Tim Worstall

At the ASI.
Why the banning of incandescent light bulbs was a bad idea.

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Is believing two contradictory things before breakfast actually a requirement for being a Green?
Ed Matthew, senior economics campaigner at Friends of the Earth
“Cutting emissions must be at the heart of the pre-budget report – slashing energy waste, developing the UK’s vast renewable energy potential, ending fuel poverty and creating tens of thousands of new green [...]

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Not sure we’re going to take you all that seriously on this farming business old boy.
If, as is possible, the price of oil surges during the next decade, then using nitrogen fertilisers, which are derived from oil, will become less feasible.
They’re derived from natural gas actually, not oil.

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Yippee!
The nef have done us proud and given us the Happy Planet Index 2.0.
Whoo hoo!
You’ll not be surprised to hear that they’ve changed their measurement techniques. Version 1.0 had Vanauatu as the top place on the planet. Clearly and obviously they couldn’t allow the likes of me to make cheap shots about penis sheaths and [...]

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You know, I think he’s entirely and completely fucked.
Entirely personal opinion of course, but something stinks very badly here.
Update. Yup, he’s toast.
Burnt toast.

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more animals

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Iain Dale worries that State employment is now higher than employment in the manufacturing sector. In both the US and the UK.
Well, yes, but there’s two entirely different stories here.
Divide the economy into three sectors (hell, why not?). Agriculture, manufacturing and services.
Three-ish centuries ago just about everything was agriculture. Certainly just about all employment was [...]

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Asked by Richard Murphy.

The English isn’t great: ignore that. The issue is this: do you believe anything said here? Is redomiciliation really a case of ‘moving up the scale of offshore administrations’? Or could it be something much more pernicious – the opportunity for a company to flee from one jurisdiction to another, lock, stock [...]

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Must, be, Richard Murphy tells me so.
Our latest comment call and response:

“. It is impossible to suppose that a man who can argue (as you did in the Guardian, very recently) that “Things in markets are worth what the markets say they are worth” is a true heir of Smith,”
I fear that you have failed [...]

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Quite aside from the question of why she was even carrying a gun (to defend herself, she said, even though in Austin, a city of just under 750,000 people, there were just 30 murders last year, compared to, say, the London borough of Lambeth, population 273,000, where there were 23), at least she’d left it [...]

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Wish I’d actually gone ahead with some of these suggestions now.
Oil back in April/May was around the $115-$120 mark. It’s now under $40. And I was looking for a put option at about $70. To put say £1,500 into.
If I’d actually done it I’d be able to buy a pub by now I think (although [...]

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Speccie.
Drink crazed loons and daylight savings time.

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Scientists who examined research covering more than 600,000 women across the world found that for every pound heavier they were at birth, the risk of developing breast cancer increased by six per cent.

Hmm.
We also know that smoking during pregnancy reduces birth weight (I think it’s 1 cigarette per day [...]

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Telling us to grow our own food. Hmm, mebbe, if that’s what you want to do. But there’s something of a political agenda here, don’t you think?

Prof Lang, who advises the Government on the crisis, said that people who relied on the large supermarkets for their food did so at their peril.
"Ultimately [...]

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The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, condemned the financial traders who made millions by driving down the share price of leading banks as "bank robbers and asset strippers".
In a powerful speech to City bankers on the effects of the credit crisis on Wednesday, he denounced [...]

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Something of a shouting match going on here. The annuities that are often bought with pension pots (in fact, it’s still law that by age 75 you must have spent the pot on such isn’t it?) are to be varied by likely lifespan.
Seems entirely fair: annuities already vary by sex and it’s possible to get [...]

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Gaaah! Why is that these Greens simply cannot understand the most basic points?

This massive under-utilisation of our green resources is also reflected in job figures. According to government-sponsored research, the UK has, at very best, 26,000 jobs in renewable energy. By contrast, Germany has 250,000 jobs.
With the right investment, the UK has the wind resources [...]

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Zzzzzzz.

The Treasury borrowed a record £10.4 billion last month – far exceeding previous forecasts. In total, borrowing has risen by 70 per cent during the past five months.
The figures come amid growing fears over the health of public finances as the fallout from the credit crisis and stock market turmoil continues.
The Chancellor is now expected [...]

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At the ASI.
Part of the problem with re-regulation of the markets is that those wanting to do the regulating don’t particularly understand markets.

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more animals

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