North Cyprus doesn’t have a banking problem. The rest of Cyprus has a very large banking problem. North Cyprus isn’t in the euro. The rest of Cyprus is in the euro. And the EU. Sounds like we’ve found our natural experiment to judge the effect of being in the EU/euro. It’s not an experiment that [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Uncategorized'
A thought about Cyprus
March 19th, 2013 · 19 Comments
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Timmy in Czech, weather edition
January 27th, 2013 · 3 Comments
So, I’ve hired the production engineers. We’ve a neat and simple plan from here to production then. Part of which is that we need a few hundred kg of rock to test the precise tolerances of that production (for those with a technical bent, we want to test the liberation point). Excellent, off you go [...]
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Let’s Ban Woodchip Imports! And Watch The Lights Go Out!
December 20th, 2012 · 23 Comments
What a clever idea this is: Ministers have been urged to consider banning the import of woodchip made from ash as part of measures to prevent the spread of ash dieback disease. Given that the disease is now endemic not really going to achieve much. Except of course accelerating the day when the lights go [...]
Tags: climate change · Uncategorized
How to lie with numbers Climate Change Committee version
December 13th, 2012 · 18 Comments
Household energy bills will be about £600 higher per year by the end of the decade if the UK relies increasingly on gas, the government’s climate advisers warned on Thursday. But the Committee on Climate Change found that bills would only be £100 higher than today’s average dual fuel bill of about £1,300, if the [...]
Tags: climate change · Uncategorized
Isn’t this just wonderful?
December 11th, 2012 · 12 Comments
After you strip out the royalties, the interest to the US top company, Starbucks still doesn’t make a profit in the UK. They’ve not been doing any tax dodging at all.
Tags: Tax · Uncategorized
Can’t economists do maths any more?
September 3rd, 2012 · 6 Comments
In the last decade and a half China, which has grown at an annual average of 10%, has increased its spending on research and development by 170%. Hmm. Of course, we need both general stimulus spending – in areas such as healthcare, education and infrastructure – and directed investment in strategic new technologies and sectors. [...]
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@RichardJMurphy tries tax law: not a pretty sight
August 4th, 2012 · 5 Comments
Following on here I am advised that the House of Lords agrees with Ritchie so there. Richard Murphy @RichardJMurphy @worstall Shame you ignore the fact that the House of Lords agree with me. But why let facts get in the way of diatribe? This is what Ritchie says the House of Lords said: Tax avoidance [...]
Tags: Ragging on Ritchie · Uncategorized
Timmy elsewhere
June 30th, 2012 · No Comments
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But this is the problem Polly
June 12th, 2012 · 2 Comments
The aim is to rubbish the poverty measure accepted by all international organisations and to call for new measures that ignore inequality. All of those international organisations use a definition of poverty which is about inequality, not poverty. So if you wish to insist, as is perfectly reasonable even if you don’t happen to agree, [...]
Tags: Uncategorized · Wonk Watch
The Greek solution
May 21st, 2012 · 5 Comments
Splutter: We could give it back to the Turks. Supporting Greek independence was always a mistake. Seems better than the last two solutions we tried – allowing some Germans to run it. Plus they had a third go in the 1940s. Never seems to work out well. We can tell the Turks we will throw [...]
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The Glory that is Ritchie!
May 10th, 2012 · 41 Comments
He’s done a long interview. Here. Anyone who wants to teach economics or accountancy these days has to subscribe to neoliberal economic thinking. Blatantly untrue. Prem Sikka is a Prof of Accounting and he’s certainly not a neo-liberal. George Irvine most certainly ain’t a neo-liberal and he’s a Prof of Economics. Murph might not have [...]
Tags: Ragging on Ritchie · Uncategorized
Worstall scoops The Guardian by over two months
April 9th, 2012 · 2 Comments
Compare and contrast. Come along now mighty national investigative organ, do try to keep up.
Tags: Newspaper Watch · Uncategorized
Snigger
March 25th, 2012 · 4 Comments
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Freiberg Note
March 10th, 2012 · 8 Comments
Here in Freiberg is the Mormon Temple for, umm, not quite sure, Germany? Eastern Europe? Certainly a large missionary centre for them. I’ve seen gaggles of them on the streets: yet I’m accosted by them less than I have been in either the UK or Portugal. Hmm, “accosted” might be a tad harsh. Anwyay, looks [...]
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This is a very strange Brad Delong piece
January 31st, 2012 · 21 Comments
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 [...]
Tags: Economics · Uncategorized
Polly can be ignorant at times
January 31st, 2012 · 14 Comments
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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Madsen’s mistake
January 24th, 2012 · 14 Comments
Here. To say that that is the mistake that Marx made is a mistake: for he made more than one. Got quite a bit right too, obviously. The bits he cribbed off Smith are just fine for example.
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Timmy elsewhere
November 22nd, 2011 · No Comments
Trying my hand at Seeking Alpha. A possible answer to what happened to the MF Global money
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Another surprise!
October 3rd, 2011 · 4 Comments
Figures show that the gender pay gap has dramatically narrowed, leaving young women marginally ahead of their male counterparts for the first time. Female workers aged between 22 and 29 earn just over £10 per hour on average, while men in the same age bracket are paid just under £10, the study found. Given that [...]
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Cousins doing art
June 22nd, 2011 · 1 Comment
An art project (I think this is what it is called? Performance art? Inclusive art? Participatory art?) being done by a beloved cousin. Here. If any of my readers who actually know about such artistic things (clearly, the familial art genes did not acumulate in me) would care to track down the project in London [...]
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