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There are lies, and statistics

January 4th, 2010

Public sector pay: some unstraight statistics from the Sunday Times | ToUChstone blog: A public policy blog from the TUC.

Nigel Stanley of the TUC lays into some pretty dodgy stats from the Sunday Times on public sector pay.

He’s right to do so: the impression given is straightforwardly wrong and the ethics involved dubious.

And for the clarification of doubt: yes I do advise the TUC but I was not involved in Nigel’s analysis.

Richard Murphy Economics

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Blatant misinformation from the FT What does Polly know?

Also worth reading

FT.com / UK / Economy & Trade - UK house prices on downward trend 2010/09/04
Nationwide House Price Index for August, published on Thursday, showed the average price fell by 0.9 per cent in August after a fall of 0.5 per cent in July.
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Carbon diary: UnGovernment unwinding green energy | ToUChstone blog: A public policy blog from the TUC 2010/09/04
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Revenue expects to collect €40m in offshore inquiries - The Irish Times - Fri, Aug 27, 2010 2010/08/28
THE REVENUE Commissioners expect to collect up to €40 million by the end of this year from special investigations into trusts and offshore structures which have been used to evade tax.

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Tax Justice Network: Columbia's Fred Mishkin exposed for promoting Iceland's "prudential regulation" 2010/08/28
We have previously blogged on Iceland's precipitous financial collapse, and linked through to American organisations pushing their toxic anarcho-capitalist agenda in that country. Now check out this link which explores the contribution of Columbia University's Fred Mishkin. Embarrassingly for him, just before the financial crisis washed over Iceland, Mishkin penned a rather ill-conceived report on financial liberalisation in that country claiming that "prudential regulation and supervision is generally quite strong" on the basis of absolutely no research or in-depth analysis, and failing to register that the report was funded by the Icelandic Chamber of Commerce - whoops, not the first time we find senior academics and / or business schools failing to declare potential conflicts of interest. Do watch the video link here and watch Mishkin fail to answer the questions about his professional conduct.
Land value tax – not old or New but true Labour | Andy Burnham | Comment is free | The Guardian 2010/08/27
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The cuts that the Government plan to intoduce in the CSR will have a disproportionate impact on the poorest, who will lose public services worth around 20 per cent of their household incomes. Whatever additional spending is targed to the worst off families, it will be impossible to protect them from cuts of this scale. International evidence shows us that spending cuts are made, those who have the least feel the most pain.