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Tim Worstall

Tim Worstall - Author Archive

How can we measure the result of privatising NHS England?

HOW surprising to see in The Guardian the usual moan about how flogging off the NHS is a very bad idea indeed. Which it might actually be but the really … (read more)

Posted: 29th, August 2012 | In: Money | Comment (1)

There ain’t no such thing as a solution: only tradeoffs

THERE’S a point that the subject of economics really tries very hard to get across. There’s no such thing as a solution: there are only tradeoffs. These tradeoffs come in … (read more)

Posted: 28th, August 2012 | In: Money | Comment

Both Apple and Samsung found guilty!

BOTH Apple and Samsung Guilty! Probably the best result possible in the ongoing patent wars between the two companies. They’re both very naughty little boys. Unfortunately this is the verdict in … (read more)

Posted: 24th, August 2012 | In: Money, Technology | Comment (1)

Unholy nonsense about food speculation at Glencore

UNHOLY nonsense about food speculation at Glencore. In fact, not just nonsense, but drivel. Glencore has said that as there are droughts and food shortages then this is a good business … (read more)

Posted: 23rd, August 2012 | In: Money | Comment (1)

Why bosses get paid more

WHY bosses are paid more. Or at least, why good bosses should get paid more.  Interesting research from the real world:
Three findings stand out. First, the choice of boss matters. … (read more)

Posted: 22nd, August 2012 | In: Money | Comments (3)

How do you export electricity like Iceland? you don’t

YOU don’t export electricity. Or at least the country which is most successful at exporting electricity doesn’t in fact export electricity. Iceland has lots of luvverly cheap green ‘leccie. It’s … (read more)

Posted: 21st, August 2012 | In: Money | Comment

Lord save us from newspaper fools: on the Thames Estuary airport and Severn Barrage

LORD save us form the newspaper fools. Especially the fools who write the editorials. Here’s the Daily Telegraph shouting that we must have lots more infrastructure spending:
It is little wonder … (read more)

Posted: 20th, August 2012 | In: Money | Comment

“I promise I am not smoking crack” declares Apple lawyer to judge

THIS Apple v Samsung patent fight is actually getting rather interesting at last. The judge asked one of Apple’s lawyers yesterday whether he was smoking crack, leading to distinguished counsel … (read more)

Posted: 17th, August 2012 | In: Money, Technology | Comment

If our companies are going bust because of China’s subsidies, what should we do?

A NICE little conundrum: if all our solar panel companies are going bust because of Chinese competition then what should we be doing about it? And our solar companies, the … (read more)

Posted: 16th, August 2012 | In: Money | Comments (5)

An entirely astonishing observation on cheap flights from the Daily Mail

DID you read the news in the Daily Mail? No, amazingly it’s not that cancer causing immigrants damage house prices. Nor even that immigrants raising house prices cure cancer. Rather, … (read more)

Posted: 15th, August 2012 | In: Money, The Consumer | Comments (2)

How not to use Twitter

THIS is how not to use twitter. Let’s say that you’re a very rich person indeed. Billions of $ worth of rich. And in fact you’re so rich that lots … (read more)

Posted: 14th, August 2012 | In: Money, Technology | Comment

Now we get the bollocks about the Olympics being a blueprint for the economy

NOW that the actual Olympics Games themselves are over all we’ve got left are the vacuous claiming them as support for their fat headed plans. Will Hutton, of course, did … (read more)

Posted: 13th, August 2012 | In: Money | Comment

Is The Daily Mail insane?

IS the Daily Mail insane? This headline is simply unbelievable:
Record number of buy-to-let mortgages worth more than £160bn drives up rent bills
In what universe does an increase in the number … (read more)

Posted: 10th, August 2012 | In: Money | Comment

Forget that rooftop windmill: David Cameron and New Yorkers should

I THINK we all remember that David Cameron put a nice little windmill on his roof just to show that he really was green? And that there was a little … (read more)

Posted: 9th, August 2012 | In: Money | Comments (2)

How to lose $440 million in an hour – Knight Capital advise

THE American company, Knight Capital, managed to lose $440 million in an hour last week on the New York Stock Exchange. Even bankers aren’t normally that stupid so what in … (read more)

Posted: 8th, August 2012 | In: Money | Comment (1)

Let’s beat climate change: get fracking in Blackpool!

YOU may have noticed that one company claims to have found large amounts of shale gas underneath Blackpool. Cuadrilla Resources says that there’s untold trillions of cubic feet of gas … (read more)

Posted: 8th, August 2012 | In: Money | Comments (9)

Your Eurozone crisis data point of the day – uncertainty kills us all

IF the euro were to fall apart the longer term repercussions would almost certainly be positive. The Southern countries would be free of the straitjacket of being forced to try … (read more)

Posted: 7th, August 2012 | In: Money | Comment

Why we really do want to decentralise the NHS – national does not work

SO. What do we think is the best system then? Taking all the people to dim to go into banking, sticking them in the Department of Health and giving them … (read more)

Posted: 6th, August 2012 | In: Money | Comments (4)

Apple doesn’t do it for the money – oh no, Jonathan Ive!

APPLE does not do it for the money. This is a nice claim but I wouldn’t want to run too far with it.

Sir Jonathan Ive, the man credited with shaping … (read more)

Posted: 1st, August 2012 | In: Money, Technology | Comment

Where in hell do you want the Greenland mining pollution then, Greenpeace?

FROM the annals of really pig ignorant stupid environmentalism, we bring you a Greenpeace expert:
Jon Burgwald, an Arctic expert at Greenpeace, said that mining operations can bring pollution and destruction: … (read more)

Posted: 1st, August 2012 | In: Money | Comment (1)

Solving the industrial problem: raise your bloody wages

YET another of these bloody attempts to define what is wrong with British manufacturing industry. As ever, calling for the picking of winners and government support for them. Bloody stupid, … (read more)

Posted: 30th, July 2012 | In: Money | Comments (2)

Apple pays $60 million and still doesn’t get iPad trademark in China

I DO like this story. It appears that Apple has handed over $60 million in China to buy the Chinese rights to the “iPad” trademark and yet it still doesn’t … (read more)

Posted: 28th, July 2012 | In: Money, Technology | Comment

The amazing success of public transport system – not the Edinburgh tram

I’M always a little surprised by the people who shout that we’ve got to spend much more on rail. On trams. On properly integrated public transport systems.  For they ever … (read more)

Posted: 26th, July 2012 | In: Money | Comment

Note to egalitarian socialists on kibbutz: even among volunteers egalitarian socialism doesn’t work

THERE’S one place in the world that has had a proper experiment with voluntary egalitarian socialism. That is, it really has been tried without anyone being whipped in to it … (read more)

Posted: 24th, July 2012 | In: Money | Comments (4)

Oh yes, the financial sector can be too large

YES, yes, any number of mouthbreathing lefties insist that the UK is “too reliant” upon finance. That we’ve got to cut the banksters down to size. That we should concentrate … (read more)

Posted: 23rd, July 2012 | In: Money | Comments (2)

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