Tim Worstall

Mr. Shaxson’s thesis. The BBC hasn’t made a documentary about his book, Treasure Islands, one of the 100,000 or so books published in the UK last year, because the BBC is in the pay of the tax havens. Or something. No doubt they won’t make one about the Courageous State either for the same reason. [...]

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The blockade also restricts access to long-term credit which means Cuba is often limited to dealing in cash transactions or expensive short-term credit. This makes bilateral trade more costly for the island and significantly stifles their economic freedom. Not quite as much as the Cuban Government’s denial to its citizens of any form of economic, [...]

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Cretins, we’re surrounded by cretins. There’s really only two problems with this idea. 1) It would not be the banks, not even the bankers, paying the RHT. There really is something called tax incidence, no, really, and it will be all consumers of financial prodcts that pay the tax. That’s us, the citizenry then. Heck, [...]

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You know, those ones that rise up as an incantation in Guardian not-think pieces? Analysis of the most recent time use survey for Britain — which includes the unemployed and “homemakers” as well as working couples — shows that women work an average of five hours 55 minutes a day on employment and chores, compared [...]

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The ancient city of Petra is the highlight of any visit to Jordan. The great Nabatean city, with most buildings constructed between the 5th Century BC and 2nd Century AD, is a must-see. However the problem is the ticket price. Item in fixed supply and high demand is expensive. Whoddathunkit, eh?

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Defence charities have snubbed the News of the World by refusing to accept millions of pounds in donations in protest at the alleged hacking of dead soldiers’ families’ phones. Pecunia non olet. Actually, worse than fools. Some limbless squaddies will now not get their bionic limbs because the non-injured middle class twats who run the [...]

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I’ve had this argument with John Christensen before on my blog. The government’s pursuit of tax competitiveness, where countries vie with each other to offer lower corporate tax rates, puts Christensen’s hackles right up. “It’s just a race to the bottom, a beggar-your-neighbour return to the protectionist policies of the 1930s, but these days it’s [...]

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“I certainly have seen the benefits that can come from [oil] royalties. Schools are better. There are swimming pools, gymnasium, cars – and jobs – all the result of billions of dollars.” Patricia Cochran, a former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council from Alaska, expresses the view of many indigenous people on industrial development in [...]

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David Hillman, spokesman for the Robin Hood Tax campaign, said: “The British government should wake up and smell the coffee. Other governments are moving ahead with a bank tax, while we are letting our financial sector off the hook. “A Robin Hood tax on the banks would be the most popular tax in history.” A [...]

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Laurie of course being the Germaine Greer de nos jours. Also, we are dealing here with literature in translation, but all the judges are anglophone, which is ridiculous. The prize is for literature translated into English: being a native English speaker is therefore something of an advantage. Right now, I don’t know. I don’t read [...]

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Nobody would think that it is OK to deny someone a job as a result of their sex, race or age, and the same should stand for disabled people, too. We do deny people jobs because of their age: 14 year olds do not get hired as delivery drivers. We do deny people jobs on [...]

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“The scale of the land deals being struck is shocking”, said Mittal. “The conversion of African small farms and forests into a natural-asset-based, high-return investment strategy can drive up food prices and increase the risks of climate change. Growing more food through investing in growing more food is going to drive up food prices how?

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In contrast, the real wages of top professionals such as doctors and lawyers has more than doubled. The pay of many relatively unskilled and semi-skilled workers (including bakers, forklift-truck drivers, packers and bottlers) has actually fallen in real terms since the 1970s. Yes, that’s what happens in an economy. As technology changes the demands for [...]

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Money. It’s icky, innit?

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AnnPettifor Ann Pettifor Sign now to defend media diversity and independence. Say no to Fox News in the UK. Eh? Banning a TV channel is defending media diversity?

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As food prices reach record highs, how much is the speculation in agricultural commodites to blame? Zero. Nada. Zilch. Next question? And that’s not the only stupidity in this piece by Ms. Lawrence. After intense lobbying, banks won deregulation of commodities markets in the US in 2000, allowing them to develop these new products. There [...]

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That Oxfam report into the food industry insisted that poor farmers need better transport links, better seeds, acess to better inputs. Plus better ways to get their outputs to market. The same report also attacked the major commodity traders. The way-markers today are grain silos, agricultural hangars for harvesting machines, and banner adverts across nearly [...]

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Yesterday, in the wake of the Oxfam report, Felicity Lawrence told us that food was going to get much more expensive and we’d better do something about growing more. Today Felicity Lawrence tells us that China investing lots of money in growing lots more food is a bad idea. Eh?

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Very bizarre piece. How anyone can write on the point without at least mentioning Smith and Hayek is beyond me.  

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These works are mostly public buildings, built by local authorities, and by a kind of civic confidence going back to Victorian times that, it would turn out, was in its death throes. They are also socialist. They tend not to maximise the commercial efficiency of their sites, preferring a generosity of space that now makes [...]

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