We're glad Polly is finally recognising basic truths

The insistence that rich people won’t move if taxes are increased is, of course, wrong. The question is never whether any, it’s how many taking how much money? However, this is an outbreak of good sense. Finally:

It’s a done deal – just about. Down at the bookies, you can get 14/1 on a Tory majority at the next general election, while betting on Labour to win, the odds are a measly 1/6. If you need any more confirmation that Labour will form the next government, just listen to the clamour of the wealth advisers telling their high net-worth clients that it’s time to pack their Louis Vuittons.

Well, there we have it. People spending their own money (or for the tax types, not spending it) on their own interests according to their own views of the world is proof perfect. Which is, we agree, rather our view of the world.

Most people most of the time do at least attempt to maximise their own utility. They also pay more attention to doing so when it’s their cash - and their benefit - at risk than any other decision making method. Which is why markets work. Also, why - as Polly now finally admits - the market outcome is the correct one. For it is the one that encapsulates the most human thought about what has, is and will happen.

Cool. So, now all we’ve got to do is get more of life subject to those market - own money - decisions and the world will be a better place, right?

Even Polly now agrees.

No, no, you really cannot point to betting markets as being proof of the contention without accepting that more generally about markets.