Tim Worstall

BERKELEY – Neville Chamberlain is remembered today as the British prime minister who, as an avatar of appeasement of Nazi Germany in the late 1930’s, helped to usher Europe into World War II. But, earlier in that fateful decade, relatively soon after the start of the Great Depression, the British economy was rapidly returning to [...]

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Which reads, in full: dear tim, your writing is terrible. please stop writing. do not reply. best wishes, M I rather hope that it’s not this Michael Barbazette: Michael Barbazette Primary/Secondary Education Professional Greater Chicago Area Primary/Secondary Education Past SES Tutor at The Princeton Review Tutor at UNO Charter School Network Education DePaul University For [...]

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Her essential argument is that private, Christian, charity is filling, successfully, the inevitable holes in the State’s welfare provision. Therefore we must do more. Eh? Doesn’t the fact that the holes are being filled mean that the holes are being filled?

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Start with taxing all incomes at the same rate – a worker on an average £26,000 is taxed £5,981, but someone earning the same in dividends pays zero. Those on the 50% tax band only pay 36% on their dividends. Bleedin’ ‘ell Polly! Don’t you know that (in effect) basic rate income tax is collected [...]

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Germany to set the terms for saving the euro No. Germany’s set the terms for what it thinks will save the euro, what it hopes will save the euro. But whether it will save the euro isn’t in Germany’s, or any politicians’, hands. It’s all of us, in our interactions in hte markets, that will [...]

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Today the TaxPayers’ Alliance has released new research which shows that the average family pays £656,000 in taxes over their lifetime. That tax payment is around and about equal to the amount which, if saved over the years, would put said household into the top 10% in terms of wealth (850k in net assets). And [...]

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A businessman accused of being the mastermind behind an alleged £100m ‘Ponzi’ scheme was warned he faced a jail sentence after admitting charges of fraud and deception. OK, this was a big one but Ponzis are hardly unusual. I’ve been invited into one or two even in my very limited business life. But here’s the [...]

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The Prime Minister added: “In the spirit of this healthy competition with France… If France goes for a financial transactions tax, then the door will be open and we will be able to welcome many French banks to the United Kingdom and we’ll expand our economy that way.” “If France wants to be so mindbogglingly [...]

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Scotty Bowers, now aged 88, is unveiling what he claims were the antics of the Hollywood elite including Cary Grant, Rock Hudson, Vivien Leigh, Katharine Hepburn and even the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. He claims that he set up Hepburn with “over 150 different women” and other stories in his memoir relate to Spencer [...]

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The taxpayer has lost almost £900million on the value of its shares in Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group amid fears that the backlash against bonuses would damage their performance. Yah, I know, cheap shot, but wouldn’t it have been better to let Hester keep his shares?

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A good price for EU carbon allowances on the trading market is required in order to boost investment in the low carbon economy. No. Just no. For investment in the low carbon economy is not in fact something we want. Sure, we want the result of a low carbon economy (OK, well, let’s stick within [...]

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All of which has always left me thinking that an essential component of a GAAR is a change to the basis on which tax law is interpreted from a legal (literal) basis to an equitable (common law) basis. This is after he complains about the Duke of Westminster and Partington cases which are, as any [...]

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Third, poll after poll shows overwhelming public support for a tax on bankers’ bonuses; a mansion tax on multimillion-pound properties; a windfall levy on the oil and utility companies; a Robin Hood tax on financial transactions; and a one-off wealth tax of 20% on the richest 10% of households (which would raise a whopping £800bn [...]

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Ed Miliband will make the case for keeping Scotland as part of the United Kingdom in a speech in Glasgow on Monday. Miliband is expected to describe the “progressive” argument for rejecting independence in what the party billed as a major speech on the constitution. He’s not listed there as telling them the truth. That [...]

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David Miliband: Mr Miliband’s burgeoning post-ministerial income is siphoned into the company owned with his wife, called The Office Of David Miliband Limited. Tsk, eh, tsk! Financial analysts say the tactic is usually deployed to reduce a joint tax bill by taking income in the form of share dividends and exploiting both partners’ tax-free allowances. [...]

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So, Loma Linda, place in California where the health nuts hang out. And half the city are 7 th day Adventists. And McDonalds whishes to p[ollute the heaqlthy air of this mostly vegetarian town with a store selling burgers and the like. We know how this is going to turn out, don’t we? The freedom [...]

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France has added some more rocket fuel to Monday’s already volatile summit of EU leaders by pledging to introduce a 0.1pc tax on financial transactions in August. Oh to be a property agent in London these days. Brush up on the French lessons and wait for the stampede of Frogs into London to escape the [...]

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An estimated 20 per cent of the British harvest is thrown away to comply with EU regulations. Yes, I know the rules on weirdly shaped veggies were relaxed a few years bak. But that’s an horrific number. And it stems from the way we allowed some anally retentive OCD types to gain power in the [...]

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According to Ritchie’s rules this should be counted as tax dodging, shouldn’t it? Taxman ‘denied £500,000′ as Stephen Hester waives £1m RBS bonus Stephen Hester’s decision to waive his £1 million bonus will see the Treasury lose out on hundreds of thousands of pounds, estimates suggest. A bonus to a senior banker is entirely normal [...]

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At the ASI. An interesting quote from Keynes pointing out that it’s not all about aggregate demand.

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