Apparently Jörg Haider had an affair with the man who replaced him as leader of his party, Stefan Petzner, and the night he died (The Zanzibar Gazette) he had been drinking with male escorts (The Times).
There have rumours that Haider was gay, but he never commented. He was married to his wife for 32 years [...]
Entries from October 2008
October 23, 2008
Haider Update
October 22, 2008
Sweden And HIV
The Director General of the Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI) wants more lenient sentencing for HIV-positive individuals who have sex without informing their partner about the condition (Svenska Dagbladet).
Today, under Swedish law, doing so constitutes aggravated assault and could lead to a ten-year prison sentence. The argument from SMI seems to be that [...]
October 22, 2008
Correction
I wrote yesterday about what will perhaps be known as ‘Yachtgate’ (The Zanzibar Gazette).
In light of this statement from George Osborne (ConservativeHome) and what one faithful reader of this blog has said, I have to correct myself: it seems that George Osborne was that stupid.
From his statement, which details how he met Mr Deripaska four [...]
October 22, 2008
The Glomgold Tax Model
In response to Mr Rockerducks utopic tax system I present my own. The model is based on three principles:
Fairness
A small government
Growth
As the government has to provide defense, a juridical framework, some goods not provided by the market as a police force, roads and some wellfare the 10 % tax of part of the workforce as Mr [...]
October 21, 2008
The Rockerduck Tax System
In response to our discussion on tax (The Zanzibar Gazette) I present… the Rockerduck tax system.
0 – $49,999.99 – 0 % tax
$50,000 – $5,050,000 – 10 % tax
$5,050,001 and up – 0 % tax
The same system could be adjusted for other currencies, allowing for differences in purchase power. The tax rate could be lowered over [...]
October 21, 2008
Minimum wage
On how minimum wages raises unemployment, see my graph below;
I’m under some time pressure these days so this will only be a short note, but labour economics is interesting and I’ll definetly write more about it in the near future.
I’m not really sure I follow your reasoning in letting the government subsidize labour costs but [...]
October 21, 2008
Le Bloody Idiot
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has come up with a very stupid idea. How stupid? It might not be the most stupid idea from France ever (after all they came up with the French Revolution and the idea of moving the European Parliament between Brussels and Strasbourg) but is certainly the most ambitiously stupid idea [...]
October 21, 2008
For Your Eyes Only
According to Nathaniel Rothschild, ‘Conservative’ Shadow Chancellor George Osborne solicited a £50,000 donation to his party from a Russian oligarch in a meeting on a yacht in (outside?) Corfu (The Times).
Who is Nathaniel Rothschild? He is a ‘financier’, co-chairman of Atticus Capital and the son of the beautifully-named Lord Jacob Rothschild.
Who is the oligarch? Oleg [...]
October 21, 2008
Minimum Solidarity? Or Maximum Intervention?
The Government of Hong Kong and its Chief Executive Sir Donald ‘Bow-Tie’ Tsang is planning to introduce a minimum-wage law (The Standard). This seems to be, at least to some degree, a turn away from Hong Kong’s usual laissez-faire attitudes.
Minimum-wage legislation is common throughout the world. In the United States there is a federal minimum [...]
October 20, 2008
Standings Presidential Election 08
Real Clear Politics National Average
Obama 48.8 % Mccain 44.0 % (Link)
Ladbrokes Odds
Obama 1.1 Mccain 6.5 (Link)
It´s not looking that good I must say. The largest bookie in Ireland (The land of betting) Paddy Power stopped the betting on the US presidential election last week as they are so certain Mr Obama will be the next [...]
