I do apologise if moderation is a little slow today. I am heading to Addenbrooke's Hospital soon for the second round of my treatment for a renal stone.
I am hoping they blast it to smithereens today, but I know a third round may yet be needed.
This treatment is bound to heavily disrupt my day and, because I will also be on some quite heavy painkillers for a while, I might not be at my best.
With luck, tomorrow will be better. But life does these unpleasant things, and today I have simply got to deal with them.
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Buy me a coffee!
Best wishes. Take a day or two.
There will be content tomorrow…but I am not sure how much.
I hope all goes well for you today! My very best wishes and thank you for all you do in these depressing times to keep some hope alive.
Thanks
Good luck Richard and I hope it goes well.
Thanks. Appreciated. Waiting now.
Richard, I hope all goes well today.
I appreciate that you need to rest, but the National Defense Authorisation Act that is before the US Senate proposes closer US-Israeli military integration, to embed the IDF into the US military command structure.
What are Trump and Israel planning? The rest of the world should be very , very worried.
This is very scary.
Good luck Richard
Best wishes. Hope you continue to improve.
Thank you
Very best wishes. Hope treatment works well today.
Thanks
Health is everything Richard. Take care of yourself.
Thanks. Feeling like a medicalised object right now.
Very best wishes, and to the family too.
I don’t doubt for a moment that your output over the coming days will still greatly exceed that of all the other successful YouTubers I follow. Take a break and binge-watch Max Miller’s Tasting History for a day. We’ll still be here when you get back.
May you experience minimal pain and discomfort!
Best Wishes
Best wishes and thanks for all your content
Thank you.
I hope all has gone or is going well with the stone blasting. Here’s a question for when you’re back in thinking mode.
I find talking of taxation as the withdrawal of money from the economy doesn’t work with people who, though they still think taxation funds government spending, are often cleverer than I am, and know it. What several of them have said in effect is: “Ok, the government’s very first expenditure comes before taxation but it anticipates the taxation that follows and that taxation funds subsequent government spending; so, what’s the difference?” I struggled a bit with that but came up with the analogy off paying of a bank loan so that paying tax is just cancelling the debt we owe the government because of our legal obligation to pay it and, as with the bank loan, once the debt is paid the debit amount ceases to exist. I tried that yesterday on a really clever young chap I know and he frowned and said “Hm so you’re saying tax is really a debt?” Which made me feel I was getting somewhere. Have I got that right or am I in danger of leading other people astray?
Yes, tax is a debt. It is a debt created by Parliament, through law, which requires us to pay money to the government. What else could it be?
Its purpose is to recover money that the government has spent into the economy, while also creating demand for the currency, controlling inflation, redistributing income and changing behaviour.
Your bank-loan analogy is useful, with one qualification. A tax liability is not created by a particular item of government spending in the way that a bank loan creates a specific debt. It arises when the law says that a taxable event has occurred.
But once the tax is paid, the liability is cancelled. The money used to pay it is also removed from private use. It does not sit in a government account waiting to fund the next item of spending.
That is the answer to the claim that one round of taxation funds the next round of expenditure. It does not. Each act of government spending creates new money. Each tax payment cancels money and settles a legal debt to the state.
So I think you are on exactly the right track. Calling tax a debt may well help people understand what is actually happening.
There is some resitence see:-
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2026/07/satyajit-das-deja-vu-all-over-again-are-stock-markets-repeating-dot-com-mistakes.html
So much hope that by this time tomorrow you will feel much better.
As you would say, go well.
Thank you and your team for all you do.
Thanks
Hope all goes well!
Stay strong Richard, you’ll get through this unscathed.
I will..but not yet, it seems.
Belatedly adding my best wishes to everyone else’s. I hope the day went well and you get a good night’s sleep and are refreshed for your insights in the morning. Look after yourself, and thank you for all your work.
Thanks
Progress report just out
With best wishes for a successful blasting of that infernal stone.
(And for an equally successful blasting of the infernal Trump-Netanyahu relationship.
🙂