Podcasts about Daylight Robbery

As broadcast @ www.totallywiredradio.com Tuesday 20.05.25Hour One and Two with Ket Shah01. Omar - There's Much Love In The World (Impressive Collective/BBE Music 2025)02. Setoria - Love You More (Keytone 2025)03. Maevey Ft. MT Jones - So Glad (Baltic Jazz 2025)04. Arjuna Oakes - Mallet Groove (Alberts Favorites 2025)05. Daylight Robbery & Nick Marks - Tonights Entertainment (Melting Pot 2025)06. Pepe Link - Spanish Samurai (Music For Dreams 2025)07. Collettivo Immaginario - Libra (Domanda 2025)08. Wildchild - Change For My 2 Cents (Inst.) (BBE Music 2025)09. August Charles ft Blue Lab Beats - Until the Morning (Blue Adventure/Decca Beats 2025)10. Matt Johnson - Fascination (Naive 2025)11. Dargz ft. Nadine El Roubi - Good Mood (Studio Dargz 2025)12. Urbs & Cutex ft T.R.A.C. - Wherever You Are (Compost  / Beat Department 2025)13. Natalie Slade - Telephone (BBE Music 2025)14. Darryl Baalki - Paper Planes (Deeppa 2025)15. Delfonic, Claude Larson - Buzzer (Sonoton 2025)16. Sampology - Morning Sun (Middle Name 2025)17. Lukus - Love Andeavour (Apparel Music 2025)18. Gene Siewing - I've Been Blessed (Intent 2025)19. Domscott & Naer - Love So Pure (ARCO 2025)20. Black Loops ft Byron Aquarius - Detroit Love Letter (Freerange 2025)21. Jesse Futerman - Hello Old Friend (Arburtus 2025)22. Shabi - She Said House (Large 2025)23. Chaos In the CBD ft. Lee Pearson Jr. Collective - More Time (In Dust We Trust 2025)24. Intr0beatz - 738 Nights (Stay True 2025)25. Luis Radio - Lifeforce (Groovebom 2025)26. David Morales ft Antoinette Dunleavy - Tell Me (Diridim 2025)27. Cee ElAssaad, QVLN - Ore Yeye O (Doug Gomez Instrumental Mix) (EnSouled 2025

Classics from Jeremy Steig, Ella Fitzgerald and Lonnie Smith juxtaposed with the latest from Amanda Whiting, Cenk Esen, and Daylight Robbery! This program has been edited from the original broadcast.

As broadcast @ www.totallywiredradio.com Tuesday 22.04.25Hour One and Two with Ket Shah01. Fred Kingdom - Fresh Air (Nuco Music 2025)02. The Freedom Affair - Don't You Wanna Love Me (Colemine 2025)03. Resavoir & Matt Gold - Canopy (International Anthem 2025)04. Rosettes - The Call (Timmion 2025)05. Luna Soul - Just For Us Tonight (Legere 2025)06. Al Lindsey - It's Gonna Be Alright (Self Released 2025)07. Roy Inc x Darren Morris - Rivers Of Blood (Wallace & Morris Vocal Remix) (Ramrock Red 2025)08. OjiAji - Diamonds (Hope Street 2025)09. Web Web - Bird's Lament (Compost 2025)10. Rebecca Vasmant ft Emilie Boyd - Sun Song (New Soil x Women In Jazz 2025)11. Mark Millington - Matilda's Dance (Albert's Favorites 2025)12. Rita Donte - Rita Donte (Ansonia 2025)13. Raúl Monsalve y los Forajidos - Como el Sol (Olindo 2025)14. Gizmo Varillas - Desde El Otro Lado (Sonteca 2025)15. Anan - Anan (Space Echo 2025)16. Daylight Robbery with Nick Marks - Invitation Unknown (Melting Pot 2025)17. Housellers - Telecat (Irma Dancefloor 2025)18. Collettivo Immaginario - Oltreoceano (Domanda 2025)19. Yumbs - My House My Rules (Warmer Music Africa 2025)20. Thiery Tomas - Why Why (Deeppa 2025)21. Black Loops - Inmasoul (Freerange 2025)22. Fransisco Basso - Intl Rhythms 2025)23. Nutty Nys - Never (Stay True 2025)24. Ricky Montanari & Discoplex - Garagesque (Extended Mix) (Peppermint Jam 2025)25. Inkswel & Andre Espeut & Leonard Charles ft Han Litz - Callin 4 U (Jamie 3:26 Remix) (Compost 2025)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comI don't normally put out market commentary on a Sunday, especially on a Sunday evening, but the events of last week were so extraordinary I feel I have to.We are in full-on crash mode, it seems. The price action reminds me of the Covid panic or even 2008. It almost doesn't matter what you own. Portfolios around the world have been battered.The declines in the final two days of last week, since so-called “Liberation Day”, when President Trump announced his tariffs, are roughly as follows:* Bitcoin: -1%* Gold: -3%* S&P 500: -9%* Nasdaq: -10%* Brent Crude: -12.5%* Copper: -13% (phew!)Magnificent Seven:* MSFT: -6%* GOOGL: -7%* AMZN: -13%* META: -14%* NVDA: -15%* TSLA: -15%* AAPL: -17%We are, of course, very long gold and bitcoin here at The Flying Frisby, so I guess we've come out of this comparatively unscathed. What's more, we have a good allocation to wealth preservation in the Dolce Far Niente portfolio. But our speculative positions, like everyone's, have been hit, and I'm angry with myself for not getting more defensive sooner. I've been saying for some time I don't like the price action one bit- eg here and here - and the words of that freaky preacher keep ringing in my ears.In any case, there's no point beating myself up. Life is easy in hindsight. Investing is even easier.I spent considerable time on Friday and Saturday reading and watching interviews, trying to understand exactly what these tariffs are about and what the implications are, and I think I have come up with something of a roadmap.We'll start by explaining the plan. Then we'll look at what comes next. And, finally, we'll look at what to do with some of our recent speculations.Why our opinion is irrelevantI'm a free-trade guy, or at least I was. I'm not quite sure what I am any more. But I'm not going to waste my time - or yours - here with arguments about whether tariffs are a good thing or not. There's no point. My time - and yours - would be as well spent howling at the moon. As far as I know, Donald Trump isn't a reader of The Flying Frisby. He knows his own mind and he's not going to turn to this Substack, or any of our social media feeds, for policy advice.Don't be like DT. Subscribe to the Flying Frisby.Tariffs are here, and they're here to stay. Trump is attempting a major economic redesign - the kind of reset that those who rail against economic injustice have been calling for for years. Now it's here, and as we look at our portfolios, many of us aren't so sure we want it.What I want to understand, first, is the logic behind the tariffs, then their implications, so we can best navigate them.The first thing to note I've already said: Trump isn't going to backtrack. As I watched tumbling share prices on Friday, I thought to myself—he's going to backtrack. He has to. But Trump isn't the Conservative Party, or indeed the Labour Party, changing tack at the slightest sign of discontent. Critics say he'll cave if stocks keep tanking, I'm not so sure. His track record suggests otherwise, and he's put a loyal and strong team together to back him up and implement his plan.He's going to give his tariffs longer than a couple of days to have an impact.Many say Trump hasn't properly thought this through. Of course, he has. He's been thinking about it night and day for years. He'll have been thinking about little else as he wrestles with the problem of how to reinvigorate industrial America. That doesn't mean his plan will work, but the idea he hasn't thought about it is just a facile invention of Trump perma-critics to use against him.Trump may be a bit of a clown - he has a comedic instinct and can't resist a gag - but he's not stupid. Clowns rarely are.Why Trump's doing what he's doingTrump intensely dislikes the decimation of industrial America, which began in the 1980s and still continues, with the outsourcing of manufacturing to Asia and elsewhere. Even 40 years ago , he was giving interviews about this (hence why I say he has thought it through) and he wants to restore it. That's part of what he means when he says, “Make America great again.”He can see that while the American coasts may have thrived, thanks largely to finance and tech, much of what is in between has not. This is the America he wants to make great again.There are two reasons he wants to revive American industry. First, is that he believes the model by which America takes on debt to buy cheap stuff from China is unsustainable and has to stop - and the sooner the better. So it's for the good of the American economy. Second, is for reasons of security. While China and the US may be trading partners now, they are also rivals, and if your rival is making your essential military and strategic equipment and components, whether it's semi-conductors, industrial and consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals or battery and energy storage systems, you have a big problem on your hands. Covid exposed just how fragile supply chains are, and Trump has taken it as an early warning sign.Something very similar, as readers of Daylight Robbery will know, happened in the US after its War of 1812 with the British, a war that lasted three years. The war badly exposed US over-reliance on British industrial goods, so the US introduced tariffs in 1816 to try and nurture and grow its own industry. Those tariffs ended up having grave long-term consequences (they were a major factor in the lead up to the civil war - but that was 45 years later). In the short term, they worked. (More on this here).Coming to America“Come and build your factories in the US,” Trump is saying. “Then you won't pay tariffs. Relocate from China, Mexico, Vietnam.”Here's a case in point. Jaguar Land Rover has already announced it's halting shipments to the US for one month. Now, this company's management - remember its recent rebrand? (see below) - is on the opposing side of the culture war to Donald Trump and MAGA, so that is one factor at play. But when I wrote my piece about how good self-driving Teslas are, a lot of people commented that the Jags are better. I don't know—I haven't been in one. But for sure, Jaguar Land Rover won't want to lose momentum or network effect in this all important arms race, particularly while Tesla is struggling: 45% off its recent highs, victim to nationwide vandalism and Elon Musk no longer the darling but the villain of the eco-warrior left. So what does Jaguar do now? Not sell into the all-important US markets? Pay 25% tariffs? Or build a factory stateside? I think the answer is fairly obvious.Whatever it chooses to do, it's going to take longer than a couple of days.With DOGE and the shrinking of the US state, meanwhile, there'll be plenty of workers to fill those new positions. As the US state shrinks, its private sector grows. That's the idea, anyway.His tariffs may lead to higher prices for American consumers, as many have pointed out, but not as high as widely thought, argues Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in this recent interview with Tucker Carlson (a recommended watch, by the way). Bessent's calculations are that tariffs won't gouge consumers as much as feared. What's more, the revenue from tariffs could eventually enable lower levels of taxation back home, which will further ease pressure on US citizens, those who work at least.What about the upheaval Trump tariffs cause to the rest of the world? Not his problem. America first.Yet he's creating enormous uncertainty, and markets are tanking. On Friday, markets were in full panic mode, and the baby was being thrown out with the bathwater. What about that?The amazing stat which shows why Trump won't give two hoots about the stock market - for nowAt this point, I want to press upon you one of the most telling statistics I've seen for some time:* The richest 1% of Americans own 50% of US stocks, worth $23 trillion.* The bottom 50% of U.S. adults hold only 1% of stocks, worth $480 billion.If you expand to the top 10%, that group holds 87% of stocks, valued at $36 trillion. If I'm correctly inferring Bessent's comments, at this current point, Trump doesn't care about Wall Street, or Silicon Valley, or the parts of the US economy that have become so rich over the past 40 years. It's the bottom 50 - or even 80% - that Trump is concerned with. They hardly own any stocks, so the market mayhem won't matter so much to them. Wall Street has made good for decades. It can suffer a bit of pain while Main Street gets rebuilt.It's worth noting, by the way, that US equities were enormously overvalued when Trump took office, so some kind of correction had to happen anyway. The Shiller price-to-earnings ratio was at its third highest level in history (the only times it was higher was 2000 and 2007, and we all know what happened next). That's why Warren Buffett built up his enormous cash position two months ago ($330 billion). Buffett, by the way, really is a genius.Best to get the inevitable correction out of the way early in the Presidency. What's more, as Bessent points out, these market declines began several weeks ago with China's AI announcement of DeepSeek, the app that can do everything ChatGPT and Grok can do with much lower power use. Prior to that, the Magnificent Seven had driven the extraordinary gains seen in the S&P 500 over the previous 18 months. Strip them out, and the picture was much less rosy. (Now the Mag7're down 30-45%).Trump's announcement may have pricked the bubble, but a bubble is still a bubble and if one thing doesn't burst it, something else will.Trump's plan, meanwhile, (and I'm not saying it'll work, everyone will have their opinion) is not to boost the stock market. It is to reset the economy. The economy and the stock market are not the same thing.Some numbersThe US is trapped in a vicious debt spiral.$36 trillion is the current US National Debt. The US will spend $6 trillion this year, while only collecting $4 trillion in tax revenue. So there is a $2 trillion deficit. It will borrow the difference, and the debt will grow to $38 trillion. The DOGE plan is reduce the deficit by 1 trillion by getting rid of waste, corruption and more. The tariff plan is to raise another half trillion in revenue. Plus, as a result of tariffs, more business relocates to the US, which also increases revenue. Mass deregulation will also make doing business easier and further add to both economic growth and tax revenue. Then there is Trump citizenship plan. According to Grok, 1 million people worldwide could realistically afford to buy a US residency for $5 million. Let's say 10% of them did that. That's another $500 billion and the $2 trillion deficit is eradicated. Suddenly the US is running a surplus.This all means the US gets in a better position to lower taxes, which will further increase revenue (the golden rule of Daylight Robbery), because trade will increase as a result. Trump could lower corporation taxes to 15% which would be a lot more attractive than the rates of 20-30% paid in Europe. So business relocates to the US. He could lower income taxes, especially for high earners, thereby attracting higher earners to the US. Meanwhile, the cost of all that debt starts to come down, thereby freeing up even more capital.And, suddenly, you are in a virtuous cycle.These numbers make it look easy. But to get there takes an enormous fight - standing up to vested interests, taking on a cultural establishment that detests you, the media, the woke, Trump Derangement Syndrome and so on. It's not easy, and it requires a lot of backbone. The three essential keys to the Trump resetSo what fundamentals does this economic reset need, and how does the US get there?First, it needs cheap energy. Cheap energy is fundamental to economic growth: economies need energy. That's happening. Crude has fallen more than 10% since “Liberation Day”. Falls were turbocharged when, on Thursday, 8 OPEC nations made the surprise announcement that they were ending output cuts and increasing supply. Plus we have the domestic policy of drill baby drill. What with the plethora of natural gas and other shale energy co-products, we're going to see a lot of cheap energy. (Which is going to make our own Ed Miliband's high-energy-cost policies look even more deranged.)Second, it needs a cheaper dollar. A weaker dollar will encourage investment and relocation from overseas (it makes the US cheaper). That's happening too. Indeed, what was so unique about this week's panic is that the dollar—usually the first port of call in a financial storm—didn't rise (at least not at first). Here is the US dollar index. It's coming down. It's already down almost 10% from its highs. That means America just got 10% cheaper to invest in. A move back to the low 90s, or even below, would be ideal.What is the third component?And what next for markets?

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comI don't normally put out market commentary on a Sunday, especially on a Sunday evening, but the events of last week were so extraordinary I feel I have to.We are in full-on crash mode, it seems. The price action reminds me of the Covid panic or even 2008. It almost doesn't matter what you own. Portfolios around the world have been battered.The declines in the final two days of last week, since so-called “Liberation Day”, when President Trump announced his tariffs, are roughly as follows:* Bitcoin: -1%* Gold: -3%* S&P 500: -9%* Nasdaq: -10%* Brent Crude: -12.5%* Copper: -13% (phew!)Magnificent Seven:* MSFT: -6%* GOOGL: -7%* AMZN: -13%* META: -14%* NVDA: -15%* TSLA: -15%* AAPL: -17%We are, of course, very long gold and bitcoin here at The Flying Frisby, so I guess we've come out of this comparatively unscathed. What's more, we have a good allocation to wealth preservation in the Dolce Far Niente portfolio. But our speculative positions, like everyone's, have been hit, and I'm angry with myself for not getting more defensive sooner. I've been saying for some time I don't like the price action one bit- eg here and here - and the words of that freaky preacher keep ringing in my ears.In any case, there's no point beating myself up. Life is easy in hindsight. Investing is even easier.I spent considerable time on Friday and Saturday reading and watching interviews, trying to understand exactly what these tariffs are about and what the implications are, and I think I have come up with something of a roadmap.We'll start by explaining the plan. Then we'll look at what comes next. And, finally, we'll look at what to do with some of our recent speculations.Why our opinion is irrelevantI'm a free-trade guy, or at least I was. I'm not quite sure what I am any more. But I'm not going to waste my time - or yours - here with arguments about whether tariffs are a good thing or not. There's no point. My time - and yours - would be as well spent howling at the moon. As far as I know, Donald Trump isn't a reader of The Flying Frisby. He knows his own mind and he's not going to turn to this Substack, or any of our social media feeds, for policy advice.Don't be like DT. Subscribe to the Flying Frisby.Tariffs are here, and they're here to stay. Trump is attempting a major economic redesign - the kind of reset that those who rail against economic injustice have been calling for for years. Now it's here, and as we look at our portfolios, many of us aren't so sure we want it.What I want to understand, first, is the logic behind the tariffs, then their implications, so we can best navigate them.The first thing to note I've already said: Trump isn't going to backtrack. As I watched tumbling share prices on Friday, I thought to myself—he's going to backtrack. He has to. But Trump isn't the Conservative Party, or indeed the Labour Party, changing tack at the slightest sign of discontent. Critics say he'll cave if stocks keep tanking, I'm not so sure. His track record suggests otherwise, and he's put a loyal and strong team together to back him up and implement his plan.He's going to give his tariffs longer than a couple of days to have an impact.Many say Trump hasn't properly thought this through. Of course, he has. He's been thinking about it night and day for years. He'll have been thinking about little else as he wrestles with the problem of how to reinvigorate industrial America. That doesn't mean his plan will work, but the idea he hasn't thought about it is just a facile invention of Trump perma-critics to use against him.Trump may be a bit of a clown - he has a comedic instinct and can't resist a gag - but he's not stupid. Clowns rarely are.Why Trump's doing what he's doingTrump intensely dislikes the decimation of industrial America, which began in the 1980s and still continues, with the outsourcing of manufacturing to Asia and elsewhere. Even 40 years ago , he was giving interviews about this (hence why I say he has thought it through) and he wants to restore it. That's part of what he means when he says, “Make America great again.”He can see that while the American coasts may have thrived, thanks largely to finance and tech, much of what is in between has not. This is the America he wants to make great again.There are two reasons he wants to revive American industry. First, is that he believes the model by which America takes on debt to buy cheap stuff from China is unsustainable and has to stop - and the sooner the better. So it's for the good of the American economy. Second, is for reasons of security. While China and the US may be trading partners now, they are also rivals, and if your rival is making your essential military and strategic equipment and components, whether it's semi-conductors, industrial and consumer electronics, pharmaceuticals or battery and energy storage systems, you have a big problem on your hands. Covid exposed just how fragile supply chains are, and Trump has taken it as an early warning sign.Something very similar, as readers of Daylight Robbery will know, happened in the US after its War of 1812 with the British, a war that lasted three years. The war badly exposed US over-reliance on British industrial goods, so the US introduced tariffs in 1816 to try and nurture and grow its own industry. Those tariffs ended up having grave long-term consequences (they were a major factor in the lead up to the civil war - but that was 45 years later). In the short term, they worked. (More on this here).Coming to America“Come and build your factories in the US,” Trump is saying. “Then you won't pay tariffs. Relocate from China, Mexico, Vietnam.”Here's a case in point. Jaguar Land Rover has already announced it's halting shipments to the US for one month. Now, this company's management - remember its recent rebrand? (see below) - is on the opposing side of the culture war to Donald Trump and MAGA, so that is one factor at play. But when I wrote my piece about how good self-driving Teslas are, a lot of people commented that the Jags are better. I don't know—I haven't been in one. But for sure, Jaguar Land Rover won't want to lose momentum or network effect in this all important arms race, particularly while Tesla is struggling: 45% off its recent highs, victim to nationwide vandalism and Elon Musk no longer the darling but the villain of the eco-warrior left. So what does Jaguar do now? Not sell into the all-important US markets? Pay 25% tariffs? Or build a factory stateside? I think the answer is fairly obvious.Whatever it chooses to do, it's going to take longer than a couple of days.With DOGE and the shrinking of the US state, meanwhile, there'll be plenty of workers to fill those new positions. As the US state shrinks, its private sector grows. That's the idea, anyway.His tariffs may lead to higher prices for American consumers, as many have pointed out, but not as high as widely thought, argues Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in this recent interview with Tucker Carlson (a recommended watch, by the way). Bessent's calculations are that tariffs won't gouge consumers as much as feared. What's more, the revenue from tariffs could eventually enable lower levels of taxation back home, which will further ease pressure on US citizens, those who work at least.What about the upheaval Trump tariffs cause to the rest of the world? Not his problem. America first.Yet he's creating enormous uncertainty, and markets are tanking. On Friday, markets were in full panic mode, and the baby was being thrown out with the bathwater. What about that?The amazing stat which shows why Trump won't give two hoots about the stock market - for nowAt this point, I want to press upon you one of the most telling statistics I've seen for some time:* The richest 1% of Americans own 50% of US stocks, worth $23 trillion.* The bottom 50% of U.S. adults hold only 1% of stocks, worth $480 billion.If you expand to the top 10%, that group holds 87% of stocks, valued at $36 trillion. If I'm correctly inferring Bessent's comments, at this current point, Trump doesn't care about Wall Street, or Silicon Valley, or the parts of the US economy that have become so rich over the past 40 years. It's the bottom 50 - or even 80% - that Trump is concerned with. They hardly own any stocks, so the market mayhem won't matter so much to them. Wall Street has made good for decades. It can suffer a bit of pain while Main Street gets rebuilt.It's worth noting, by the way, that US equities were enormously overvalued when Trump took office, so some kind of correction had to happen anyway. The Shiller price-to-earnings ratio was at its third highest level in history (the only times it was higher was 2000 and 2007, and we all know what happened next). That's why Warren Buffett built up his enormous cash position two months ago ($330 billion). Buffett, by the way, really is a genius.Best to get the inevitable correction out of the way early in the Presidency. What's more, as Bessent points out, these market declines began several weeks ago with China's AI announcement of DeepSeek, the app that can do everything ChatGPT and Grok can do with much lower power use. Prior to that, the Magnificent Seven had driven the extraordinary gains seen in the S&P 500 over the previous 18 months. Strip them out, and the picture was much less rosy. (Now the Mag7're down 30-45%).Trump's announcement may have pricked the bubble, but a bubble is still a bubble and if one thing doesn't burst it, something else will.Trump's plan, meanwhile, (and I'm not saying it'll work, everyone will have their opinion) is not to boost the stock market. It is to reset the economy. The economy and the stock market are not the same thing.Some numbersThe US is trapped in a vicious debt spiral.$36 trillion is the current US National Debt. The US will spend $6 trillion this year, while only collecting $4 trillion in tax revenue. So there is a $2 trillion deficit. It will borrow the difference, and the debt will grow to $38 trillion. The DOGE plan is reduce the deficit by 1 trillion by getting rid of waste, corruption and more. The tariff plan is to raise another half trillion in revenue. Plus, as a result of tariffs, more business relocates to the US, which also increases revenue. Mass deregulation will also make doing business easier and further add to both economic growth and tax revenue. Then there is Trump citizenship plan. According to Grok, 1 million people worldwide could realistically afford to buy a US residency for $5 million. Let's say 10% of them did that. That's another $500 billion and the $2 trillion deficit is eradicated. Suddenly the US is running a surplus.This all means the US gets in a better position to lower taxes, which will further increase revenue (the golden rule of Daylight Robbery), because trade will increase as a result. Trump could lower corporation taxes to 15% which would be a lot more attractive than the rates of 20-30% paid in Europe. So business relocates to the US. He could lower income taxes, especially for high earners, thereby attracting higher earners to the US. Meanwhile, the cost of all that debt starts to come down, thereby freeing up even more capital.And, suddenly, you are in a virtuous cycle.These numbers make it look easy. But to get there takes an enormous fight - standing up to vested interests, taking on a cultural establishment that detests you, the media, the woke, Trump Derangement Syndrome and so on. It's not easy, and it requires a lot of backbone. The three essential keys to the Trump resetSo what fundamentals does this economic reset need, and how does the US get there?First, it needs cheap energy. Cheap energy is fundamental to economic growth: economies need energy. That's happening. Crude has fallen more than 10% since “Liberation Day”. Falls were turbocharged when, on Thursday, 8 OPEC nations made the surprise announcement that they were ending output cuts and increasing supply. Plus we have the domestic policy of drill baby drill. What with the plethora of natural gas and other shale energy co-products, we're going to see a lot of cheap energy. (Which is going to make our own Ed Miliband's high-energy-cost policies look even more deranged.)Second, it needs a cheaper dollar. A weaker dollar will encourage investment and relocation from overseas (it makes the US cheaper). That's happening too. Indeed, what was so unique about this week's panic is that the dollar—usually the first port of call in a financial storm—didn't rise (at least not at first). Here is the US dollar index. It's coming down. It's already down almost 10% from its highs. That means America just got 10% cheaper to invest in. A move back to the low 90s, or even below, would be ideal.What is the third component?And what next for markets?

Remember to send in your questions to admin@thecountryhousepodcast.com if you'd like your questions answered!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us …Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 1859Here is the world I think we are heading into over the next couple of years.On one side of the Atlantic, we have Argentina and its new president, Javier Milei, taking a chainsaw to the state in every conceivable way. I was there last month and I fell head over heels in love with the place. Every day it seems another state body is having its budget cut.It's like everything I argued for all those years ago in Life After the State - Why We Don't Need Government is suddenly happening in the real world, and it is wonderful.The result of all this is an economic boom that is starting to take everyone's breath away – even free market acolytes are surprised.You must invest in Argentina. You must have a position. What is happening there is equivalent to Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism, China at the turn of the 21st century, or the UK and US at the beginning of the Reagan-Thatcher era.With libertarianism being the dominant belief system of the Internet, and Milei, the poster boy for anarcho-capitalism, an internet sensation, you can rest assured that Argentina's success story is not going to be kept a secret. The Internet is going to let everyone know about it.Then to the north, we have the USA. Who was the first foreign leader to be invited to meet President-elect Donald Trump? You betcha. It was Javier Milei. That tells us where things are going.We have passionate libertarians Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy taking the knife to government and the deep state – I cannot emphasise enough how gripping a belief system libertarianism is once it takes hold - look what it's done to me - and it has clearly taken hold of these two.We also have a Trump administration that is much more organised and wiser than the previous incarnation, as well as more state shrinking. It knows who its enemies are and it seems ready for them.The US may be “minarchist-light” compared to Argentina, but even so, an economic boom is coming to this most entrepreneurial of countries. A lot of people are going make a lot of money.So you must also have a position in the US. It is already the world's biggest economy. How much is it going to grow with so many bureaucratic barriers of state removed?The Stagnant Side of the StreetThen we turn to the other side of the Atlantic. “The stagnant side of the street” to misquote the song.Here in the UK, we have gone the other way. We are increasing taxes. We are increasing state spending. We are growing government, and, in doing so, creating more barriers to innovation, invention, and entrepreneurship. Most of Western Europe is the same. These are countries run by blobs, by regulators and planners for regulators and planners, by technocrats who know better than you.Here's an example of the government helping. On 6 October 2020, when the FCA announced it was clamping down, bitcoin was $10,000. Today it's $97,500. I make that $87,500 per coin of gain that the UK citizen has been protected from. Great job guys. The UK was once at the vanguard of this breakthrough technology. Satoshi used English spelling, he quoted the Times. He may well have been British. Now we are bringing up the rear.It is just so much harder and more expensive to do anything entrepreneurial in the UK, whether it's setting up a business in the first place, hiring, the taxes you have to pay, the cost of regulation and compliance, or the exorbitant cost of housing and property, which drains capital that could be better invested elsewhere.Buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times? I urge you to. My recommended bullion dealer is The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.Prime Minister Keir Starmer is currently in the Gulf trying, as he says, to secure investment for the UK. “This government will build on partnerships that drive our mission to kickstart economic growth and put money back in working people's pockets,” he said yesterday. It's obvious that he thinks economic growth comes from government rather than the private sector. He actually thinks government spending is going to help. He does not realize because spending inevitably leads to higher taxes, and taxes stifle growth.I bet if you listed ten businesses and said which of these are wealth-creating and which are just wealth-extracting, he would not know the difference: it is not a thought process his mind would ever entertain. Yet the difference between the two is everything. Subsidised green energy is wealth extracting, compliance is wealth extracting, manufacturing (as long as it's not wind farms) and tech are mostly wealth creating. One builds wealth that did not previously exist - everybody wins - making stuff, growing stuff - the other is zero sum: it extracts wealth that already exists and sends it somewhere else - only the extractor and the recipient win. The guy who built the wealth in the first place loses. The most basic rule of taxation – you really should read Daylight Robbery – is that higher taxes and higher tax rates do not lead to greater government revenue. This administration does not get that most basic concept, which has existed for as long as there have been taxes (ie all of civilization). How can they be so stupid I've no idea, but they lead us.To invest in the UK is to invest in stagnation and regulation. That is not proper investment or wealth creation.The rest of Western Europe is no better.In addition, we are experiencing colossal levels of discontent, unprecedented migration, two-tiered justice, two-tiered welfare, rising crime, the disappearance of previously high-trust societies, and rising social tension.But thanks to the Internet, the stupidities of UK and European policies will continue to be laid bare to all. No amount of censorship is going to hide it. In any case, X has already killed censorship. Other platforms must now stop censoring, if they want to stay relevant. On the Internet people gravitate where speech is free-est.Meanwhile, such is the nature of memes, people are going to relentlessly take the piss, especially from the other side of the pond. Comedy is a powerful tool. Day after day, the meme-makers, led by Elon Musk himself, are going to expose Keir Starmer and his deluded team, never mind the EU and other technocrats, for the fools they are. The exposure the Internet brings will cause this technocratic left to backpedal a little – Starmer, as we saw from his 19th relaunch speech last week, has already started – though it will not be anywhere near enough. We need our own Javier Milei. But it is all is only going to exacerbate the current trend: long America, short the UK and Europe.So What To Do Now?I ran into one of the UK's most successful investors at a party last week. He told me he has moved everything he can out of sterling and out of the UK.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comIt was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us …Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 1859Here is the world I think we are heading into over the next couple of years.On one side of the Atlantic, we have Argentina and its new president, Javier Milei, taking a chainsaw to the state in every conceivable way. I was there last month and I fell head over heels in love with the place. Every day it seems another state body is having its budget cut.It's like everything I argued for all those years ago in Life After the State - Why We Don't Need Government is suddenly happening in the real world, and it is wonderful.The result of all this is an economic boom that is starting to take everyone's breath away – even free market acolytes are surprised.You must invest in Argentina. You must have a position. What is happening there is equivalent to Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism, China at the turn of the 21st century, or the UK and US at the beginning of the Reagan-Thatcher era.With libertarianism being the dominant belief system of the Internet, and Milei, the poster boy for anarcho-capitalism, an internet sensation, you can rest assured that Argentina's success story is not going to be kept a secret. The Internet is going to let everyone know about it.Then to the north, we have the USA. Who was the first foreign leader to be invited to meet President-elect Donald Trump? You betcha. It was Javier Milei. That tells us where things are going.We have passionate libertarians Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy taking the knife to government and the deep state – I cannot emphasise enough how gripping a belief system libertarianism is once it takes hold - look what it's done to me - and it has clearly taken hold of these two.We also have a Trump administration that is much more organised and wiser than the previous incarnation, as well as more state shrinking. It knows who its enemies are and it seems ready for them.The US may be “minarchist-light” compared to Argentina, but even so, an economic boom is coming to this most entrepreneurial of countries. A lot of people are going make a lot of money.So you must also have a position in the US. It is already the world's biggest economy. How much is it going to grow with so many bureaucratic barriers of state removed?The Stagnant Side of the StreetThen we turn to the other side of the Atlantic. “The stagnant side of the street” to misquote the song.Here in the UK, we have gone the other way. We are increasing taxes. We are increasing state spending. We are growing government, and, in doing so, creating more barriers to innovation, invention, and entrepreneurship. Most of Western Europe is the same. These are countries run by blobs, by regulators and planners for regulators and planners, by technocrats who know better than you.Here's an example of the government helping. On 6 October 2020, when the FCA announced it was clamping down, bitcoin was $10,000. Today it's $97,500. I make that $87,500 per coin of gain that the UK citizen has been protected from. Great job guys. The UK was once at the vanguard of this breakthrough technology. Satoshi used English spelling, he quoted the Times. He may well have been British. Now we are bringing up the rear.It is just so much harder and more expensive to do anything entrepreneurial in the UK, whether it's setting up a business in the first place, hiring, the taxes you have to pay, the cost of regulation and compliance, or the exorbitant cost of housing and property, which drains capital that could be better invested elsewhere.Buying gold to protect yourself in these uncertain times? I urge you to. My recommended bullion dealer is The Pure Gold Company. Pricing is competitive, quality of service is high. They deliver to the UK, the US, Canada and Europe or you can store your gold with them. More here.Prime Minister Keir Starmer is currently in the Gulf trying, as he says, to secure investment for the UK. “This government will build on partnerships that drive our mission to kickstart economic growth and put money back in working people's pockets,” he said yesterday. It's obvious that he thinks economic growth comes from government rather than the private sector. He actually thinks government spending is going to help. He does not realize because spending inevitably leads to higher taxes, and taxes stifle growth.I bet if you listed ten businesses and said which of these are wealth-creating and which are just wealth-extracting, he would not know the difference: it is not a thought process his mind would ever entertain. Yet the difference between the two is everything. Subsidised green energy is wealth extracting, compliance is wealth extracting, manufacturing (as long as it's not wind farms) and tech are mostly wealth creating. One builds wealth that did not previously exist - everybody wins - making stuff, growing stuff - the other is zero sum: it extracts wealth that already exists and sends it somewhere else - only the extractor and the recipient win. The guy who built the wealth in the first place loses. The most basic rule of taxation – you really should read Daylight Robbery – is that higher taxes and higher tax rates do not lead to greater government revenue. This administration does not get that most basic concept, which has existed for as long as there have been taxes (ie all of civilization). How can they be so stupid I've no idea, but they lead us.To invest in the UK is to invest in stagnation and regulation. That is not proper investment or wealth creation.The rest of Western Europe is no better.In addition, we are experiencing colossal levels of discontent, unprecedented migration, two-tiered justice, two-tiered welfare, rising crime, the disappearance of previously high-trust societies, and rising social tension.But thanks to the Internet, the stupidities of UK and European policies will continue to be laid bare to all. No amount of censorship is going to hide it. In any case, X has already killed censorship. Other platforms must now stop censoring, if they want to stay relevant. On the Internet people gravitate where speech is free-est.Meanwhile, such is the nature of memes, people are going to relentlessly take the piss, especially from the other side of the pond. Comedy is a powerful tool. Day after day, the meme-makers, led by Elon Musk himself, are going to expose Keir Starmer and his deluded team, never mind the EU and other technocrats, for the fools they are. The exposure the Internet brings will cause this technocratic left to backpedal a little – Starmer, as we saw from his 19th relaunch speech last week, has already started – though it will not be anywhere near enough. We need our own Javier Milei. But it is all is only going to exacerbate the current trend: long America, short the UK and Europe.So What To Do Now?I ran into one of the UK's most successful investors at a party last week. He told me he has moved everything he can out of sterling and out of the UK.

South London criminal Mad Micky McAvoy leads his gang into a gutsy warehouse raid. Three hours later, he's pulled off the biggest robbery in British history. But it's not easy to shift £26 million worth of gold bullion. In this four-part series, Matt Forde and Alice Levine unravel the story of the notorious Brink's-Mat Heist, and the jealousy, greed and bitter rivalry that tore through its perpetrators.Listen to British Scandal on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting https://wondery.com/links/british-scandal/ now.Do you have a suggestion for a scandal you would like us to cover? Or perhaps you have a question you would like to ask our hosts? Email us at britishscandal@wondery.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Classic BBC Radio Drama

Matt and Luke travel back to September 1999 to review Michelle Collins and Lesley Sharp in Daylight Robbery. French and Saunders reunite for BBC comedy Let Them Eat Cake. We revisit the largely forgotten but brilliant BBC comedy People Like Us and test music knowledge in a new look quiz.

Plenty of controversy for the lads to dissect on this week's episode! - James and Bill butt heads regarding Rob Hennessy's performance at Richmond Park and they get a referee's perspective on the situation - Has there been a lotto win in Cork? The lads crown the League of Ireland's newest King of the Spoofers - Big striker signings in the LOI: Aidan Keena, Ruairi Keating and Sean Maguire, could there be more? - The Shane Farrell chicken roll saga comes to a dramatic end as his chicken fillet roll order is finally revealed. All this and much more on this episode of the Peilcast!

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comI started out with the intention of writing just one article on this subject, but it has become three. It's a big subject … (Here is part one and here is part two, if you are not already up to speed)The latest polls show Labour comfortably in excess of 400 seats, maybe even 500.They are going to have such a thumping majority (with less than 50% of the vote - how crap is first past the post), together with a Blob which, broadly speaking, is theologically aligned, that they are going to be able to do pretty much what they like. There is scope for a lot of invasive government. The socialist mindset does not respect private property. It feels entitled to it. So today I wanted to further explore wealth taxes and what Labour might do, should the socialist-leaning instincts in the party come to the fore during those first 100 days and beyond.Wealth taxes are hard to collectLet us start with the golden rule of taxation, something with which readers of Daylight Robbery, the definitive book on taxation, will be familiar, as articulated by Louis XIV's minister of finance, Jean-Baptiste Colbert.The art of taxation consists of so plucking the goose as to obtain the most possible feathers with the least possible hissing(If you haven't read Daylight Robbery - How Tax Shaped Our Past and Will Change Our Future, by the way, I urge you too. I think it's the best of my books and one of the things I will go to my grave feeling proud of).With that Colbert quote in mind, let us turn to wealth taxes. I've often argued that one reason we don't see as many wealth taxes as you might expect is that, in practical terms, they are not as simple as they might seem. Income Tax works well because it is easy to collect. The employer collects it for the government - and faces harsh penalties if they don't, so the onus is on them. Ditto VAT: only it is the seller on whom the responsibility to collect falls.Wealth taxes, however, rely on declarations. There is much more scope for non-compliance, whether deliberate or accidental. Say the government wanted to impose a 5% net worth tax. It would have to find out about your real estate, both at home and abroad, and reach a fair valuation for that. It would have to find out about your stocks and bonds, your possessions, your vehicles, your savings, your ISAs, your pensions, your cryptocurrencies, your art, your antiques. Anyone who has ever had to value an estate for Inheritance Tax purposes knows what a headache this is. It can take many months.The government can force banks to collect a lot of this information, and the bank can then get heavy with you, if you don't comply (this is a route I think we will go), but there is still an awful lot of scope for non-compliance, avoidance, and evasion. Most will be truthful about what they own; but many will not - and hope that HMRC does not have the resources to investigate them properly, which it doesn't. Many people have valuable things - from antiques to lost bitcoin wallets - that they don't even know have value or can't access. Note: I'm not saying a “net worth tax” won't happen - I'd give it a 50:50 chance - just that they are not quite as easy as they sound. The goose will hiss a lot.That said, I do think that, for sure, we will see changes to wealth reporting requirements, which is a first step in that direction.You really should subscribe to this letter.But if not a net-worth tax, here are some wealth taxes that could quite easily be imposed:* A savings tax. Savings are relatively easy to prove and then tax. Banks are the ally of government here. There is some  £1.5 trillion held in savings accounts in the UK, so there is plenty there to be tapped (though a lot of this is in ISAs, which are supposed to be tax free). Starmer has made noises about ordinary working people not having savings, so I doubt he will have too many qualms about sticking his snout in that particular trough. The complaint is that people have already paid tax on their savings when they earned the money in the first place, plus they pay taxes on the interest.* An equity and bonds holdings tax. Again, relatively easy to prove - banks and brokers to report and collect. I doubt, however, Starmer will tax gilt holdings or remove the CGT exemption on gilts: he will want that particular income tap to remain free-flowing.* Taxes on ISAs. The tax-free goalposts on ISAs can quite easily be changed, and there are a lot of people who have built up large pots, which no doubt Labour will be eying. The £20 grand annual allowance might be reduced or, more likely, there will be a maximum tax-free cap of, say, £100 grand. As to whether they can tax existing holdings, difficult but not impossible.* Tax relief on pension contributions. The sixty grand limit will probably come down and the tax-free lump sum will probably not be quite so tax-free.* An off-shore wealth tax. You have to declare any holdings you have overseas and then pay tax on them. Lots of scope for dispute and non-compliance, of course. Doesn't mean it won't happen.* A luxury goods tax. It's not right that you should be able to afford luxury goods and that others can't, so we are going to tax them, just as we do alcohol, fuel, and cigarettes.* Exit taxes. A lot of rich people are already leaving, others will follow. Labour will know this. I would not rule out some kind of exit tax, as reader AK pointed out to me. The USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Spain, and Denmark all have exit taxes - in many cases, taxes on unrealised capital gains. (Imagine paying a tax on the gain, not realising it, and that gain turns to a loss. Horrible).If you are interested in buying gold to protect yourself in these frightening times, check out my recent report. I have a feeling it is going to come in very handy.My recommended bullion dealer is the Pure Gold Company. I also like Goldcore.The equalisation of Capital Gains Tax and Income Tax, as mentioned in part two, looks more likely than ever. Wrong, of course. Capital gains are not something most people experience year in year out. For many, they are one-off events on the sale of a major asset or company. But such morals do not enter into it.Similarly, Inheritance Tax is likely to go to 50%, also as mentioned in part two.Angela Rayner has said that Labour is not planning rises to Council Tax “at the moment,” presumably with the permission of the party strategists, though Keir Starmer conspicuously did not rule rises out earlier in the week. As previously outlined, Council Tax is an obvious target because the banding - the prices at which homes are valued - is so out of date (based on 1991 valuations), but the money does not go to central government, which is what Labour would want. Local taxes also tend to create a lot of agro - Colbert's hissing - which governments prefer to avoid. There is, in addition, the fact that Council Tax rises target the “wrong” people (council taxes tend to be higher in Labour-voting boroughs, which are often less well off, and Labour will not want to tax these people as much as they will the “capitalist classes”). One solution is to levy much higher Council Taxes on the most expensive properties. As with wealth taxes, I'm not saying Council Tax rises are not coming. They probably are, but they are not the prime target. One final thought: thanks to VAT on school fees, there is going to be even more pressure for places at good state schools, which will mean homes in catchment areas will command an even higher premium than they do already. (Labour says it's going to modernise the curriculum. Oh, God. Is it not modern enough already?)Right, I think that's your lot on Labour's tax rises. Look out for pieces in the near future on Turkey's inflation and the damage it has done to its people (I am actually writing today's piece from Istanbul); on my picks from the Weird S**t Investment Conference; and I've got a great piece coming on wages and gold).If you are in the Edinburgh neck of the woods this August, look out for me at the Edinburgh Fringe. I'll be performing one of my “lectures with funny bits”. This one is all about the history of mining. As always, I shall be delivering it at Panmure House, where Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations. It's at 2pm most afternoons. You can get tickets here.Condor Gold (CNR.L/COG.TSX)

Midnight Madness Radio Episode 275 with Daylight Robbery, Medusa Touch, MX THE AMERICAN, Sketchdoll, SE Foster, Tom O'Sullivan, Annette Joy, Frenchy and the Punk, Grin Cynic, Bullet To The Heart, Dead Empire, Natthammer, The Speed Of Sound, Then Comes Silence, and Fallen Arise.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.theflyingfrisby.comI started out with the intention of writing just one article on this subject, but it has become three. It's a big subject … (Here is part one and here is part two, if you are not already up to speed)The latest polls show Labour comfortably in excess of 400 seats, maybe even 500.They are going to have such a thumping majority (with less than 50% of the vote - how crap is first past the post), together with a Blob which, broadly speaking, is theologically aligned, that they are going to be able to do pretty much what they like. There is scope for a lot of invasive government. The socialist mindset does not respect private property. It feels entitled to it. So today I wanted to further explore wealth taxes and what Labour might do, should the socialist-leaning instincts in the party come to the fore during those first 100 days and beyond.Wealth taxes are hard to collectLet us start with the golden rule of taxation, something with which readers of Daylight Robbery, the definitive book on taxation, will be familiar, as articulated by Louis XIV's minister of finance, Jean-Baptiste Colbert.The art of taxation consists of so plucking the goose as to obtain the most possible feathers with the least possible hissing(If you haven't read Daylight Robbery - How Tax Shaped Our Past and Will Change Our Future, by the way, I urge you too. I think it's the best of my books and one of the things I will go to my grave feeling proud of).With that Colbert quote in mind, let us turn to wealth taxes. I've often argued that one reason we don't see as many wealth taxes as you might expect is that, in practical terms, they are not as simple as they might seem. Income Tax works well because it is easy to collect. The employer collects it for the government - and faces harsh penalties if they don't, so the onus is on them. Ditto VAT: only it is the seller on whom the responsibility to collect falls.Wealth taxes, however, rely on declarations. There is much more scope for non-compliance, whether deliberate or accidental. Say the government wanted to impose a 5% net worth tax. It would have to find out about your real estate, both at home and abroad, and reach a fair valuation for that. It would have to find out about your stocks and bonds, your possessions, your vehicles, your savings, your ISAs, your pensions, your cryptocurrencies, your art, your antiques. Anyone who has ever had to value an estate for Inheritance Tax purposes knows what a headache this is. It can take many months.The government can force banks to collect a lot of this information, and the bank can then get heavy with you, if you don't comply (this is a route I think we will go), but there is still an awful lot of scope for non-compliance, avoidance, and evasion. Most will be truthful about what they own; but many will not - and hope that HMRC does not have the resources to investigate them properly, which it doesn't. Many people have valuable things - from antiques to lost bitcoin wallets - that they don't even know have value or can't access. Note: I'm not saying a “net worth tax” won't happen - I'd give it a 50:50 chance - just that they are not quite as easy as they sound. The goose will hiss a lot.That said, I do think that, for sure, we will see changes to wealth reporting requirements, which is a first step in that direction.You really should subscribe to this letter.But if not a net-worth tax, here are some wealth taxes that could quite easily be imposed:* A savings tax. Savings are relatively easy to prove and then tax. Banks are the ally of government here. There is some  £1.5 trillion held in savings accounts in the UK, so there is plenty there to be tapped (though a lot of this is in ISAs, which are supposed to be tax free). Starmer has made noises about ordinary working people not having savings, so I doubt he will have too many qualms about sticking his snout in that particular trough. The complaint is that people have already paid tax on their savings when they earned the money in the first place, plus they pay taxes on the interest.* An equity and bonds holdings tax. Again, relatively easy to prove - banks and brokers to report and collect. I doubt, however, Starmer will tax gilt holdings or remove the CGT exemption on gilts: he will want that particular income tap to remain free-flowing.* Taxes on ISAs. The tax-free goalposts on ISAs can quite easily be changed, and there are a lot of people who have built up large pots, which no doubt Labour will be eying. The £20 grand annual allowance might be reduced or, more likely, there will be a maximum tax-free cap of, say, £100 grand. As to whether they can tax existing holdings, difficult but not impossible.* Tax relief on pension contributions. The sixty grand limit will probably come down and the tax-free lump sum will probably not be quite so tax-free.* An off-shore wealth tax. You have to declare any holdings you have overseas and then pay tax on them. Lots of scope for dispute and non-compliance, of course. Doesn't mean it won't happen.* A luxury goods tax. It's not right that you should be able to afford luxury goods and that others can't, so we are going to tax them, just as we do alcohol, fuel, and cigarettes.* Exit taxes. A lot of rich people are already leaving, others will follow. Labour will know this. I would not rule out some kind of exit tax, as reader AK pointed out to me. The USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Spain, and Denmark all have exit taxes - in many cases, taxes on unrealised capital gains. (Imagine paying a tax on the gain, not realising it, and that gain turns to a loss. Horrible).If you are interested in buying gold to protect yourself in these frightening times, check out my recent report. I have a feeling it is going to come in very handy.My recommended bullion dealer is the Pure Gold Company. I also like Goldcore.The equalisation of Capital Gains Tax and Income Tax, as mentioned in part two, looks more likely than ever. Wrong, of course. Capital gains are not something most people experience year in year out. For many, they are one-off events on the sale of a major asset or company. But such morals do not enter into it.Similarly, Inheritance Tax is likely to go to 50%, also as mentioned in part two.Angela Rayner has said that Labour is not planning rises to Council Tax “at the moment,” presumably with the permission of the party strategists, though Keir Starmer conspicuously did not rule rises out earlier in the week. As previously outlined, Council Tax is an obvious target because the banding - the prices at which homes are valued - is so out of date (based on 1991 valuations), but the money does not go to central government, which is what Labour would want. Local taxes also tend to create a lot of agro - Colbert's hissing - which governments prefer to avoid. There is, in addition, the fact that Council Tax rises target the “wrong” people (council taxes tend to be higher in Labour-voting boroughs, which are often less well off, and Labour will not want to tax these people as much as they will the “capitalist classes”). One solution is to levy much higher Council Taxes on the most expensive properties. As with wealth taxes, I'm not saying Council Tax rises are not coming. They probably are, but they are not the prime target. One final thought: thanks to VAT on school fees, there is going to be even more pressure for places at good state schools, which will mean homes in catchment areas will command an even higher premium than they do already. (Labour says it's going to modernise the curriculum. Oh, God. Is it not modern enough already?)Right, I think that's your lot on Labour's tax rises. Look out for pieces in the near future on Turkey's inflation and the damage it has done to its people (I am actually writing today's piece from Istanbul); on my picks from the Weird S**t Investment Conference; and I've got a great piece coming on wages and gold).If you are in the Edinburgh neck of the woods this August, look out for me at the Edinburgh Fringe. I'll be performing one of my “lectures with funny bits”. This one is all about the history of mining. As always, I shall be delivering it at Panmure House, where Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations. It's at 2pm most afternoons. You can get tickets here.Condor Gold (CNR.L/COG.TSX)

Elderly lady living alone in remote house, willing to take in paying guests.' Miss Pickering's newspaper advert seems innocuous, but she has an ulterior motive—as do the four gentlemen who reply. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ang189/support

A slightly-longer Sunday morning thought piece than usual today, but one that is well worth the effort I hope you'll discover.A reminder that:* This August I am going to the Edinburgh Fringe to do one of my “lectures with funny bits”. This one is all about the history of mining. As always, I shall be delivering it at Panmure House, where Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations. It's at 2pm most afternoons. Please come. Tickets here.* My first book and many readers' favourite, Life After the State - Why We Don't Need Government (2013), is now back in print - with the audiobook here: Audible UK, Audible US, Apple Books. I recommend the audiobook ;)Isaac Newton, who, along with William Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci and Aristotle, must be one of the cleverest individuals to have ever lived, made groundbreaking contributions to physics, mathematics, optics, mechanics, philosophy and astronomy. The laws of motion, the theory of gravitation and the reflecting telescope were among his many contributions. He was also a brilliant alchemist, obsessed with theology and biblical prophecy. As if that isn't enough, he is credited with the design of the Gold Standard, the primary monetary system of the world for over two hundred years. Today we explore how this brilliant system was accidental.In 1695, counterfeit coins accounted for more than a tenth of all English money in circulation. Massive LOL: the English used the counterfeit coins, in particular, to pay their taxes. The Exchequer that year reported no more than ten good shillings for every hundred pounds of revenue. Coin clipping was also a major problem, especially of old coins, and silver coins were disappearing from circulation altogether. Silver was worth more on the continent as bullion than it was in the UK as tender, so arbitrageurs shipped coins abroad, melted them down, and sold them for gold. Everyone from the Jews to the French was blamed, but by 1695 it was almost impossible to find legal silver in circulation. It had all been melted down and sold.This all led to a scarcity of money, which inhibited trade. More damage was caused to the English nation in just one year by bad money than “by a quarter century of bad kings, bad Ministers, bad Parliaments and bad Judges”, said the historian Thomas Babington Macaulay.King William begged the House of Commons to respond to the crisis and, seeking help, Secretary of the Treasury, William Lowndes wrote letters to England's wisest men, asking their advice: among them, philosopher John Locke, architect Sir Christopher Wren, banker Sir Josiah Child, and scientist, Sir Isaac Newton.Newton was in his mid 40s and probably not far off the peak of his powers. He had published his most famous work, the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, just eight years earlier in 1687, and it had established him as the smartest man in the country. He would now put his great mind to money.With the formation of the Bank of England the previous year, Newton had become aware of the possibilities of paper money. “If interest be not yet low enough for the advantage of trade,” he wrote, “the only proper way to lower it is more paper credit till by trading and business we can get more money.” He could see that token value and intrinsic value were not necessarily one and the same.It was also obvious to Newton that the currency criminals were rational actors. They would continue to clip, counterfeit, and sell abroad while there was profit in it. Bullion smuggling carried the death sentence, yet still it went on. Coercion alone would not be enough to stop it from happening. The market itself needed to be changed.He came up with two measures. First, to deal with the clipping, all coins minted prior to 1662 should be called in, melted down, and, using machines, re-made into coins that had a single consistent edge. With no more hand-hammered coins in circulation, clipping coins would become that much more difficult. Re-minting the entire country's coin, however, at a time of such primitive machinery, was no small undertaking. Second, to deal with the silver issue, the amount of silver in coins should be lowered so that the silver content and the face value of the coin were the same.The thought of such a devaluation went against the psyche. The idea that token value and intrinsic value might be different was alien and Newton's second proposal was not widely welcomed. There were 20 shillings to a pound, so a shilling should contain a concomitant amount of silver.  Newton may have thought that the token was more important than the silver content, but landowners and the government, which was largely made up of them, would lose 20% of their silver by Newton's proposal. In 1696 Parliament approved the recoinage, but stipulated the new coins maintain the old weights. Newton warned that the silver outflow would continue.The following year, nudged by John Locke, Charles Montague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, sent Newton a letter notifying him that the King intended to make him Warden of the Mint. So began his new career. Perhaps the role was only intended as a sinecure, but Newton took it very seriously.Putting his chemical and mathematical knowledge to good use, Newton got the Mint's machines working and the coins minted at a speed that defied the predictions of even the boldest optimist and, as an industrial operation, Newton's recoinage was an enormous success. Newton would also have to learn the skills of a policeman—both investigator and interrogator—and he proved masterful. This ruthless enforcer of the law, oversaw numerous investigations, exposing frauds, and then prosecuting perpetrators. Poor counterfeiters had no idea what they were up against, and many were sent to the gallows for their crimes.So good at the job of Warden was Newton that, in 1699, he was promoted and made Master of the Royal Mint, and after the Union between England and Scotland in 1707, Newton directed a Scottish recoinage that would lead to a new currency for the new Kingdom of Great Britain.He had solved the clipping issue, the counterfeiting issue was vastly improved, but silver was still making its way across the Channel, just as Newton had said it would. As long as the silver content exceeded the face value of the coins, the trade would continue. By 1715, almost all of the coins that Newton had struck between 1696 and 1699 had left t he country.Newton's studies had moved on from tides, planetary motions, and pendulums to the gold markets. He drew up an extensive table of assays of foreign coins and in doing so realised that gold was cheaper in the new markets opening up in Asia than in Europe, and thus that silver was not just being sucked out of England, but out of Europe itself to India and China where it was traded for gold.Meanwhile, the world's next great gold rush had started.If you are interested in buying gold, check out my recent report. I have a feeling it is going to come in very handy in the not-too-distant future.My recommended bullion dealer is the Pure Gold Company.World gold output doublesSome time in 1694 Portuguese deserters had found alluvial gold two hundred miles inland from Rio De Janeiro in Minas Gerais in Brazil. Soon everyone was flocking there, “white, coloured, black, Amerindian, men and women; young and old; poor and rich; nobles and commoners; laymen and clergy,” said a Jesuit priest who lived in the area. By 1724, within just three decades of the discovery, world output had doubled. By 1750, 65% of global production was emanating from Brazil. The gold made its way to Lisbon, along with sugar, tobacco and other Brazilian products - similar amounts to that which the Conquistadors had sent back to Spain the previous century - and with it the Portuguese minted their moidores coins.The Portuguese used their gold to buy English cereal crops, beef and fish, woollen goods, manufactured articles, and luxuries. Portugal imported five times as much from England as it exported to it, and it used its gold to settle the difference. The moidores, which weighed slightly more than an English guinea, worth 28 shillings, actually became currency, especially in the west country, where there were more of them than local coins. “We hardly have any money,” wrote an Exeter man in 1713, “but Portugal gold.” In London, the Bank of England began buying vast amounts of gold, “to be coined as it comes in” and the Mint began minting guineas from the moidores. By 1715 the Bank had 800 kg/25,700 t.oz, a nascent central bank reserve, and this figure would rise would to 15.5 tonnes/500,000 t.oz by 1730. So much gold coin had never been minted before and London soon overtook Amsterdam as the foremost precious metals market. Gold was coming and staying. Silver was leaving for Asia. In 1717 Newton was called on to investigate.He came up with a new system and outlined it in a report to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury in September 1717. Less than three months later there was a Royal Proclamation that forbade the exchange of gold guineas for more than 21 silver shillings - even if they were clipped or underweight. Thus was a guinea just over a pound, which was 20 shillings, or 113 grains of gold. The ratio of gold to silver was effectively set at roughly 1:15.5.But silver coin clipping continued, and full-weight silver coins continued to be exported to the continent, where 21 shillings of silver could still get you more than a guinea's worth of gold (just over 7.6 grams/1/4 t.oz), and to Asia, especially India and China, often via the East India Company, where silver was even more valuable. The result was that silver was used for imports, and so left the country, while exports were traded for gold, which thus came into the country.All in all, some two-thirds of that Brazilian gold is thought to have ended up in England. Hundreds of tonnes in total.Britain had always been on a silver standard. A pound was a pound of sterling silver. “In all men's minds the only true money of the country was the silver coin,” said Sir John Craig, historian of the Mint. Although that Royal Proclamation suggested a bimetallic standard, in practice, with so much silver going abroad, it moved Britain from silver to its first gold standard. Gold was more dependable than clipped silver. The future would look back on Newton as the father of the gold standard. His system proved the bedrock of Britain's domestic and international trade through the 18th century, helping it to become such a formidable commercial power. But it was an accidental gold standard. Nobody—not the institutions nor the persons involved—had had the slightest intention of creating a new monetary system on gold. Most people wanted to sustain silver as the prime coinage of the land. Newton had tried to create a functioning bimetallic standard. But market forces had other ideas.In the 1770s there was another recoinage in Britain, which, in terms of sheer scale, was unprecedented. Some 155 tonnes/5 million t.oz of gold in total, perhaps 30 times greater than Newton's recoinage of 1696-9, greater than anything attempted by Spain or Venice, or even Rome. No attempt was made to recoin silver. It was a formal admission that Britain was now on a gold standard. Newton's accidental gold standard was formalised.Anno domini for goldThe second half of the 19th century proved the golden age of the gold rush. First California, then Australia, then New Zealand, then South Africa, then Western Australia, and finally the Klondike.Aside from taxation (see Daylight Robbery), it is difficult to think of anything more overlooked that has had a more profound influence on the course of human history than the gold rush. Nations, indeed civilisations, have been formed on the back of them. (The beneficial impact of gold discoveries in Northern Spain to the Roman Empire is dramatically understated, for example). The fifty years from January 24th, 1848, were perhaps the golden era of the gold rush. The date stands as a watershed moment, the dawn of a new golden age. You might say there are two histories of gold, one before and one after 1848, akin to a BC and AD moment in time. On that day a carpenter from New Jersey by the name of James Marshall saw something shiny at the bottom of a ditch while carrying out a routine inspection of a lumbar mill he was helping build on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in California. The scale of the gold business changed out of all proportion. The amount of metal available changed beyond all recognition. Annual production rose fivefold in five years. The Paris Mint coined 150 million Napoléons D'Or in eight years from 1850-57, compared to 65 million in the preceding 50 years. The US Mint's output of gold eagles rose fivefold.The gold price should surely fall with all the new supply, feared bankers and economists. “The price must fall,” said the Economist, wrong about everything even then. The Times agreed. French economist Michel Chevalier wrote an entire book, On the Probable Fall in the Value of Gold. But the gold price did not fall. It stayed constant. Surprisingly perhaps, the biggest casualty of the gold rush, and the dramatic increase in gold supply, was silver. Silver had been money for thousands of years. Not for much longer. Its price halved. In 1850 only Britain, Portugal, Brazil, and a handful of other nations were on the gold standard. Everyone else was on bi-metallic standards. Come 1900 China was the only major nation not on a pure gold standard. Scarcely had the discoveries in California been made when the US began minting $1 and $20 gold coins, in addition to the $10 eagle. Before the discovery, the US Mint struck $4 million worth; in 1851 it minted over $62 million worth. Gold is “virtually the only currency of the country,” said a Congressman proposing a $3 gold coin in a debate in 1853. 1853 would also prove the last time silver dollars were struck, though they still circulated. In practical terms, if not nominal, the US was moving to a gold standard. Then the Coinage Act of 1873 eliminated the standard silver dollar altogether. The act became known as the Crime of 1873. There was a rearguard action, a “silver crusade” to get silver reinstated, especially as silver supply was now increasing thanks to discoveries in Nevada, Colorado, and Mexico. There was, thought some, a “deep-laid plot” engineered by a foreign conspiracy to increase the national debt, which would have to be paid in gold. Bimetallism became a central issue of the election of 1896, when an ambitious young Democrat by the name of William Jennings Bryan won the nomination that he thought would carry him to the presidency with what is widely regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American political history. “Thou shalt not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold,” he bellowed. But no.Gold rather than silver was now in the pockets of millions of people around the world. The increased gold supply effectively sent both France and the US onto gold standards, even though nominally they remained bimetallic (the US until 1900). The move from silver to gold gathered pace in Europe from the 1870s. In 1872-3 Germany launched its new mark, followed by Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands. France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy had signed up to a Latin bimetallic monetary union in 1865, which was undermined by the tumbling silver price, and they largely abandoned the silver part of the equation after 1874. By the end of the century, every major nation bar China was on a gold standard, the classical gold standard which Isaac Newton is credited with having designed.But that classical gold standard, that golden age of sound money for which many hard money advocates of today, including yours truly, pine, was not designed and planned, it was accidental.As a the poet Robert Burns wrote:But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,In proving foresight may be vain:The best laid schemes o' Mice an' MenGang aft agleyThe modern system of fiat money by which we operate today is also accidental, evolving from political expediency, political pressure, technological developments, deficit spending, suppressed interest rates, misguided obsession with GDP, and more. Many, especially the powerful, have exploited it for their own ends, but nobody designed a system in which 99% of money is digital, in which 99% of money is debt, in which loss of purchasing power and Cantillon Effect are built in, which robs the young, the salaried, and the saver, which makes an increase in the wealth gap inevitable and so on. The modern system is clearly in its endgame. Better systems are emerging. But endgames last a long time.Enjoy this article? Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

A slightly-longer Sunday morning thought piece than usual today, but one that is well worth the effort I hope you'll discover.A reminder that:* This August I am going to the Edinburgh Fringe to do one of my “lectures with funny bits”. This one is all about the history of mining. As always, I shall be delivering it at Panmure House, where Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations. It's at 2pm most afternoons. Please come. Tickets here.* My first book and many readers' favourite, Life After the State - Why We Don't Need Government (2013), is now back in print - with the audiobook here: Audible UK, Audible US, Apple Books. I recommend the audiobook ;)Isaac Newton, who, along with William Shakespeare, Leonardo Da Vinci and Aristotle, must be one of the cleverest individuals to have ever lived, made groundbreaking contributions to physics, mathematics, optics, mechanics, philosophy and astronomy. The laws of motion, the theory of gravitation and the reflecting telescope were among his many contributions. He was also a brilliant alchemist, obsessed with theology and biblical prophecy. As if that isn't enough, he is credited with the design of the Gold Standard, the primary monetary system of the world for over two hundred years. Today we explore how this brilliant system was accidental.In 1695, counterfeit coins accounted for more than a tenth of all English money in circulation. Massive LOL: the English used the counterfeit coins, in particular, to pay their taxes. The Exchequer that year reported no more than ten good shillings for every hundred pounds of revenue. Coin clipping was also a major problem, especially of old coins, and silver coins were disappearing from circulation altogether. Silver was worth more on the continent as bullion than it was in the UK as tender, so arbitrageurs shipped coins abroad, melted them down, and sold them for gold. Everyone from the Jews to the French was blamed, but by 1695 it was almost impossible to find legal silver in circulation. It had all been melted down and sold.This all led to a scarcity of money, which inhibited trade. More damage was caused to the English nation in just one year by bad money than “by a quarter century of bad kings, bad Ministers, bad Parliaments and bad Judges”, said the historian Thomas Babington Macaulay.King William begged the House of Commons to respond to the crisis and, seeking help, Secretary of the Treasury, William Lowndes wrote letters to England's wisest men, asking their advice: among them, philosopher John Locke, architect Sir Christopher Wren, banker Sir Josiah Child, and scientist, Sir Isaac Newton.Newton was in his mid 40s and probably not far off the peak of his powers. He had published his most famous work, the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, just eight years earlier in 1687, and it had established him as the smartest man in the country. He would now put his great mind to money.With the formation of the Bank of England the previous year, Newton had become aware of the possibilities of paper money. “If interest be not yet low enough for the advantage of trade,” he wrote, “the only proper way to lower it is more paper credit till by trading and business we can get more money.” He could see that token value and intrinsic value were not necessarily one and the same.It was also obvious to Newton that the currency criminals were rational actors. They would continue to clip, counterfeit, and sell abroad while there was profit in it. Bullion smuggling carried the death sentence, yet still it went on. Coercion alone would not be enough to stop it from happening. The market itself needed to be changed.He came up with two measures. First, to deal with the clipping, all coins minted prior to 1662 should be called in, melted down, and, using machines, re-made into coins that had a single consistent edge. With no more hand-hammered coins in circulation, clipping coins would become that much more difficult. Re-minting the entire country's coin, however, at a time of such primitive machinery, was no small undertaking. Second, to deal with the silver issue, the amount of silver in coins should be lowered so that the silver content and the face value of the coin were the same.The thought of such a devaluation went against the psyche. The idea that token value and intrinsic value might be different was alien and Newton's second proposal was not widely welcomed. There were 20 shillings to a pound, so a shilling should contain a concomitant amount of silver.  Newton may have thought that the token was more important than the silver content, but landowners and the government, which was largely made up of them, would lose 20% of their silver by Newton's proposal. In 1696 Parliament approved the recoinage, but stipulated the new coins maintain the old weights. Newton warned that the silver outflow would continue.The following year, nudged by John Locke, Charles Montague, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, sent Newton a letter notifying him that the King intended to make him Warden of the Mint. So began his new career. Perhaps the role was only intended as a sinecure, but Newton took it very seriously.Putting his chemical and mathematical knowledge to good use, Newton got the Mint's machines working and the coins minted at a speed that defied the predictions of even the boldest optimist and, as an industrial operation, Newton's recoinage was an enormous success. Newton would also have to learn the skills of a policeman—both investigator and interrogator—and he proved masterful. This ruthless enforcer of the law, oversaw numerous investigations, exposing frauds, and then prosecuting perpetrators. Poor counterfeiters had no idea what they were up against, and many were sent to the gallows for their crimes.So good at the job of Warden was Newton that, in 1699, he was promoted and made Master of the Royal Mint, and after the Union between England and Scotland in 1707, Newton directed a Scottish recoinage that would lead to a new currency for the new Kingdom of Great Britain.He had solved the clipping issue, the counterfeiting issue was vastly improved, but silver was still making its way across the Channel, just as Newton had said it would. As long as the silver content exceeded the face value of the coins, the trade would continue. By 1715, almost all of the coins that Newton had struck between 1696 and 1699 had left t he country.Newton's studies had moved on from tides, planetary motions, and pendulums to the gold markets. He drew up an extensive table of assays of foreign coins and in doing so realised that gold was cheaper in the new markets opening up in Asia than in Europe, and thus that silver was not just being sucked out of England, but out of Europe itself to India and China where it was traded for gold.Meanwhile, the world's next great gold rush had started.If you are interested in buying gold, check out my recent report. I have a feeling it is going to come in very handy in the not-too-distant future.My recommended bullion dealer is the Pure Gold Company.World gold output doublesSome time in 1694 Portuguese deserters had found alluvial gold two hundred miles inland from Rio De Janeiro in Minas Gerais in Brazil. Soon everyone was flocking there, “white, coloured, black, Amerindian, men and women; young and old; poor and rich; nobles and commoners; laymen and clergy,” said a Jesuit priest who lived in the area. By 1724, within just three decades of the discovery, world output had doubled. By 1750, 65% of global production was emanating from Brazil. The gold made its way to Lisbon, along with sugar, tobacco and other Brazilian products - similar amounts to that which the Conquistadors had sent back to Spain the previous century - and with it the Portuguese minted their moidores coins.The Portuguese used their gold to buy English cereal crops, beef and fish, woollen goods, manufactured articles, and luxuries. Portugal imported five times as much from England as it exported to it, and it used its gold to settle the difference. The moidores, which weighed slightly more than an English guinea, worth 28 shillings, actually became currency, especially in the west country, where there were more of them than local coins. “We hardly have any money,” wrote an Exeter man in 1713, “but Portugal gold.” In London, the Bank of England began buying vast amounts of gold, “to be coined as it comes in” and the Mint began minting guineas from the moidores. By 1715 the Bank had 800 kg/25,700 t.oz, a nascent central bank reserve, and this figure would rise would to 15.5 tonnes/500,000 t.oz by 1730. So much gold coin had never been minted before and London soon overtook Amsterdam as the foremost precious metals market. Gold was coming and staying. Silver was leaving for Asia. In 1717 Newton was called on to investigate.He came up with a new system and outlined it in a report to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury in September 1717. Less than three months later there was a Royal Proclamation that forbade the exchange of gold guineas for more than 21 silver shillings - even if they were clipped or underweight. Thus was a guinea just over a pound, which was 20 shillings, or 113 grains of gold. The ratio of gold to silver was effectively set at roughly 1:15.5.But silver coin clipping continued, and full-weight silver coins continued to be exported to the continent, where 21 shillings of silver could still get you more than a guinea's worth of gold (just over 7.6 grams/1/4 t.oz), and to Asia, especially India and China, often via the East India Company, where silver was even more valuable. The result was that silver was used for imports, and so left the country, while exports were traded for gold, which thus came into the country.All in all, some two-thirds of that Brazilian gold is thought to have ended up in England. Hundreds of tonnes in total.Britain had always been on a silver standard. A pound was a pound of sterling silver. “In all men's minds the only true money of the country was the silver coin,” said Sir John Craig, historian of the Mint. Although that Royal Proclamation suggested a bimetallic standard, in practice, with so much silver going abroad, it moved Britain from silver to its first gold standard. Gold was more dependable than clipped silver. The future would look back on Newton as the father of the gold standard. His system proved the bedrock of Britain's domestic and international trade through the 18th century, helping it to become such a formidable commercial power. But it was an accidental gold standard. Nobody—not the institutions nor the persons involved—had had the slightest intention of creating a new monetary system on gold. Most people wanted to sustain silver as the prime coinage of the land. Newton had tried to create a functioning bimetallic standard. But market forces had other ideas.In the 1770s there was another recoinage in Britain, which, in terms of sheer scale, was unprecedented. Some 155 tonnes/5 million t.oz of gold in total, perhaps 30 times greater than Newton's recoinage of 1696-9, greater than anything attempted by Spain or Venice, or even Rome. No attempt was made to recoin silver. It was a formal admission that Britain was now on a gold standard. Newton's accidental gold standard was formalised.Anno domini for goldThe second half of the 19th century proved the golden age of the gold rush. First California, then Australia, then New Zealand, then South Africa, then Western Australia, and finally the Klondike.Aside from taxation (see Daylight Robbery), it is difficult to think of anything more overlooked that has had a more profound influence on the course of human history than the gold rush. Nations, indeed civilisations, have been formed on the back of them. (The beneficial impact of gold discoveries in Northern Spain to the Roman Empire is dramatically understated, for example). The fifty years from January 24th, 1848, were perhaps the golden era of the gold rush. The date stands as a watershed moment, the dawn of a new golden age. You might say there are two histories of gold, one before and one after 1848, akin to a BC and AD moment in time. On that day a carpenter from New Jersey by the name of James Marshall saw something shiny at the bottom of a ditch while carrying out a routine inspection of a lumbar mill he was helping build on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada in California. The scale of the gold business changed out of all proportion. The amount of metal available changed beyond all recognition. Annual production rose fivefold in five years. The Paris Mint coined 150 million Napoléons D'Or in eight years from 1850-57, compared to 65 million in the preceding 50 years. The US Mint's output of gold eagles rose fivefold.The gold price should surely fall with all the new supply, feared bankers and economists. “The price must fall,” said the Economist, wrong about everything even then. The Times agreed. French economist Michel Chevalier wrote an entire book, On the Probable Fall in the Value of Gold. But the gold price did not fall. It stayed constant. What the Times, the Economist and Chevalier had all failed to appreciate was that most of the gold would use as money, and that trade, exchange and economic expansion would be the result.Surprisingly perhaps, the biggest casualty of the gold rush was silver. Silver had been money for thousands of years. Not for much longer. Its price halved. In 1850 only Britain, Portugal, Brazil, and a handful of other nations were on the gold standard. Everyone else was on bi-metallic standards. Come 1900 China was the only major nation not on a pure gold standard. Scarcely had the discoveries in California been made when the US began minting $1 and $20 gold coins, in addition to the $10 eagle. Before the discovery, the US Mint struck $4 million worth; in 1851 it minted over $62 million worth. Gold is “virtually the only currency of the country,” said a Congressman proposing a $3 gold coin in a debate in 1853. 1853 would also prove the last time silver dollars were struck, though they still circulated. In practical terms, if not nominal, the US was moving to a gold standard. Then the Coinage Act of 1873 eliminated the standard silver dollar altogether. The act became known as the Crime of 1873. There was a rearguard action, a “silver crusade” to get silver reinstated, especially as silver supply was now increasing thanks to discoveries in Nevada, Colorado, and Mexico. There was, thought some, a “deep-laid plot” engineered by a foreign conspiracy to increase the national debt, which would have to be paid in gold. Bimetallism became a central issue of the election of 1896, when an ambitious young Democrat by the name of William Jennings Bryan won the nomination that he thought would carry him to the presidency with what is widely regarded as one of the greatest speeches in American political history. “Thou shalt not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold,” he bellowed. But no.Gold rather than silver was now in the pockets of millions of people around the world. The increased gold supply effectively sent both France and the US onto gold standards, even though nominally they remained bimetallic (the US until 1900). The move from silver to gold gathered pace in Europe from the 1870s. In 1872-3 Germany launched its new mark, followed by Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands. France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy had signed up to a Latin bimetallic monetary union in 1865, which was undermined by the tumbling silver price, and they largely abandoned the silver part of the equation after 1874. By the end of the century, every major nation bar China was on a gold standard, the classical gold standard which Isaac Newton is credited with having designed.But that classical gold standard, that golden age of sound money for which many hard money advocates of today, including yours truly, pine, was not designed and planned, it was accidental.As a the poet Robert Burns wrote:But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,In proving foresight may be vain:The best laid schemes o' Mice an' MenGang aft agleyThe modern system of fiat money by which we operate today is also accidental, evolving from political expediency, political pressure, technological developments, deficit spending, suppressed interest rates, misguided obsession with GDP, and more. Many, especially the powerful, have exploited it for their own ends, but nobody designed a system in which 99% of money is digital, in which 99% of money is debt, in which loss of purchasing power and Cantillon Effect are built in, which robs the young, the salaried, and the saver, which makes an increase in the wealth gap inevitable and so on. The modern system is clearly in its endgame. Better systems are emerging. But endgames last a long time.Enjoy this article? Please consider becoming a paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

In the latest episode of Crewsing for a Brewsing, Andrew Snyder and Adam McGee discuss the Milwaukee Brewers' series loss to the New York Yankees and the controversy surrounding Aaron Judge's oven mitt block that defined Sunday's action. Crewsing for a Brewsing and the Gyro Step Podcast Network are proud to call Blue Wire's network of podcasts home. You can follow Crewsing for a Brewsing, Adam, and Andrew on Twitter, while you should also follow Gyro Step Podcast and Win in 6 Podcast for all of your Milwaukee Bucks pod needs, Talk of the Tundra for all things Green Bay Packers, and Make Time for This for a slice of pop culture and everything else from the GSPN crew! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The two Theo's are back for another episodeThis week we discussManchester City defeat to Chelsea with the help from officials Thiago Silva's imminent departure from ChelseaArsenal vs Chelsea previewFrom The Shed End Linktree - ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/fromtheshedend Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Samuel Luckhurst and Steven Railston review United's 1-1 draw at Brentford including a celebration of Mason Mount's goal ahead of a crunch return to Stamford Bridge for the former Chelsea fan-favourite. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rob is joined by the comedian and author of Daylight Robbery Dominic Frisby in this episode. Dominic exposes tax, talks about who actually controls your money and reveals why all billionaires are psychopaths! Listen in to this conversation with Rob and Dominic and learn the truths you need to know to protect you and your money. KEY TAKEAWAYS About 50% of your lifetime earnings will be taxed, with income tax being the biggest. Most government services, including healthcare and education, could be better provided at a lower cost and higher quality by the free market without government involvement. The current tax system should be replaced with a flat rate income tax of 10-15% and a land value tax, which would create a healthier relationship between citizens and government. To achieve political change, we have to look at new technologies and frontiers rather than relying on the current political system. The rise of digital wealth has outpaced the growth of the physical economy due to its scalability and less heavy regulation, leading to the rapid growth of tech billionaires' wealth. Governments have become bloated over time due to wars and currency debasement, with tax revenue as a percentage of GDP increasing from around 10% in 1900 to much higher levels today. The wealth of Russian oligarchs is mostly built from commodity wealth seized during the fall of the Soviet Union, while the wealth of tech billionaires like Elon Musk is more digital and less tangible. Imposing windfall taxes on corporations during times of high inflation is not a solution, as the real cause of inflation is money printing, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical events. To protect your wealth from inflation and the erosion of money's value by the government, consider keeping your money in gold and bitcoin rather than in government-controlled currencies.   BEST MOMENTS  "Over the course of your lifetime, roughly 50 per cent of everything you ever earn will be taken from you in taxes."   "Most government services could be better provided to a much higher standard, at a much lower cost, for a much broader section of people, if there was no government involved." "I think to become a billionaire, you've probably got to be a little bit of a psychopath and have a ruthless streak to you. But also billionaires create wealth." "Voting has no impact."   "You know, they say money makes the world go round, but taxes defined history."  "If you keep your money in sterling, you're endorsing the system. Whereas if you keep your money in non-government assets that have no liability, then you're getting your wealth out of the system."  VALUABLE RESOURCES https://robmoore.com/ bit.ly/Robsupporter   https://robmoore.com/podbooks rob.team ABOUT THE HOST Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK's No.1 business podcast “The Disruptive Entrepreneur” “If you don't risk anything, you risk everything” CONTACT METHOD Rob's official website: https://robmoore.com/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.  

BANG! @southernvangard radio Ep395! St. Pattys Day on a Sunday? You best believe it - and MAN did we find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow - our longtime friend and record dealer extraordinaire GENE BROWN dropped in to help us kick off the show! Gene was in the A this weekend slangin' that heat at the CRAFTS & CRATES party @ HALFWAY CROOKS, and took some time to chat with us before he got back on the road to wherever he was going. Expect a possible return for an interview session with Gene in the near future (yeah we said it). On top of all of that, we have WORLD EXCLUSIVES from JOE D & LET THE DIRTY SAY AMEN, SHAMGAR JOSE & GHOST DAVE and our own EDDIE MEEKS & DJ POCKET. Top of the mornin', afternoon and evenin'….YOU WAAAAALCOME!!!!! #SmithsonianGrade #WeAreTheGard // southernvangard.com // @southernvangard on all platforms #hiphop #undergroundhiphop #boombap ----------- Recorded live March 17, 2024 @ Dirty Blanket Studios, Marietta, GA southernvangard.com @southernvangard on all platforms #SmithsonianGrade #WeAreTheGard twitter/IG: @southernvangard @jondoeatl @cappuccinomeeks ----------- Pre-Game Beats - Odd Holiday / Kuartz - Odd Holiday (Mattic & Daylight Robbery!) Talk Break Inst. - "No Brainer (Remix)" - DJ Concept Interview - Gene Brown ** WORLD EXCLUSIVE ** "Carnival" - Joe D ft. Let The Dirt Say Amen ** WORLD EXCLUSIVE ** "Enjoy Your Weekend" - DJ Illogik ft. J Scienide "Pisces" - DJ Illogik ft. Apathy & Jay Royale "Phantom of the Chop Cheese" - Shamgar Jose X GhostDave "Double Dosage (Remix)" - Thirstin Howl x DJ Heron ft. Sean Price & General Steele "Tough Guys Fill The Cemetery" - Midnight Sons (Chong Wizard & Zilla Rocca) ft. Blu "Brilliance" - Money Mogly, Orion & DJ Exes Talk Break Inst. - "Up In Space" - DJ Concept "Love Me" - L-Biz ft. The Source Academy Kid (prod. Carolinah Blu) "Heavy Is The Crown" - Reks & KarlitoDaKid ft. Skyzoo "Sllick Talk" - Elcamino & Real Bad Man ft. Player K "When 'Dem Wheels Peel" - Money Mogley x SKAM2? "It's On" - Milez Grimez & Bombdrop ft. Rockness Monsta & DJ Mekalek "Hockeytown" - Mvck Nyce "Marathon Man" - Midnight Sons (Chong Wizard & Zilla Rocca) ft. MidaZ THE BEAST & Curly Castro Talk Break Inst. - "Let The Guns Blow (Remix)" - DJ Concept "Nocturnal Animals" - Shamgar Jose X GhostDave ** WORLD EXCLUSIVE ** "Weird Science" - Estee Nack x Futurewave "Lunch With Pepe" - Crimeapple ft. RLX (prod. MichaelAngelo "Royalty (Remix)" - Bozack Morris ft. Roshin "Dead Vines" - Chuck Strangers "Sunday Service" - Estee Nack x Futurewave "Hour Of The Bat" - Shamgar Jose X GhostDave ** WORLD EXCLUSIVE ** Talk Break Inst. - "Life (Remix)" - DJ Concept "Legacy" - Eddie Meeks (prod. D.R.U.G.S. Beats) "Legacy (24 Remix)" - Eddie Meeks (prod. DJ Pocket) ** WORLD EXCLUSIVE **

Today we are joined by Dominic Frisby for a captivating discussion on the complexities of money and taxation. Dominic takes us on a journey through the history of money, taxation, and the quirks of the metric system. His unique blend of humor and insight offers an engaging exploration of these topics.  Dominic Frisby is a multi-talented British author, comedian, and musician, renowned for his insightful contributions to the field of economics. With a flair for blending humor and financial expertise, he has authored several influential books, including "Bitcoin: The Future of Money?" which was published in 2014 and is considered one of the earliest and most readable introductions to Bitcoin. Frisby is also known for his thought-provoking commentary on taxation, as exemplified in his book "Daylight Robbery: How Tax Shaped Our Past and Will Change Our Future."  Key Points Discussed:

Midnight Madness Radio Episode 241 with LYNCH MOB, Esprit D'Air feat. Tim Ripper Owens and Ben Christo, Frank Palangi, Pete Maroni, Sepsiss, A Ritual Spirit, Bad Actress, BURNING VIBES, Daylight Robbery, DIE TIRED, HUNTER, Renegade Angel, Rebecca Winckworth, The Petal Falls, Ajay Mathur, Tigertailz, The Sky Beneath Us, Vanitas, Lila Blanca, SAMAEL, George Freeman, Eagon, and Cherry St. Donate for Midnight Madness TV: https://igg.me/at/midnightmadnesstv/x/35420197#/ Midnight Madness Radio Store: https://www.bonfire.com/store/midnight-madness-radio/

He's back, Peter Dunworth, for another banger of an episode where we dive into the latest in macro and Bitcoin. At the time of recording, here are some key indicators: Gold – $1889 – 3.35% up YTD S&P 500 – 4,367 – 13.8% up YTD UST 3 month – 5.56% UST 10 year – 4.28% Bitcoin - circa $26k – up 57% YTD   Timestamps: 0:01:00 – The world is drowning in debt 0:07:40 – The US is the cleanest shirt in a dirty laundry 0:26:30 – Musings on geopolitics 042:40 –  Statism and a shift away from communities/religion 050:45 – Daylight robbery, a tale of taxes 055:15 – Binance chicanery, Bitcoin & shitcoinery Global debt: https://unctad.org/news/un-warns-soaring-global-public-debt-record-92-trillion-2022 US interest expense: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A091RC1Q027SBEA US Fiscal spending: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/ Everyone knows 2%⁠ is the "correct" inflation figure May 2019 – CPI was 1.9%, “Forget inflation. We should be concerned about deflation” 2020-2021 – 5-7% “CPI  was transitory" August 2021 “179 Reasons You Probably Don't Need to Panic About Inflation”   Late 2021 - Powell admits Fed got it wrong on inflation, says they should stop calling it 'transitory' Daylight Robbery by Dominic Frisby - https://www.amazon.com.au/Daylight-Robbery-Shaped-Change-Future-ebook/dp/B07NCZ5SJQ You can follow Peter on X (@PeterBTCAdviser) or learn more about his Bitcoin advisory firm 'The Bitcoin Advisor' at https://www.thebitcoinadviser.com/ Edited by Sean Lowe. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/whybitcoinshow/message

Join Velimir, Dimdish & Renn as they Deal with a robber, chat to a hat & enter a battlefield on this weeks episode of How Not To Summon A Dungeon Master - Episode 6 - The Search For Ciri.   Join The Summoning Boys : On our website - www.HowNotToSummon.com On our Facebook page- www.facebook.com/HowNotToSummon On Discord - www.discord.gg/ct4q4gDn On Twitter- www.twitter.com/HowNotToSummon

On this day in 1851, Great Britain's wildly unpopular window tax was finally repealed after 156 years on the books.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Hip-Hop Digest Weekly Pick Hits 01.Odd Holiday (Mattic & Daylight Robbery!) – Omen Key02.Es-K & Type.Raw – We Up (feat. Chel Strong)03.Kid Abstrakt & Leo Low Pass – On Point (feat. Predominance & Phoniks)04.Moka Only – Restart05.Mobb Deep – … Continue reading →

Policeman killed in bullion van robbery at Ablekuma causes stir

TMD CONNECTS ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/cooloutwithtmd?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CHECK OUT ALL ZIZ's MUSIC - ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://zizmusicyall.bandcamp.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Ziz Merch - ⁠http://corprewcrafts.com/shop/ols/products/4dadjsradiocom-tshirt-by-ziz⁠ Ziz Connects ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/c/Zizyall⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.4dadjsradio.com ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://instagram.com/4dadjs_radio/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/ziz_yall/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/Ziz134⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ DONATE TO THE SHOW ON CASH APP - $Letschopitupwziz ****You have a small or large business and would like to sponsor the show, contact us through this email- tapinradiowziz@gmail.com**** Playlist- Tone Spliff (Cool Out intro) Es-K & Type.Raw - Effortless feat. A-F-R-O, Kidaf & Jarv Jizzm High Definition - Green Light feat. Pigeon John Deca - Bedrock Dragon Fli Empire - Looking For Tomorrow Medina Green - Crosstown Beef feat. Mos Def Prozack Turner - Worlds An Uproar feat. Brother Ali Odd Holiday, Mattic, Daylight Robbery! - Omen Key Mike Titan x The Dead Poetz Society - The Proof feat. Mista Sinista Nas - Nas Is Like Trust One - Bad Marriage feat. Roughneck Jihad J. Sands - Find A Means feat. Elzhi & Skyzoo Brass Tacks - Life Or Death Ugly Duckling - Oasis Bishop Osei - Inferno feat. Skybox Kenny Ominous Words - Bring The Trouble feat. Akil, Fatlip & Rakaa Dee Nasty (The Grandmaster) - Divinne Connection 2009 feat. Scienz Of Life Black Sheep - Flavor Of The Month Common - The People Bobby Noble & Rapswell - Chucko BIN - Nimbus Vice Beats - Painted Scenes f. Pseudo Slang, 5Stylez, Thalassic & Gaspar Sena Mr. Fluid - Modest Medicine Chlorine Free - D'Fish feat. Raashan Ahmad Young MC - Get More Rhymes Justo The MC x Uncle Fester x DK - Inner Peace feat. Ghettosocks Spectac & Amiri - This Is The Way Keep Records - Been Outside North Star Wisdom - BuRgEr Pete Rock - Back On Da Block Eyedea - Red Ballon Wax Tailor - Until Heaven Stops The Rain Jules Heiro - Let Go feat. Edo G --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/4dadjsradio/message

Full show: https://kNOwBETTERHIPHOP.com Artists Played: Colette Chantel, conshus, EyeQ, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Supastition, DJ Robert Smith, Madison McFerrin, Tapioca, De La Soul, Q-Tip, Vinia Mojica, Thee Sacred Souls, Arrested Development, Speech, 1 Love, Reginald Chapman, Jorok, Kristen Warren, Niko Is, Marz Mello, Megaton SP, COMMON, Eddie Chacon, Odd Holiday, Mattic, Daylight Robbery!, Just Be, JBiz, JuniAli7, Phels, Paradox, Leo Low Pass, Glad2Mecha, DJ Bombeardo, Pandamonium, De La Soul, Jungle Brothers, Q-Tip, B. Cool-Aid, Liv.e, Jimetta Rose, V.C.R, Abyss, Slaine, Seti Tzu, The Arcitype, OutKast, GOODie MOb, IMAKEMADBEATS

On today's broadcast, economist/investor Jerry Robinson is joined by author/writer Dominic Frisby for a fascinating discussion on the history of taxation, tracing its origins from ancient times to the modern era. Frisby's book, Daylight Robbery, explores the complex relationship between money, power, and taxes, and examines how taxation has both influenced and been influenced by changes in power structures and economic systems.

Full show: https://kNOwBETTERHIPHOP.com Artists Played: MoZaic, Okito, conshus, Substantial, KDFoxx, EyeQ, Nick Waterhouse, Anteek Recipes, Definition, Inkswel, A.Billi Free, Pseudo Intellectuals, Third, The 7 Day Weekend, Georgie Sweet, Alfa Mist, Marc Mac, Andromeda, Apollo Brown, Philmore Greene, Skinny Pelembe, Cody Pope, Byron G, DJ Myth, The Workin Class, Potatohead People, T3, Illa J, Kapok, Carrtoons, Jonah Yano, Odd Holiday, Mattic, Daylight Robbery, Babyface, OutKast, GOODie MOb, IMAKEMADBEATS

Errol Parker and Effie Bateman kick off another day in news, live from the Desert Rock FM studioSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We wuz Robbed!

Before we get started today, I just wanted to flag two articles from last week. First, my special report on helium. And, second, Dr John's latest on bonds. Both for paying subscribers, there is lots of valuable info to be had, so please check them out.So to today's piece … Every December Saxobank puts out ten outrageous predictions for the year ahead.It does not claim that these predictions will happen, but that they could happen. The purpose of the exercise is to stimulate thought, discussion and debate.And that is just what Saxobank has achieved because today we consider its ten outrageous predictions for 2023.The 10 outrageous predictions for 2023I went back to look at their predictions for 2022 to see if any of them actually happened. The very first was “The plan to end fossil fuels gets a rain check.” Net Zero has not yet been abandoned, but this year has certainly seen a quite dramatic change in attitude towards fossil fuels. The second was “Facebook faceplants on youth exodus”. Facebook has certainly faceplanted. But I wasn't aware the youth were ever on it.After reading the first two, I was about to bestow Nostre Damus status on Saxobank, but the rest of their 2022 predictions did not really pan out. I won't go through them here. They are in the past. Nobody can do anything about the past. It's the future we need to worry about.So to 2023. Saxobank describes the year as a “war economy”. The days of low-interest rates and a harmonious world built on renewable energy, equality and independent central banks are gone. Now “sovereign economic gains and self-reliance trump globalisation”.That's the macro. Onto the specifics.Prediction one. The pressing global energy needs drive the world's richest to launch an “R&D project in a size the world hasn't seen since the Manhattan Project gave the US the first atomic bomb”.Well, you can bet your bottom dollar that they are talking about it. But I don't think it happens. Not just yet, anyway. Somebody would have to organise it.Prediction two says that, due to the political stalemate in France, and the rise of Marie Le Pen since the 2022 elections, President Macron resigns. I don't see that happening either. France's daft electoral system is what enabled him to be President. The political stalemate means he stays President. Presidents like Macron don't resign unless they are forced to. Too big an ego. Though this McKinsey affair does seem to be hurting him.The gold price surges to $3,000Prediction three is that gold goes to $3,000. Now you're talking my language!“As markets and central banks realise that the idea that inflation is transitory is wrong and that prices will remain higher for longer, gold is sent through the roof,” says Saxobank.To rocket, gold needs inflation expectations to be markedly higher than government bond yields - negative real rates in other words. In the US we do not yet have that. Saxobank is describing a situation where we do.I've got to be straight with you guys. I don't think gold goes to $3,000 in 2023. It's got a better chance of going to £3,000.Prediction four suggests an EU army is coming and that it forces the EU down the path to full union. We know that, despite denials, the EU has been talking about an EU army for years. With that man Mr Putin on the doorstep the need gets rather more pressing. It's possible but it needs the US to take a backward step in its global policeman role, something President Biden and the US military-industrial complex seem unlikely to do.Like many of Saxobank's predictions, I've no doubt it's coming. Just not next year.We come to prediction number five and one that made me smile. “In an effort to become one of the global leaders on the path to net-zero emissions, one country decides to not only put a heavy tax on meat, but to ban domestic production entirely.”I'd never thought about it before, but I do think about it now and I know it's inevitable. Under the pretence of climate change, somewhere is going to impose meat taxes. I don't think meat production will be banned - that's too big a political ask - but meat taxes are coming. And, if you've read the definitive book on taxation that is Daylight Robbery, you will know that taxes are easily imposed, often for moral reasons, but not so easily gotten rid of. Meat taxes are coming - again maybe not a year, but they are coming. It will be for your own good. And once imposed they will stay. Outrageous predictions for 2023: time to wind back Brexit? Prediction six suggests that the UK will hold a referendum to wind back Brexit. Bregret is a big thing now in the UK. A recent YouGov poll found that only 32% now think leaving the European Union was a good idea; 56% say it was a mistake. The Conservative Party have made the most almighty balls up of the opportunity. The primary reason given for voting leave was sovereignty, yet, as the people trafficking and illegal migrant crossings show, they have been unable to even police our borders. No wonder only 21% think Brexit is going well.There will be calls for another referendum. But the Tories won't have it on their watch and I suspect Keir Starmer will be too scared of losing Red Wall votes to make it an electoral pledge. So I doubt we will see a referendum - not next year - even if the sentiment is there.Prediction seven is next and that is for widespread price controls to cap official inflation. Inflation and price controls are forever partnered, and war is never far away from the dancing duo. We have already seen plenty of new price controls this year though. Will we see yet more? Probably.The US dollar is dethronedAnd so to prediction eight - and this is one I do see coming. Well, a watered-down version. And, again maybe not as soon as next year. “OPEC+ & Chindia walk out of the IMF, agree to trade with new reserve asset.”De-dollarisation is a big theme, especially for those nations that make up the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation - which is Russia, China, India and Iran and pretty much every nation between. They are not allies of the US and they want a non-US dollar asset they can trade with. The problem is what? (I have some ideas).I don't see them necessarily walking out of the IMF but some non-US-dollar international asset is coming. Or they'll use an existing one. Before the end of next year? Possibly. It might be gold. It might even be bitcoin. It might be something else.Prediction 9 - we are almost there. Japan fixes its currency to the US dollar at 200 as it overhauls its financial system. The yen has been a basket case - even worse than the pound, believe it or not. Here we see it against the dollar over the last decade. From 60 to 170 is quite some drop. (If the chart below is rising it means the dollar is getting stronger).But this is as much a function of US dollar strength as it is yen weakness and Japanese monetary policy.To go to 200 is not that big an ask, but the US dollar has pulled back quite a bit of late and may have made a long-term reversal. But to go to 200 and then get pegged. I'm not sure.Outrageous predictions for 2023: bye-bye private equity And so finally we come to prediction ten. Tax haven ban kills private equity, says Saxobank. “The OECD countries turn their attention on tax havens and pull the big guns out, banning them altogether.”The OECD has been wanting to do that for yonks. It has not been able to find a way. Maybe war gives them the excuse. I'm not so sure. The practicalities are difficult. You can't ban Panama. You can't ban Switzerland. Saxobank explains how it would work. The OECD would launch a full ban on the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, The Bahamas, Mauritius and the Isle of Man. “The ban means that corporate acquisitions in OECD countries cannot be made with capital arriving from tax haven entities and only from OECD countries or countries that adopt OECD transparency standards on capital, which would include the automatic exchange of information, beneficial ownership registration and country-by-country reporting”.Ouch. It would decimate private equity. You can be sure that the motivation is there. Will it happen?It depends on how nuts things get. And things are getting nuts.Thanks very much for reading. I'll have my own predictions for you, as is always my way, at the beginning of next year.If you are interested in buying gold bullion, my current recommended bullion dealer in the UK is The Pure Gold Company, whether you are taking delivery or storing online. Premiums are low, quality of service is high. You can deal with a human being. I have an affiliation deals with them.Have you got you Kisses on a Postcard CDs yet?Please subscribe to this amazing publication.This article first appeared at Moneyweek. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

Listen every Friday from 21 till 22 (Moscow time) Jazz FM (radiojazzfm.ru) Subscribe in iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ru/podcast/funk-and-beyond-weekly/id1063844118?mt=2 for more details please visit beyondfunk.ru tracklist: 1. Kolinga - Mister Unknown 2. Greentea Peng - Top Steppa 3. Raquel Rodriguez & Swatkins - Lottery 4. Kenny Beats - That Third Thing 5. The KBCS - Whistleblower 6. Drugdealer - Someone To Love 7. Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin - Diarabi 8. Alex Ebert - Truth 9. William Florelle - Vai vai 10. Makaya McCraven - High Fives 11. Jose James - This Christmas 12. Kennebec - Quest (Alfa Mist Remix) 13. Eliza - ME vs ME 14. Reginald Chapman, Fantine - You Go To My Head (Pressure Fit's Stro Elliot Remix Cover) 15. Matt Wilde - Every Story 16. Daylight Robbery! feat. Benjamin Furman - Galilean Moons 17. Bobby Short - Carioca

We always think that time is on our side but the reality is we don't know what tomorrow holds. Instead of waiting and looking back with regrets do it scared and at least each time that you make a mistake self improve until you have mastered it.  

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival starts this week. It's the world's biggest arts festival, an event that sells more tickets than any other event in the world, with the exception of the Olympic Games.I shall be making my way up to Scotland's capital to make my own little contribution, a new show that I haven't finished writing yet (!), “a lecture with funny bits”, about the eternal subject that is weights and measures. Why do I say eternal?Because people have been arguing about them, and trying to impose them since forever.How French revolutionaries tried to decimalise timeThe very first legal documents we have from Ancient Mesopotamia depict rulers with the rod and ring – a yardstick and a measuring string – usually being handed to them by God, as they try and standardise measures in law. Ancient Egyptian documents, illustrations and hieroglyphs abound with similar references. Scales are prominent too.The opening words of the Bible establish our basic measures of time – the day and the week. This is something the French Revolutionaries tried to do away with in 1792 when they decimalised time. One week would be ten days. One day would be ten hours. One hour would contain 100 decimal minutes, and each decimal minute, 100 decimal seconds. Thus one day would be 100,000 decimal seconds per day. When the proles discovered that meant one day off in ten, rather than in seven, the system began to meet with considerable resistance and duly kicked out. The revolutionaries may have got their metric weights and distances over the line, but time was a step too far. What is a “step” by the way, but a measure? A vague but useful measure that fitbits and iPhones and health apps have become obsessed with. I did 14,126 steps yesterday. (It was a long day). What about you?“There is to be one measure of wine throughout our kingdom, and one measure of ale, and one measure of corn,” proclaims Magna Carta. “One breadth of cloths … and let weights be dealt with as with measures.”Even today, when Boris Johnson made announcements about being able to use imperial measures again, the culture wars kicked off. In his 2019 election manifesto Johnson pledged “an era of generosity and tolerance towards traditional measurements”. To the Guardian, however, this was xenophobia and pseudoscience.Which is best – “free market” imperial or “central planning” metric?I often go to the Edinburgh Fringe to do “lectures with funny bits”. In 2016 I did one about tax, which would eventually become my book Daylight Robbery. In 2019, I did one about the philosophies of Adam Smith and how they related to the economics of the Fringe, which would eventually become a film, Father of the Fringe. This time around I thought it would be interesting to do one about weights and measures.  I've since discovered the subject is enormous and endless, which is why I haven't finished writing it yet. (It's going to be held in Adam Smith's old front room at Panmure House, so a wonderful historic setting.)The inevitable question that gets asked is: which system is better – imperial or metric? I would answer, with the bland neutrality of the on-the-fence politician, that they both have their place.I grew up with the metric system. That was what I was taught at school. But as I've grown older, I've found myself thinking more and more in  imperial. Feet make more sense to me than 30, 60, or 90 centimetres, or 1.2, 1.5 or 1.8 metres. Inches – a thumb pressed down – make more sense than centimetres. A hair's breadth means more than a micrometre. I find it easier to orient myself around pints than I do litres, around pounds – the amount you can easily hold in your hand – than I do kilos, and around yards – a pace – than I do metres.But the problem with imperial is that it was never a designed system in the way that metric is. Most measures emerged over time through use. Impractical measures got abandoned, and practical ones stuck. The buku was the distance from which the cry of a buffalo could be heard in Russia. No doubt an extremely useful measure in a country with such vast expanses of land, but of little use today. The pound we use today, however, roughly corresponds with the Babylonian “mesa”. Shoe sizes are defined by barleycorns. A fathom is one's arms outstretched – 6 foot. A really useful distance, especially for depth. 6 foot is the depth to which in water we can just about stand up in - or bounce - without having to swim.But there are a gazillion measures that found common use in history that have fallen by the wayside. It's very much a market driven system.Yet as soon as you start to analyse it with the logic of the planner, imperial measures look nuts. Just take a look at some of the flow charts to explain imperial measures on Wikipedia and elsewhere if you want to understand how nuts it looks. Why can't we just have both?Americans have a “dry gallon” and a “liquid gallon”. What's more, their gallon is not the same as our imperial gallon (one of the reasons petrol there seems SO much cheaper is that their gallon is smaller). But their gallon is the English gallon because they use the English system, which came over with the settlers.We British, however, use the imperial system with the Weights and Measures Act of 1824, long after US independence, and exported through the Empire, in part to make sure this new-fangled French metric system didn't take hold.This new-fangled French metric system came about with the French Revolution. “One king,  one law, one weight, one measure,” the Revolutionaries cried. They had, according to the BBC, some 250,000 different weights and measures – differing from town to town and district to district (talk about regional diversity) – and there was considerable fraud.Let us give them “a system for all people for all time” thought the savants, the 18th-century liberal metropolitan elite. Instead of defining measures around the human body and the immediate world around us, they thought, we will design a system around the earth itself. A metre will be one ten millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator. So two scientists were sent out to measure the distance from Dunkirk to Barcelona and they would extrapolate it from there. However, one of the scientists, who got arrested for sorcery, then for spying and then saw his money disappear with the hyperinflation of the assignat, under considerable pressure, fudged the data and so the measure is actually wrong. By how much? A hair's breadth.The metre has since been redefined, first around the speed of light and then around atomic movements, to give it a level of precision the ordinary yard – a pace – will never have. But those redefinitions have always used as their base that first metre which was erroneous and, slightly, fraudulent.We do need one international system of measures that everyone understands, especially for science. But, in the same way it is good to speak more than one language, so should we be familiar with more than one system of measurement. And if you want regional diversity, especially in architecture, then you should embrace diversity of measurement.Today the only countries in the world not officially on the metric system are Myanmar, Liberia and the US. But on the ground traditional measures are used everywhere - from the prevalent half kilo, effectively a pound, to brick sizes (a hand) to cargo ships . People talk and think in traditional measures, because they are practical and rooted in the world around us. Metric is abstract. Long live both.Dominic Frisby's How Heavy?, a lecture with funny bits about weights and measures, will be running at the Edinburgh Fringe from August 7-15. You can get tickets here.This article first appeared at Moneyweek. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

North Shore residents say the robbery in broad daylight of a local jewellery store signifies a growing trend along one of Takapuna's main streets. Men armed with what appeared to be crow bars have smashed their way into Michael Hill Jewellery yesterday, one of them taking a swing at a member of the public before taking off with their loot in a stolen vehicle. The local community board chair says its just one incident in what's a worrying trend in the area. Nick Truebridge reports.

[Warning: this is a long post, and probably not of interest to everyone, but you never know. Also it's probably one to read rather than listen to, but some prefer the audio, so I've given you the choice.]As regular readers of my stuff will know, I'm of the view that a society should be designed around direct democracy and very low levels of land value tax (LVT), what Milton Friedman called “the least bad tax”. I may dream of Ancapistan, a land of no government, but the reality is that taxation of some kind, even if it be voluntary, is inevitable. There has never been a civilisation without taxation.Ideally, land value tax would replace ALL other taxes. However, if you offered me LVT in the UK and all other taxes, income tax especially, slashed to 10, 15 or even 20%, I'd bite your hand off. My friends in the countryside hate the idea, and I get angry messages about it, but the reality is that it is the owners of prime city centre real estate, the likes of the Crown, the Grosvenor Estate, major institutions and so on, who would bear the brunt, not ordinary homeowners or someone with 10 acres of field with no planning permission. (In my book Daylight Robbery, I argue for location value tax - it's the same as land value tax, but I use the word “location” because the location of the land - ie city centres - is more important than the actual amount of land).In any case, LVT is not going to happen here in the UK. Introducing a major new tax is too big an undertaking. It's easier for politicians to raise and lower the taxes they already impose, and tinker round the edges of the existing system. LVT would be a whopping vote-loser in a nation whose primary concept of wealth is the value of their house. Just explaining it, never mind getting it across the line, is hard enough. (If you want an explainer, by the way, there is one here and another here). Anyway this is all pre-amble, and I'm not here today to discuss the merits - or lack thereof - of LVT. For the purposes of this blog, just take my word that LVT keeps the relationship between ruler and citizen, between governor and governed, in healthy, transparent check. With LVT you would pay fewer taxes and lower levels of tax - ie less tax overall.So I've been trying to come up with a politically possible means by which* LVT can be implemented and shown in practice to work* Beautiful housing can be made affordable to ordinary people without collapsing the housing market or having to reform the fiat money system* Corporations, particularly crony capitalist building companies, planners, regulators and government are kept out of it, and people can be left to their own ingenious devicesAnd, by George, I think I've got it.Here's my idea. I stress: it is just an idea I am working through so there are bound to be flaws. I'd be grateful for any comments, pointers, thoughts, statistics, data, and so on.Water Location Value TaxSummary:Today's unaffordable housing is a consequence of both our system of planning and our system of money. They have conspired. But wholesale reform to either as good as politically impossible. With Britain's over-leverage to housing, the financial repercussions of markedly lower house prices are politically intolerable. Instead we propose to bypass the housing market altogether with an initiative to re-populate the underused rivers, keys, docks and canals of Britain with houseboats, barges and floating homes. Local authorities and the land registry will determine who “owns” the water and the land beside it (most water is nationally owned). That which is not needed for transportation (eg the middle of rivers) will be parcelled off into small plots to be sold to individual owners – not corporate entities – on which they can then build or buy, then moor floating homes and other edifices. An annual Water Tax will then be levied along the lines of Henry George's Single Tax (land value tax), based on the rental value of the plot, payable to the local authority and to the body in charge of the waterway, usually the Canal River Trust.20 housing ministers since 1999The unaffordability of housing has been for twenty years or more one of the biggest issues in the country. As if to illustrate the priority this problem is being given in Whitehall, we have this:In fact, we have had two more, since Esther McVey and this chart: Christopher Pincher Stuart Andrew and Steward Andrew. I make that 20 different housing ministers since Hilary Armstrong in 1999. It's not what you would describe as evidence of a long-term strategy.It seems absurd that we should have any crisis at all. A house does not cost a lot of money to build. In China it has long been the case that a 3D printer can build a home in a day for about £3,000. Here in the UK you can buy a flatpack 3-bed house, which takes 6-7 hours to erect, yours for £24,000. The interior of one of architect, Renato Vidal's 3-bed, flat-packed homes, £24,000. Meanwhile, there is no shortage of land. Little more than 4% of the land in England and Wales is built on, even less in Scotland. This was the finding of the National Ecosystem Assessment in 2011: just 1.1% of rural and urban land in England and Wales has domestic property on it, another 1% has commercial property and 2% is roads. The rest – around 95% - is not built on. You could, in theory, double the housing stock of England and Wales, using little more than 1% of land. (It is more complicated than that but you take my point).How on earth have we got into the situation that in 21st century Britain almost an entire generation is “priced out”? Underlying cause of high house prices number one – money supplyBetween 1997 and 2007 the population grew by 5%, yet the housing stock grew by 10%.  If house prices were a simple function of supply and demand, they would have fallen slightly over the period. Instead, they tripled.Mortgage lending over the same period went up by 370%. It was the increased supply of money, which caused house prices to rise. Money supply increased at a rate of roughly 11.5% per annum in the 40 years between 1971 and 2011. Some 40% of it went into residential and commercial property. Roughly speaking, house price inflation mirrored money supply growth. The Bank of England has a remit to curb inflation, but it does not include house prices or money supply growth in its standard measures, and so house price inflation went unchecked. If interest rates had reflected 11.5% annual money supply growth, house price inflation would have been stopped in its tracks.  Underlying cause number two – planningPlanning laws are the second part of the problem. The newly created money poured into a market which had limited ability to expand.The 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, passed by Clement Attlee's Labour Government, became the foundation of modern town and country planning in the UK, followed by new statutes in 1990 and 2004.  It was founded on the laudable aim “that all the land of the country is used in the best interests of the whole people”. What happened, however, was that it became difficult to get permission to build anything, so the act had the effect of reinforcing the monopoly of the landowner. Today, just 6,000 or so landowners (the Crown, large institutions and a few rich families) own more than 70% of UK land. Most people do not have the time and resources to navigate planning laws, so house building has become the preserve of a few large corporations. An acre of rural land worth £10,000 becomes an acre of land worth as much as £1m once it has planning permission. This is an expensive and utterly needless cost of government, and it goes a long way to explain why house prices are so much higher than build prices. The act led to huge concentrations of both people and capital in areas that were already built up – especially London – and brought vast, unearned wealth to those who owned at the expense of those who didn't. Our most beautiful domestic architecture was predominantly built in the 18th and 19th century, before planning laws. The more planning there is, the uglier buildings seem to get. This is causation not correlation: it is inevitable when the final say on creative decisions is in the hands of planners. Imagine Van Gogh needing regulatory approval on a painting. Here are some nice houses built before planning laws.Why this housing crisis is unsolvableTo solve the crisis requires two things: money reform and planning reform.  Both are such huge undertakings with such opposing vested interests as to be almost unachievable. As a nation, Britain is over-leveraged to housing. Too many people have too much money tied up in their house. The economic risks of significantly lower prices are high. What party standing for lower house prices would even get elected? Homeowners are more likely to vote than renters. The house price crash of 1989-94 was a major factor in making the Tories unelectable for half a generation. No party wants such a fate. A land value tax, along the lines of the Single Tax suggested by Henry George, would go a long way to resolving many of the housing market's distortions, but there is as little chance of that as there is of money and planning reform. Politicians promising new taxes when there is no national emergency tend not to be popular. Margaret Thatcher's Community Charge is one of many examples.There is an impossible deadlock. We must seek a solution elsewhere. In his 2009 essay, The Education of a Libertarian, tech entrepreneur Peter Thiel argued that political change cannot be achieved through political activism. Instead, one must “find an escape from politics in all its forms”, he says, and “focus on technologies that create a new space for freedom”. The Internet, for example, was one such “new space” albeit a virtual one.  In the future sea steading or outer space might be. “The mode for escape,” he says “must involve some sort of new and hitherto untried process that leads us to some undiscovered country.”It might be that there is an “undiscovered country” that exists in the middle of every major city of the UK: on its water.The most valuable real estate in the worldThere is a piece of prime Central London real estate, bigger than Hyde Park and better located. It is undeveloped - 150 years ago Londoners were making more use of it than they are today. Yet it could create all sorts of possibilities for people, not least billions of pounds worth of business, as well as lighten London's chronic congestion and housing problems. The River Thames.I lived for many years on a barge, docked on the Isle of Dogs. How it used to frustrate me, as we drove up the river, that this enormous resource, the Thames, was barely used.  A few party, pleasure and tour boats, some barges carrying freight, HMS Belfast, the Thames Clippers, a couple of floating restaurant-bars and the occasional mooring for houseboats. That's pretty much it. Plenty of office and apartment blocks have been built along each side (what a missed opportunity to produce something beautiful that was), but in front of them, from Teddington Lock to the Isle of Dogs and beyond, there is mile upon mile of unused bank wall, foreshore and river with hardly any activity. Here is Canaletto's Greenwich Hospital painted on the southern tip of the Isle of Dogs in around 1750. It is a haven of activity: boats ferrying people about, delivering goods, industry, commerce - as well as people living in boats moored on the river. It was bustling. Here is that same view today. There is nothing going on.This is the view from either side of Vauxhall Bridge. I took these pictures during the rush hour a couple of years back. Plenty is happening on either side, but on the river itself there is nothing going on. We cross the Thames, we walk along the side of it, we look at it, occasionally we take boat trips on it, but we don't actually use it. The River Thames used to be the lifeblood of London and we have lost touch with it. The story is the same in so many cities across the country. Each one has its water: its docks, its quays, its rivers, its canals. Almost invariably the banks have been developed in some way – the docks of Liverpool, Cardiff, Salford or Birmingham, for example - but the water itself just sits there, looking on – idly ignored. Canary Wharf is another example – even there, so much of the quay water goes almost unused. The waterways of Britain have become a relative economic desert.There should be houseboats, barges, floating structures, shops, restaurants, workplaces, offices, cinemas, theatres, small craft ferrying people in between. The possibilities are enormous. Of course there are ecological and aesthetic concerns, but these can be addressed. In London especially, but elsewhere too, there are safety issues with the tide and currents, but these are challenges which can easily be overcome by entrepreneurs, engineers and inventors between them. They managed 200 years ago. Take a leaf out of Venice's book, take a leaf out of Amsterdam's book, out of Seattle or Vancouver's book. But the mayor cannot just shout “everyone in a boat”. How then to develop our water? How to do it well? And why has it not happened before?Without clear ownership capital will not be investedOne of the barriers to development has been lack of clear ownership. On the non-tidal Thames (from Teddington Lock to the source in Oxfordshire), for example, there are riparian rights. The owner of the bank has ownership of the bed to the middle of the river. However, the middle of the river must be left clear for craft to pass and the Environment Agency limits what can and can't be done. (Can any lawyer readers confirm this?)On the tidal Thames, however – which stretches from Teddington Lock to the Estuary - these riparian rights are less clear. The Port Of London Authority (PLA) inherited ownership of the riverbed and the foreshore from the City of London in 1907. The bank and one boat width immediately next to it are owned by somebody else. Often there is a dispute over ownership of the wall alongside the river. Many moorings - Reed Wharf by Tower Bridge, Nine Elms in Vauxhall, St Mary's Church in Battersea, for example - have been there for decades, yet they are all constantly in and out of legal disputes over ownership. Much of the problem is that ownership was never registered and recorded in the same way that “normal” land was. Water moves.When ownership is not clear, capital is less likely to be risked. Things then fall into disrepair. Take a look at the mooring by St Mary's Church in Battersea if you want to see the depths of disrepair to which boats on an unmaintained mooring can sink (literally). This could be such a beautiful mooring. The spot is glorious (though not as nice as it was before they built those horrible glass fronted apartment blocks next to it).The disrepair gives rise to nimby-ism. Riverside properties don't want their view of the river spoiled by grotty old boats.  When they have control of the access point on the bank to the water, they have control of what can or can't happen. Moored boats, complain those who live on the river, even if lived on for many years, have fewer rights than squatters. They can be moved on with little notice or permission. The waters of Britain are, for the most part, nationally owned, under the stewardship of the Canal River Trust. The Environment Agency also has a role. In the case of the tidal Thames, the Port of London Authority is the body responsible. These bodies made certain decisions about how the waterways were to be used – no residential development on the Thames was one. But these decisions were taken without any kind of public vote. All three would vehemently defend this charge, but they have proved barriers to rather than facilitators of progress. None are popular with those who live on boats. Our goal is to sell small plots of water – on docks, canals, rivers, wherever there is ample space – to private (not corporate) owners. The owner, not the public body, will then have the say as to what they moor there. The solutionHow ironic that a land value tax could be the answer.The local authority, together with the land registry, should parcel up each area of water, foreshore and bank in its jurisdiction into plots, with a register of who owns what. Most of the water is nationally owned, but there may be some disputes over ownership of access points and banks. These will be resolved in due course, as I'll explain.Each plot that is nationally owned should then be put up for auction with a 125-year lease, some for domestic use, some for commercial. The proceeds of the sale go to the local authority and the body in charge of the water on a 70:30 basis. We want to encourage individual owners. We want to discourage property speculators, landlords and corporate developers. So there will a maximum size to each plot and no body may buy more than one - at this stage. Buyers of domestic plots may be individuals or families – but no corporations. Against every plot a tax is then levied, which should be a proportion – likely 10% - of the annual rental value of that plot. That percentage rate is agreed in advance and, probably, fixed for the duration of the lease. Thus everyone will know where they stand. No chains are allowed in the commercial plots. Small businesses only.Every year for 125 years the lessee will pay, say, 10% of the rental value of the plot. If he/she doesn't want to pay the tax, they sell the plot to someone who is happy to. Rental values can be assessed every three years - but they are pretty easy to determine. You just look at what nearby plots are renting for.This tax revenue, as with the sale money, is shared 70:30 between the local authority and the body in charge of the waterway in that area, usually the Canal River Trust, thereby providing an income stream for both. The Authority then has an obligation to spend or invest that tax revenue maintaining and improving the waterways, in consultation with those who live on them. The lure of the tax and the sale revenue should encourage the compliance of both in the scheme, but the order should come from above - from central government.The administration of the tax should settle many issues surrounding ownership. In many cases it should force disputes to be settled. The obligation to pay tax will force many owners, either to make use of the plot - to develop it in some way (a way that is ecologically and aesthetically agreeable, of course) - or to sell it to someone who will. Once ownership is clear, and development possible, capital will follow.With individual families and small businesses developing floating properties according to their own needs and wants – self-build essentially – we are guiding development along the lines of a Schumacherian, “small is beautiful” ethos. The large building corporations (not to mention the regulators who approved their projects), who between them have between brought Britain its bland and characterless architecture of the last 70 years, will not be involved in any way. There will be certain craft specifications (usually a limit on size), but the main say will lie with the creator not the regulator. We do not want not homogenisation, but individuality and character. Individuals developing their own places to live and work will have a far greater incentive to create something unique and beautiful than a planner looking to tick boxes. Houses – and boats and barges – can be bought and sold for much closer to their build costs, a far cry from the astronomical prices paid elsewhere. It is unlikely banks will lend recklessly, if at all, thus will we keep “excess money creation” out of this market. The obligation to pay tax should deter speculators and land-bankers. Beautiful floating edifices can be built, homes, places of work and entertainment, water commerce can flourish once again, congestion elsewhere can ease. Fantastic communities can flourish - boating communities are as close-knit and happy as you get. Thus do we create a thriving new opportunity in the middle of our cities at a low cost to entrants. A market-based policy to alleviate the UK's housing shortage. Please share your thoughts. I'm particularly interested in any data there is on how much water is actually available. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

‘Due to our low tax policy . . . revenue has increased.'John James Cowperthwaite, Hong Kong Financial Secretary, 1961-71Fourteenth-century Tunisian, Ibn Khaldun, is probably the greatest philosopher of the Islamic Golden Age. In his magnum opus, The Muqaddimah, he wrote: ‘In the early stages of an empire, taxes are light in their incidence, but fetch in large revenue. As time passes and kings succeed each other, they lose their tribal habits in favour of more civilised ones. Their needs and exigencies grow . . . owing to the luxury in which they have been brought up. Hence they impose fresh taxes on their subjects . . . and sharply raise the rate of old taxes to increase their yield . . . But the effects on business of this rise in taxation make themselves felt. For businessmen are soon discouraged by the comparison of their profits with the burden of their taxes . . . Consequently, production falls off, and with it the yield of taxation.' Never mind his own Islam, he might have been describing Rome or Greece before, or Britain or the US after. Low taxation and small government accompany the ascent of great civilisations, high taxation and big government their demise.It may be counter-intuitive, but it is an observation that goes back centuries. Low tax rates often bring in greater revenue, while higher tax rates bring in less.Khaldun was not the first to make this observation. It was the guiding philosophy of the fourth caliph, Ali. Take great care, he instructed his governors, ‘to ensure the prosperity of those who pay taxes. The proper upkeep of the land in cultivation is of greater importance than the collection of revenue for revenue cannot be derived unless the land is productive.' If conditions are bad, then suspend taxes, he advised. “Do not mind the loss of revenue on that account, for that will return to you one day manifold in the hour of greater prosperity of the land and enable you to improve the condition of your towns and to raise the prestige of your state.”Hong Kong's John James Cowperthwaite acted by the same philosophy and would always push for the low- or no-tax option. Eventually, ‘funds left in the hands of the public will come into the Exchequer', he said, but ‘with interest'.In 1924, US Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon wrote, ‘It seems difficult for some to understand that high rates of taxation do not necessarily mean large revenue to the government, and that more revenue may often be obtained by lower rates.'But perhaps the most famous proponent of this argument was the American economist Arthur Laffer.In 1974, Laffer was having dinner in Washington DC with two of (recently impeached) President Richard Nixon's former advisers, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, as well as a writer for the Wall Street Journal by the name of Jude Wanniski. Laffer was arguing that the incumbent president Gerald Ford's recent tax increases were flawed and would not lead to increased government revenue. To illustrate his argument, so the story goes, he drew a curve on a napkin showing the relationship between tax rates and revenue. At very low rates of tax, government revenue is low; but it is also low at high rates (because the economy is weaker, profits are down, earnings are down, evasion is higher and so on), so the curve is bell-shaped. The top of the bell is the point of maximum revenue – that is, the sweet spot at which to place tax rates if your goal is to maximise government revenue. Laffer's argument caught the imagination of those present; Wanniski would later dub it ‘the Laffer Curve', even though Laffer later stressed, ‘The Laffer Curve, by the way, was not invented by me,' and mentioned many others, from Keynes to Khaldun, who had observed the same phenomenon (perhaps we should call it the Fourth Caliph Curve). As President J. F. Kennedy once said, ‘It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the tax rates.' It is a lesson that mankind continually seems to forget, and one that continually needs re-teaching. Hence today's post.(That was an adapted extract from Daylight Robbery, How Tax Shaped our Past and Will Change our Future). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.theflyingfrisby.com/subscribe

CEO of The Independent Business Network Brendan Chilton kicks off today's show to discuss the latest controversies to hit Westminster and beyond this week, Journalist and Author Laura Dodsworth returns for her weekly lowdown of the goings-on from clown world here at home and abroad as war propaganda from Ukraine and Russia continues to escalate and confuse. Former Scotland Yard Superintendent Nusrit Mehtab returns to The Independent Republic to discuss why fewer than half of senior police leaders would recommend joining the service, Telegraph can reveal amidst another report that unsolved burglaries are hitting 500 per day. Broadcast Editor of The Spectator and Presenter of our Chinese Whispers podcast Cindy Yu closes the show to discuss whether China's censors losing control of Shanghai as they continue to enforce their zero covid policy. All that and so much more so tune in! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We discuss DAYLIGHT ROBBERY and I write some letters to the manager, and we read some feedback on last week. Love ya!!! T xx Check out our Patreon at patreon.com/ToniandRyan, and make sure you join our Facebook Group!  Find #ToniAndRyan on Instagram @tonilodge and @ryan.jon OR on TikTok @toni.lodge and @ryanjondunn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was always going to take something special to end Newcastle's current run of form, but it was at the hands of the officials that gifted Chelsea all three points at Stamford Bridge. Join the AWSF lads; Kris, Mark, Deka and Besty as they report a crime in the Capital.  Want even more videos, early access to podcasts and instant access into the GallowgateShots Telegram instant messenger group? You can get all of this by becoming a Gallowgateshots Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWLHhMdZOBv6BGYU9aWVNjQ/join The GallowgateShots YouTube channel is now proudly part of the 90MIN Football Network as their go to Newcastle United Podcast provider. You can follow GallowgateShots across social media on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram Follow the Socials: GallowgateShots Twitter: https://twitter.com/GallowgateShots AWSF Twitter: https://twitter.com/AWSFpodcast GS Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GallowgateShots/ GS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gallowgate_shots A huge thanks to our 2021/22 season sponsor PT-4-YOU.co.uk PT4You is a revolutionary new system carefully designed to match you with your ideal personal trainer. Embarking on a journey towards total health and fitness can be daunting, and you want to be sure that you're choosing a trainer that's completely and totally right for YOU! #NUFC #Newcastle #PremierLeague #NewcastleUnited See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More money troubles in cryptotown. Trouble with plastic spaghetti. The mouse that conquered Windows. And the embarrassment when you report one of your very own emails as a phish. With Paul Ducklin and Doug Aamoth. Original music by Edith Mudge Got questions/suggestions/stories to share? Email tips@sophos.com Twitter @NakedSecurity Instagram @NakedSecurity

Location: Remotely Date: Thursday 4th March Company: dominicfrisby.com Role: Author, Comedian & Voice Actor COVID-19's impact on the global economy has been immense. Efforts to counter these effects have been varied, from unprecedented levels of money printing to increased taxation and other fiscal policies. Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, recently announced that, in 2023, there will be an increase in corporation tax in the UK, claiming this would put the burden on business to support the economic recovery from COVID-19. It has, however, raised concerns that this may force companies to move elsewhere. Dominic Frisby is a British author, comedian and voice actor who has written several books, including; Bitcoin: The Future of Money and, more recently, Daylight Robbery: How Tax Shaped Our Past and Will Change Our Future. In this interview, I talk to him about his book Daylight Robbery, the effects of taxation and the proposed rise in corporation tax in the UK, libertarianism and gold vs bitcoin.