Utopia, you are standing in it!

Energy costs on the rise

Refusal to exploit their own reserves of coal and gas, strong reluctance to import any more than the bare minimum because of a professed fear of trace gases in the atmosphere, and over-reliance on costly renewables is making the countries in question look more and more foolish. No end in sight to this kind of economic pain.
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Depleted natural gas inventories and low wind speeds have led to a surge in electricity prices across Europe, putting pressure on governments as consumers protest against surging power bills ahead of the winter heating season, says OilPrice.com.

Electricity prices from the UK to Spain have jumped to all-time highs, people in Spain have taken to the streets, while prices across Europe so high could become a drag on the economic recovery from the pandemic.

In Spain, day-ahead electricity prices surged to a fresh record…

The other day I wrote about how Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk was arested for his role in the Ridolfi Plot. The Ridolfi Plot was the plan to murder Queen Elizabeth I, and replace her on the English throne with Mary I of Scotland. The historical event that paved the way for this plot was the excommunication of Queen Elizabeth I.

Regnans in Excelsis (“Reigning on High”) was a Papal Bull that Pope Pius V issued on February 25, 1570. The Bull excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I of England, referring to her as “the pretended Queen of England and the servant of crime”, declared her a heretic, and released her subjects from allegiance to her, even those who had “sworn oaths to her”, and excommunicated any who obeyed her orders: “We charge and command all and singular the nobles, subjects, peoples and others afore said that they do not dare…

Back in 2010, I excoriated the new Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, noting that David Cameron was increasing tax rates and expanding the burden of government spending (including an increase in the capital gains tax!).

I also criticized Cameron for leaving in place the 50 percent income tax rate imposed by his feckless predecessor, and was not surprised when experts began to warn that this class-warfare tax hike might actually result in less revenue because the reduction in taxable income could be more significant than the increase in the tax rate.

In other words, bad policy might lead to a turbo-charged version of the Laffer Curve.

Allow me to elaborate. In most cases, punitive tax hikes do raise revenue, but not as much as politicians predict. As explained in this three-part video series, this is because it takes a very significant reduction in taxable income to offset the…

We commend social issues commentator Lindsay Mitchell, who tirelessly digs up data that put a different perspective on matters reported by mainstream media or brings government policy and its implementation into question.

Two splendid examples have been posted on her blog in the past few days.

One post (using graphs to underscore the argument) contends the progress of Māori social and economic indicators that has occurred under the process of colonisation stands in stark contrast to the constant barrage of contrary claims

The second post challenges the Ardern Government’s claims to be the most open and transparent government ever.

Now let us examine the rise of Otto the Great.

The Medieval Kingdom of Germany started out as the eastern section of the Frankish kingdom. The rulers of the eastern area thus called themselves Rex Francorum, King of the Franks. The term rex teutonicorum (“King of the Germans”) first came into use in Italy around the year 1000.

After the death of the last Carolingian, Louis the Child, in 911, dukes of the stem duchies (another topic all together) of Saxony, Swabia and Bavaria, acknowledged the unity of the kingdom and elected Conrad I, Duke of Franconia to be their king on November 10, 911 at Forchheim. Conrad was the son of Duke Conrad of Thuringia (called the Elder) and his wife Glismoda, probably related to Ota, wife of the Carolingian emperor Arnulf of Carinthia and mother of Louis the Child.

The dukes of the stem duchies prevented the succession…