Tim Worstall
Seeking Alpha
Portugal
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Recent articles by Tim:
Energy Fuels Continues To Surprise On Rare Earths (NYSE:UUUU)
Energy Fuels has a substantial uranium portfolio, it owns a uranium mill. See why I believe that UUUU stock is trying out the things that make sense. → Read More
What Keir Starmer gets wrong about manufacturing jobs
Is there no end to the Labour Party’s economic illiteracy? After claiming that free markets have ‘failed’ and extolling the protectionist virtues of ‘Buy British’, Keir Starmer’s latest wheeze is to tell us that British manufacturing is in urgent need of a revival. What’s particularly odd about this is there has not actually been any […] → Read More
Centrist populism is responsible for Europe's energy crisis
Much time, energy, money and column inches have been deployed in recent years to address the scourge of ‘populism’ in the UK and across Europe. The inverted commas are required, because this populism is typically presented as a creature of the political extremes – Marine Le Pen in France; Jeremy Corbyn or Nigel Farage in […] → Read More
A £15 minimum wage would be way too high
Minimum wages can raise incomes, but they can also reduce them to zero. As any schoolboy economist knows, if you raise the price of something you reduce the demand for it. Increase the price of labour and you’ll reduce employment. It’s not a difficult insight. It’s also true that we’re not happy with the idea […] → Read More
The real reason energy companies are going bust? Not enough gambling in The City
Forget low winds, lack of fracking and a cable destroyed in a fire, the real reason energy supply companies are going bust left, right and centre is that there’s not enough risk taking in The City. Price volatility is inevitable in global markets, since we don’t have the ability to fix wholesale prices in other […] → Read More
The EU's centralised microchip plan is a recipe for disaster
Copying certain parts of China’s economic policy seems sensible enough – the place has dragged an essentially neolithic economy into the modern world in only 40 years, after all. The same process took the UK about 400 years. We ought to be careful to learn the right lessons, however – something the European Commission has […] → Read More
Never knowingly underpaid? What the John Lewis wage row really tells us about capitalism
There’s nothing, it seems, that can’t be blamed on capitalism. Climate change is a result of the demand for permanent growth. We don’t have enough growth because the rich just sit, Scrooge McDuck-like, on their fortunes and don’t invest. Now the John Lewis Partnership is facing a contradictory row over paying ‘poverty wages’, with some […] → Read More
The problem of solving Medicare with tax hikes
Medicare trustees have released their annual report announcing that Medicare is running out of money. → Read More
'Inflating away the debt' sounds attractive, but there's a good reason it won't work
Something, at some time, is going to have to be done about the national debt. The question is, as ever, what? Running a budget surplus which then pays down that debt doesn’t appeal politically – it’s always more fun to spend tax money than it is to collect taxes, and voting patterns show that the […] → Read More
Uefa's wage cap plan won't make football fairer, but it will make owners richer
To be liberal – or simply to be rational – is to be against attempts to create or build privilege in the economy. Indeed, one way of reading Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations is as a sustained complaint against such privileges enjoyed by the medieval guilds which still infested the economy of his times. On […] → Read More
The Government should show some steel and remove tariffs
Everyone knows – or at least should know – that the point of trade is imports. They make us richer by letting us consume products made better, faster or cheaper by foreigners than we can manage here at home. We also know – or at least should – that this isn’t how politics works. Because […] → Read More
Whose bright idea was banning halogen light bulbs?
When it comes to tackling climate change there are two key commandments: First it must be done the cheap way, and second it must be done the cheap way. With its decision to ban halogen and fluorescent light bulbs, the government is breaking both. The first rule was laid down in the Stern Review, the […] → Read More
Generous trade offer to Australia will allow Global Britain to demand the same elsewhere
The free-traders in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet appear to have won the day: the Prime Minister has reportedly sided with Trade → Read More
Prince Charles is on the wrong side of history, again
Prince Charles, bless ‘im, has decided to get on the wrong side of another environmental debate. This time, HRH has written an Observer op-ed explaining that small farmers are very important and must be continue to be subsidised to survive. The European Union has – as usual – got on that same incorrect side of […] → Read More
Get ready for the great unemployment benefits test
There is excellent news as up to 18 states indicate that they're going to opt out of the federal expansion and addition to unemployment insurance. → Read More
Why the post-war period was no Golden Age – and neoliberalism has not been a failure
There is a fashionable, pervasive and tempting idea that the post-war decades really were the Good Old Days – a period of remarkable economic growth which was also wondrously equitable. When The Times describes this period as a “golden era” we can probably assume that this is the establishment view. The corollary of this is […] → Read More
The defective excuses for a capital gains tax hike on the rich
President Joe Biden wants to double capital gains tax rates for rich people. It's not a very good idea. → Read More
The Post Office scandal proves the rule of law is vital for a functioning economy
Admiral Byng was court martialled, convicted and shot on his own quarterdeck for the crime of retreating from a battle in the Seven Years’ War without attacking the enemy with sufficient effort and perseverance. As Voltaire pointed out this was “pour encourager les autres”, and it worked – no British Admiral has been thought shy […] → Read More
Boris Johnson's visit to India will put his trade principles to the test
In the much anticipated Integrated Foreign Policy & Defence Review published last week, the government set out one of its → Read More
Britain's sugar battle: helping consumers, or keeping producers sweet?
Should we all get fat and happy upon British Sugar? Or should we bankrupt the NHS with obesity fuelled by British sugar? On that one capital letter rests the latest demand from the National Farmers’ Union, which is up in arms that Tate & Lyle is labelling its foreign-produced sugar with a British flag, simply […] → Read More