Tim Worstall

Economic illiteracy over trade perhaps?

"I don’t want to leave the European Union and I’ll tell you why. This is a trading nation. Yorkshire relies on traded goods and on businesses which can trade all over the world and particularly in Europe. We export more per head of the population than America, Japan or other countries. […]

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This really rather confuses me, this piece from Bob Kuttner (Via).

Adam Smith observed in 1776 that economies work best when governments keep their clumsy thumbs off the free market’s "invisible hand." Two generations later, in 1817, the British economist David Ricardo extended Smith’s insights to global trade. Just as market forces lead to the right […]

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In the debate upon the Constitutional sell out M’Lord Maclennan of Rogart says:

It is also pure fantasy to think that we can, through our lone voice in the councils of the world, influence trade policy to protect our citizenry without aligning others in support.

When has trade policy, uni- or multi-lateral, ever been used to protect […]

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These boys do worry me you know.

Reform tax policy to close tax havens, revise tax treaties and use revenue-raising tariffs more productively.

Eh? They’re approving of this NGO talking point document for presentation to a UN conference.

Reform tax policy to close tax havens, revise tax treaties and use revenue-raising tariffs more productively.

If they were actually trying […]

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Last October, Ski Republic, a French-owned chain, promised a "new dawn for ski lovers" at a high-profile launch in London, in which Danielle Lloyd, a former Miss England, posed in a bikini with skis and boots.
But its aggressive marketing tactics and offer of two pairs of skis for the price of one for online bookings […]

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A trade deficit increases the workers’ wages.
No, no, hold on. We know that an increase in the capital stock raises wages…more machines are bought, productivity rises, capitalists compete for the labour to man those machines, wages rise.
A trade deficit means a capital account surplus: it must do, it’s an accounting identity.
So a trade deficit means […]

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In other words, the big retailers have used the latest headline stories on food price inflation to jack up their profits on pork, without passing any of the gravy down the chain to the wretched farmers.
Instead, they chose the moment to bury stakes into the barely palpitating breasts of the only people that stood between […]

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This ASI report does seem to have made some waves. Janet Daley:

But even more serious, the Fairtrade operation helps to keep poor countries and undeveloped economies exactly that - poor and undeveloped.
By sustaining agricultural activity that would not otherwise be sustainable in the global marketplace, it keeps backward populations from developing other forms of modern […]

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The Adam Smith Inst. report on Fairtrade is now out.
Looks like Kay Tee’s on the ball with her advice:

Consumers could even buy bargain products from their local supermarkets and loan the money they save directly to farmers through a microcredit agency like kiva.org.

That way the farmers both get to develop, rather than being held back […]

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Starts tomorrow I beleive. And there’s a report out from the bosses at the ASI to celebrate.

Fairtrade’s supporters blame the plight of coffee farmers on world prices and ruthless multinationals. But supporters ignore the real causes of poverty among growers. Farmers I interviewed in Kenya told me that the problems they faced were caused by […]

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OK, OK, so these people are idiots but let’s take their figures at face value shall we?

The United Kingdom is drastically over-populated and could support only 17 million people if it had to provide for the current 60 million from its own resources, says a study published on Monday.

That means 43 million people are alive, […]

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Peak oil, peak food…..but the real danger is here:

Mr Currie said investment cycles in energy typically last about 10 to 12 years as producers struggle to catch up with demand. However, this cycle has been short-circuited by politicians after barely six years.
"The political environment is extremely hostile. The world is looking like the 17th century […]

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Critics have said it is proper that the UK is self sufficient in doctors but officials should still look after the international doctors already here.

Why?
We’re not self sufficient in apples, energy, steel, accountants, bankers or builders. Why should we be trying to be self sufficient in doctors?
Haven’t these people ever heard of the benefits of […]

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Is Gavin Kennedy about?

Brown won’t be able to rely on Adam Smith for intellectual support of unrestricted free trade. His townsman, faced with Chinese currency manipulation and artificial barriers to imports imposed by Japan, would say "There may be good policy in retaliations" if they force changes in the policy of trading partners.
"The recovery of […]

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Sure, it’s nice to have more trade, nice to have more investment here (which of course raises the productivity and thus wages here).

Tens of thousands of jobs could be created in Britain by Chinese companies, Gordon Brown said, as he hailed an historic deal which he hopes will increase trade between the two countries by […]

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At the GI. Measuring barriers to trade properly.
Transport costs have historically been more of a barrier to trade than tariffs.

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The main one being it has taken so much work to turn the cherries picked at Eden just before Christmas into cups of coffee. "I’ve put hours into it," said Stephenson. "If I was charging by the number of man hours I’ve put it into it, I would have to charge £20 a cup."

That’s why […]

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I sorta get Kaletsky here:

The bad news is that the $400 billion worth of extra economic activity gained by US businesses and workers will be exactly matched by losses in Europe, Asia and the rest of the world.

And I sorta don’t. He’s saying that a switching from EU production to US consumption hurts the EU […]

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What’s the problem here?

China’s surplus with the US has grown by just 18pc. The high-level EU team — the first currency mission of its kind — will include Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank. The implicit threat is that China could face protectionist measures if it persists with a mercantilist policy of […]

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Someone’s been letting the lefties into the trade debate again.

Sadly, both for American workers and the quality of the trade debate, the textbook has other chapters. One of them explains the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem (SST), which points out that when the US exports insurance services and aircraft while importing apparel and electronics, we are implicitly selling […]

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