Well, no, not quite

This is indeed true in one sense:

New figures show that the economic crisis has pushed Britain well down the international league table.

The UK is now the sixth largest economy in the world, behind America, Japan, China, Germany and France.

Economists said the fall reflected the pound's slump to record lows against the euro.

A year ago the UK economy was 8 per cent bigger than that of France, measured by gross domestic product (GDP).

Now it is 14 per cent smaller, according to figures from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR).

But it's...

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The Forbes prescription

These days it can seem more popular to defend Morris dancing than free markets. In today’s recession-engulfed debate, failed ideas have come back from the dead. Capitalism is bad, intervention good. Financiers are evil, industrialists are good. Tax hikes are good, low-tax polices are bad. And so on.

But if there is one person (beside Fraser Nelson, of course) who is willing to stand up for free-market capitalism it is Steve Forbes. The U.S publisher, flat-taxer and perennial presidential candidate has just published a punchy piece in his eponymous magazine – entitled...

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Brown is trying to deflect blame onto the bankers

Why won’t the banks pass on the rate cut? Because there isn’t anything to pass on. And for the life of me, I can’t work out why they don’t point this out. The Bank of England base rate simply doesn’t mean the Bank of England is lending to banks at 2 percent. The plumping doesn’t work that way, not no more. British banks aren’t hoarding anything. They have no net assets. They have to borrow every penny they lend. Once they borrowed from the wholesale market, which has seized up. What cash is...

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EU Nonsense

Over at the Castle I see that the engineers have suggested that instead of sending waste off to China for it to be burnt we might as well burn it here ourselves.

Mr Arbon said the UK would do far better to process waste locally because it would not only cut down on the carbon emissions used to transport waste but generate electricity from a renewable source. He said the modern generation of incinerators do not pollute the environment and pointed out they are already in use across the Continent.

OK, doesn't sound all that silly on hte face...

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Bleating about mortage rate cuts

Everybody and their mother is shouting that now that base rates have been cut then so should mortgage interest rates by the same amount.

Including that economic genius who was Chancellor for a decade and that other (ahem) one who is in charge of the economy now.

There's only one slight problem with this idea though. Mortgage rates are not determined by base rates. Influenced, yes, but not determined. The Times got this right a month ago:

Gordon Brown welcomed the news but the decision by lenders to reduce rates is likely to owe as much to...

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