Software, whether that’s a CD, a text file of a book, or a computer program, is a good with a marginal cost of zero. Hence basic economics tells us an individual act of software copying makes society in aggregate better off and harms nobody (because the total producer surplus plus consumer surplus is maximised when [...]

There’s a lot of debate in left-wing-commentaryland at the moment about electricity and gas prices, ‘fuel poverty’, and how these relate to the profits made by energy companies.
The problem is, the debate is nonsense: UK utilities are losing out from high energy prices - and utility bills are currently far too low in any case. [...]

A long time ago on a blog far away, I posted a graph showing the oil price in euros. The resulting trace looked rather different from the conventional US$ measure.
With that blog dead, several years passed, and another round of ‘oooh, isn’t oil expensive’ fussing currently taking place, I thought it might be a good [...]

Craig Murray is the UK’s former ambassador to Uzbekistan. He’s an excellent exposer of evilness in ex-Soviet extremities, and was one of the main figures behind the campaign to stop Alisher Usmanov gaining control of Arsenal. In short, he’s a good man.
However, he’s not a man who should really be writing about financial statements. At [...]

I like to think that, despite living a champagne-and-caviar lifestyle, spending my time with models and rock stars, and living in a luxury penthouse [*], I’m still in touch with my left-wing roots.
As a result, I’m always slightly reluctant to denounce trade unions and strikers: had they not existed in the past, there’s a reasonable chance we’d [...]

Have you ever heard the story of Emperor Norton? It’s one of those bizarre little curiosities of American history, the San Franciscan who declared himself Emperor of the United States (and sometime Protector of Mexico) in 1859 and remarkably found that many of the inhabitants of his home city accepted him as such. He never [...]

Yesterday, Brendan Barber, the TUC leader, criticised the high pay levels of senior executives and questioned whether their remuneration was justified by their performance. The response from the CBI was predictable:
Complaining about executive pay might give the TUC brownie points with union members, but it ignores the reality of a global economy where there is a fierce battle [...]

Merrick wrote here yesterday in defence of the Citizen’s Basic Income. What I find interesting about the non-debate surrounding it is how a policy so close to the mainstream among polbloggers, could be so far from the shores of ordinary politics. Now, it’s easy to psychoanalyse the bloggers, to see what they see in the [...]

Work Secretary John Hutton promises a crackdown on the long-term unemployed. He says a ‘hardcore’ of benefit claimants are spending years on the dole and should be forced to take opportunities or have their benefits cut.
Whereas in fact we’d be better off just giving them their dole and leaving them alone.

We’re constantly bombarded with news that suggests the global economy is enjoying an indefinite growth spurt. Britain is in year 15 of a boom, China and India are the economic super powers of the future, America grows steadily despite all Bush’s attempts to the contrary. Even in continental Europe, which we’re told is well on [...]

You rarely come across a piece of evidence as damning for simple economism as this:
The nation’s Halloween spend has increased by a factor of 10 since 2001 and reached £120 million last year, according to Woolworths. It is anticipating a 30 per cent increase this year.
So, what’s going on here?

The refusal of British business to accept any responsibility for the state of the economy is something I’ve ranted about before over at my place, but it’s an issue that continues to bug me.
The British business community complains, pretty much constantly, that the tax-and-regulation-happy policies instituted during nine years of Labour government are risking our [...]

Thus spake France’s Minister for European Affairs, Catherine Colonna, giving her opinion of the state of the EU to the assembled ranks of the French Ambassadorial elite. Packed with (if we’re honest, fairly astute) criticisms of the current way the EU works, this seems to be a new approach from France, the country which more [...]

Archbishop Cranmer, although a dab hand at being burned alive, is a relative newcomer to UK blogging. He must be good, as he’s been namechecked in the Sharpener’s New Blood Roundup - although he’s perhaps a little extremist and religious for my taste.
However, one Cranmer post is so monumentally weird I felt the need to [...]