus, doesn’t it, as tax [...]

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I’m getting confused about a number which is being bandied about. For example, the wage share of GDP as at page 6 of this. Which seems remarkably different from the labour share of income here. And what sparks my interest is this definition of calculating up (or dividing out if you prefer) GDP via the [...]

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When Ritchie tells us that there is uncertainty, uncertainty being different from risk, I have a feeling that this is the sort of thing he has in mind: This brings me to the crucial issue. Unlike the position that exists in the physical sciences, in economics and other disciplines that deal with essentially complex phenomena, [...]

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The argument being rebutted is that of Tim Worstall – that we should not tackle tax evasion because to do so would reduce GDP. He says the existing rate of evasion is optimal and we should not address it as we are at an equilibrium state where we can afford this level of crime. No, [...]

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Doctor goes into federal government, finds that federal government is incredibly wasteful in health care, moves like a snail, is less efficient that private non-profits. Therefore all health care should be run by federal government. see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

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Place your choice for the Dogbert characvter in real life……

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United Russia and Vladimir Putin will form the next government. Oh, so you think they won the election at the weekend then? No, I said that they’re going to be the next government.

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But we are a lot weaker than Germany, which invested properly in training and technology, whose banking system stuck with manufacturing, Like buggery bollocks it did. The German banks, especially the Lander based ones, were total patsies for every dodgy deal that rolled off the Wall Street production line. The German government whipped its €480 [...]

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Leone, whose real name is Karen Malhotra, has been appearing in Bigg Boss, the Indian version of Big Brother, where a group of minor celebrities spend months in a house cut off from the world, vying for publicity and a cash prize. It’s now necessary to explain what Big Brother is. O Tempora, O Mores [...]

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Is the financial industry also up to the challenge of transparency and openness? We already know about the position of the City of London Corporation: they’ve had the last thousand years to publish their accounts, but refuse to publicly discuss the issue. The City accounts are here love.

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Dear God, what are we coming to? Government doing something sensible? NHS cancer patients to be offered experimental drugs Cancer patients will get much quicker access to experimental drugs and other treatments still in development, David Cameron will announce today. The biggest cost in pharmaceutical development is the trials. Phase III trials particularly. phase II [...]

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Chris Huhne: Britain should lead the world in cutting carbon emissions Chris Huhne has called for Britain to lead the world in cutting carbon emissions, setting himself on a collision course with George Osborne, the Chancellor. This is to allow Chris Huhne to walk tall among the environmentalists. To accept, nay demand, their praise and [...]

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One doesn’t want to be ungallant but 33 is fairly long in the tooth for a chorus ballerina*. If you’ve not collected the rich businessman by that point one is going to have to think about working as a second career. Mariafrancesca Garritano, 33, has broken the unwritten code of silence – which she fears [...]

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Yet, like most economists, I don’t view the study of economics as laden with ideology. Most of us agree with Keynes, who said: “The theory of economics does not furnish a body of settled conclusions immediately applicable to policy. It is a method rather than a doctrine, an apparatus of the mind, a technique for [...]

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