Tim Worstall

Now this is amusing news.

Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, was the whistleblower behind the Office of Fair Trading’s current probe into alleged price fixing of food and toiletries, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

So, why did they do it?

In blowing the whistle, Wal-Mart, which owns the Asda chain, has guaranteed itself immunity from a fine should […]

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About 100 leading household brands, including PG Tips, Coca-Cola and Aquafresh, are at the centre of an investigation into allegations of price-fixing, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

From the report it seems that the OFT thinks that every large consumer goods company and every large retailer is in on it. In effect, that the entire market […]

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His misfortune was to follow a man who was reckoned by everyone to know precisely what he was doing at every single moment of every single day. José Mourinho, the handsome Portuguese capable of weakening the most football-phobic of female knees, had elevated the art of coaching to new levels.
A wily media operator, a sharp […]

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I wonder, do journalists ever read what they write?

Did you know that 27,000 workers in the manufacturing sector have lost their jobs in the past three months? No reason why you should - it hasn’t exactly dominated the headlines.

Actually, no I didn’t, but it doesn’t surprise me in the least.

Despite being cold-shouldered, and despite the […]

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This Observer piece really seems to wander a little in its* argument.
Manufacturing is great because well, it’s manufacturing, innit, so much better than just those services like finance and The City.
And then the praise for the fact that a lot of what we class as manufacturing is actually services, like design and maintenance.
Eh?
 
* See first […]

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This turned up on EU Referendum earlier in the week of course, now with Christopher Booker (not all that much of a surprise, Richard North is Booker’s co-author on several books and his researcher at times). The most important part of the story to me is this:

Since these costs will be much the same for […]

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OK, so yet another investigation into the supermarkets. But this is the bit I found most interesting:

The OFT has also been plagued by actions from rivals of companies against whom it has dropped investigations - and this is the Irishman’s biggest bugbear.
"People out in the market should compete in the market. Not by using public […]

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Guido thinks that closing Grangemouth for two days will make the country run out of fuel.
No, I don’t know either.
I also don’t know whether this is true or whether it’s an urban legend. My guess is that it’s true.
The storage capacity of the fuel tanks of all the cars and lorries on the road is […]

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What a waste!

Thousands of shops, restaurants and cafés will be forced to register their staff with a new child protection agency and have their criminal records checked if they employ children for weekend or summer holiday work.
Any staff responsible for supervising children under 16 will have to be vetted. The measure is in the Safeguarding […]

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Those stories over how Tesco’s was going to save a billion in tax….we all found out they were nonsense pretty quickly, didn’t we? It appears that The Guardian might have a few problems over it:

Tesco is to take legal action against the Guardian newspaper and its editor Alan Rusbridger after a series of articles that […]

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I’m not an accounting expert, by any means, but I think The Guardian has the wrong end of the stick again here.

More than 50 PFI schemes have now been included in portfolios held in Channel Islands tax havens by three major PFI investment companies, HSBC Infrastructure, 3i Infrastructure and Babcock and Brown Public Partnerships.
Once the […]

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Supermarkets that use their size to force down prices will be penalised under a plan to encourage competition and choice for consumers. The Competition Commission is today expected to recommend changes to discourage chains from developing local monopolies and forcing smaller stores out of business.

Isn’t that fabulous? You will be forced to pay higher prices […]

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It’s famously, umm, how shall we put this, intricate.

The family of JRR Tolkien is suing the studio behind the Lord of the Rings trilogy for £75 million claiming they have not received "even one penny" from the films.
Bonnie Eskenazi, the lawyer for the Tolkien Trust, said: "I cannot imagine how on earth New Line will […]

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Comment left on his piece today:
"Economists tend not to see the problem. As the oil price goes up, they assume more cash will be available for exploration, the oil majors will duly explore, and they will find more oil."

Eh? As an amateur economist only might I point out that you’re missing something really rather important […]

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A reasonable year:

Fourth
Quarter

Twelve
Months

 
 
2007
 
2006
 
2007
 
2006

 
Earnings / Earnings Per Share
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
Total revenues and other income
116,642
 
90,028
 
404,552
 
377,635

 
Total costs and other deductions
96,920
 
74,467
 
334,078
 
310,233

 
Income before income taxes
19,722
 
15,561
 
70,474
 
67,402

 
Income taxes
8,062
 
5,311
 
29,864
 
27,902

 
Net income (U.S. GAAP)
11,660
 
10,250
 
40,610
 
39,500

 
Net income per common share (dollars)
2.15
 
1.77
 
7.36
 
6.68

Net income per […]

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An explosion in an unlicensed Turkish fireworks factory killed at least 20 people, injured more than 100 and caused the five-storey building to collapse.

Which idiot set that up? I thought everyone* knew how to build a fireworks factory? Very strong walls, a very light roof and definitely no more than one story high….
 
* Well, everyone […]

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Not that I have a great deal of time for him but he’s right here:

‘Sadly,’ Branson told an interviewer at Davos two years ago, ‘I don’t think politicians are really in a position to change the world for the better. One of the problems politicians have is they come and go, but perhaps entrepreneurs can […]

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OK, top bod at Shell talking about how climate change should be addressed.

In the Scramble scenario, nations rush to secure energy resources for themselves, fearing that energy security is a zero-sum game, with clear winners and losers. The use of local coal and homegrown biofuels increases fast. Taking the path of least resistance, policymakers pay […]

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Paul Krugman:

The point is that the quintessential business figures of the 80s weren’t creative entrepreneurs. They were big-corporation executives (Lee Iacocca) and takeover artists (Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky). The gazillionaires who started in garages came later.

Quite So.
 
 

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Equally, as a member of the WTO, China has made considerable progress in establishing systems of law and accountability. But these systems of accountability and governance are not just weak and underdeveloped: they are also hampered by the Party’s overriding concern - to continue to monopolise power in a vertical, authoritarian system. To have real […]

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