Tim Worstall

Well it’s certainly an interesting argument in that it impressively straddles – and exquisitely so! – the line between stupitidy and balls to the wall roaring insanity.

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Here.
UK banks building societies and UK branches
and subsidiaries of overseas lenders would have a
remuneration cap imposed. A low compensation
ratio would be set at around 15%.32
Note 32 says:
32 The compensation ratio is the
percentage of an institutions net
revenue allocated to staff pay
Well, we all know we can play games with the definition of “net” revenue.
As a way [...]

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If you start off misunderstanding the very basics of capitalism then of course your prescriptions for making it better are going to be complete nonsense, aren’t they?
But so should reward be proportional to our extra effort. It is a fundamental part of human beings’ hard-wiring. The scales symbolically declare that justice is getting [...]

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Their latest report.
Many people work longer hours than 30 years ago. Since 1981 two-adult households have added six hours – nearly a whole working day – to their combined weekly workload.
No they haven’t. This is simply a lie.
Leisure hours have risen: so working hours must have fallen.
And to think, our tax money [...]

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Hmm.
These serious health inequalities do not arise
by chance, and they cannot be attributed simply to
genetic makeup, ‘bad’, unhealthy behaviour, or difficulties
in access to medical care, important as those
factors may be. Social and economic differences in
health status reflect, and are caused by, social and
economic inequalities in society.
I agree, I’ve only skimmed the summary, but I see [...]

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Myth 5: Workers in highly paid jobs work harder
It has been claimed that workers at the top end of the income scale work long hours and therefore ‘deserve’ higher earnings. There are several factors, however, that are not usually taken into consideration when calculating hours worked.
One of these factors is the fact that the poorest [...]

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What Marx correctly predicted was that real wages, or returns to workers, would be eroded over time.
Right, they’re talking complete and total bollocks then. Real wages have not been declining. Marx was not correct. Thus everything else they say on the subject is entirely bollocks then, isn’t it?

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Prevailing wisdom would say yes: pay is a reward that reflects merit.
Sigh.
Pay reflects scarcity. To do job x the skills a,b,c and d are necessary. If we’ve more people with skills a, b, c and d available than we have jobs x which need them then pay will be low. If we have fewer then [...]

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Build social and environmental value into prices. Until goods and services reflect the real costs and benefits of their production, incentives will be misaligned with the kinds of positive behaviours society wishes to promote. Getting the prices right would affect relative profitability and so would align what wages could be paid with the value that [...]

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This is indeed true:
Conclusions
This report is not about targeting any individuals in the highly paid jobs it scrutinises. Neither is it simply suggesting that people in low paid jobs should be paid more. The point we are making is a more complex one – that there should be a relationship between what we are paid [...]

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If high pay is partly intended to compensate for risk, stress and long hours then we would expect dangerous jobs to be well rewarded. Fishing is the most dangerous job in Britain, with roofers and scaffolders also high up on the danger list, and waste recycling collectors are at number 18. Yet in none of these [...]

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This is simply glorious:
The impact of globalisation has made matters worse, contributing to an increasing specialisation of the workforce….
Yup, they’re agin’ the division and specialisation of labour, the very thing which makes Smithian economic growth happen.
Is there no beginning to their understanding of the subject of economics?

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Twats in search of some press copy. How else to explain this?
The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) says Britain, which was the world’s fourth largest economy as recently as 2005, has slipped to seventh this year behind America, China, Japan, Germany, France and Italy.
By 2015, it predicts, Britain will be outside [...]

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Sunder Katwala of the Fabians:
The Taxpayers’ Alliance may just be a pressure group, but it aspires to represent all UK taxpayers and speak in their name. It is very keen on accountability, so why won’t it reveal who its donors are? I am sure there is nothing to hide, so why refuse reveal all donors [...]

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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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I receive a comment from Sam Thompson of the new economics foundation:
Amount of money nef receives from the current government = £0
Really?
Sam, might I suggest that you read your own accounts?
Principal funding sources
Our funding sources are diverse and we receive funding from trusts and foundations, local, regional
and national government and through consultancy contracts.
There is of [...]

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She leaves the Fawcett Society (those who continually lie to us about the gender pay gap) to head up a Fake Charity.
So far, so normal for those in “civil society” who such at the Government’s teat.
This is good though.
Yesterday her husband said he hoped he was a hands on father. He refused to comment further [...]

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So, all mobile phones have SMS or texting on them.
Is there any way to turn that feature off?
Specifically, a way to turn it off so that anyone who tries to text you knows that it didn’t go through? And that it won’t?
 

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Ben Goldacre sharpens his pencil once again. That Reform report on how we should have more mathematicians.….
….but let’s round up like the angry maths profs did and say that about 20% of maths graduates enter financial services. Not 40%. I call this "arithmetic".
Not good so far. But then the report makes two economic howlers.

And even [...]

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