Anyone who says neoliberalism is dead should read this. “Free-market principles remain the best proven path to lasting prosperity, with better and more permanent results than any of the alternatives,” Walz said. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

From not a lot to even less: How the billions to trillions agenda failed dangay.substack.com/p/from-not-a...

The Swiss got him to cut their tariffs by giving him a big clock. Britain did it with a large golden bell engraved with the word Trump. Iran will be getting ideas...

I googled UK aid cuts just now and the AI slop machine got the answer wrong. Aid will total an estimated £9.2 billion in 2027. It's not a *reduction* of £9.2 billion. The thing can't even read properly. Artificial intelligence my a*se.

Zambia would be required to give U.S. companies greater access to its huge reserves of lithium, copper and cobalt. This would, by extension, “end what the United States sees as China’s preferential access to Zambian mines”. The agreement would also force negotiations over mining industry regulations

"the lost souls in the middle of the road." I like that one.

Sorry, what was that again?

Oh no, Farage is going to start getting ideas about the English channel...

How iconoclastic. You could almost say Reform is "the party of alarm‑clock Britain.” I'm sure another radical firebrand said something similar in 2011. Oh sorry, it was Nick Clegg. Anyway, shouldn't it be smartphone Britain nowadays?

See the power of wishful thinking in FT coverage of Russia. Eg "Russia is running out of money" Martin Sandbu, Nov 2024, "Russia's economy flatters to deceive" Nov 30 2024. Now "Russian economy is faltering despite oil windfall" www.ft.com/content/04a9... www.ft.com/content/b4bc... All wrong.

"China will continue to rely on the rest of the world to absorb their excess production because the domestic political cost of empowering their own consumers is too high.” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

During my visit to Bangladesh last week the Daily Star newspaper ran my piece on how the middle powers are abandoning the global South. Seems to have resonated well with that country, struggling as it is with a succession of foreign-born crises. www.thedailystar.net/opinion/view...

Something I love about visiting countries in the global South is being able to talk to so many bright, young people, who are full of ideas. In a murky world it gives you a bit of hope. Here's a summary of the chat I had at the Rapid thinktank in Dhaka yesterday: www.rapidbd.org/conversation...

Carney pronounced the rules-based international order dead. “We knew it was false.” If you knew it was false, why did you promote it, benefit from it and shape it? Were your other Davos chums in on the con? The 'middle powers' ditch the world's least advantaged: open.substack.com/pub/dangay?u...

Front page of Bangladesh's Daily Star today: www.thedailystar.net/news/banglad...

Trump's refusal to allow safe passage through Hormuz strikes at the heart of Pax Americana. US guarantees of secure shipping, alongside new efficiencies like containerisation, underwrote the global trade boom by slashing transport costs. The implications for world trade will be profound.

I'm off to Dhaka tomorrow to present our UN report on Bangladesh's readiness to graduate from least developed country status. It isn't ready because it's been hit by a series of crises over the past decade. Losing LDC benefits would come at a particularly bad time. drive.google.com/file/d/1TMAP...

In a blog for the Institute for Development Studies, myself and colleagues argue that an evidence-based World Trade Organisation of the future must empower all members and make better use of knowledge about the real impacts of trade. www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/fut...

The rise of electric vehicles is inevitable. Everybody wants to buy them again because of the Iran war. In UK, advert views for new BYDs up 77%. Searches for used BYDs up more than 375%. In France, requests for test drives of Kia EVs up 84% since February 2025. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

A sinister clown dad-dances embarrassingly with a sword. Dictators push the boundaries of acceptability to humiliate their audience and encourage obedience. www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxs7...

The failure to extend the digital services moratorium at the #WTO Ministerial conference might mean that countries impose tariffs on digital services. The US is fiercely opposed. What does the US expect, though, when it's levying such high goods tariffs? giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

As rich countries slash aid spending; a dozen countries wage war in the Middle East; and the World Trade Organisation and other multilateral organisations fail, i'm reminded of what Captain Kirk said when asked what he thought about civilisation: "International cooperation, wouldn't that be nice?"

As #WTO #MC14 predictably ends without an agreement, we're witnessing one more stage in the breakdown of multilateralism and global cooperation. This article, by some friends in Bangladesh, describes the harsh reality for the least developed countries. www.tbsnews.net/analysis/wto...

As usual it's the poorest who pay the price. Low- and middle-income countries are the worst hit by the energy shock. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Locals in charge of a choke point charge a fee to pass through: exactly how tariffs originated many centuries ago.

Shares in the big 3 Chinese battery makers have way outperformed even those of the oil majors since the start of the war. Asia's overtaking manoeuvre on a carbon-addicted US is electrifying.

It costs more than $25,000 an hour to keep a single F-16 fighter in the air. Total cost of war so far: $24bn+ But we can't afford the green transition😕.

"The US, where petrol is close to $4 a gallon, said it was considering ... whether to suspend sanctions on Iranian oil." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

If ever there were a statement of naked self-interest, with the arbitrariness of power laid bare...

just plainly evil.

Can't work out if the Cato Institute is being ironic here: "Every now and then, those of us who are fortunate enough to be Americans benefit from being reminded that we are not the only people in the world." www.cato.org/policy-analy...

The war cost more than $11bn in the first six days of strikes, mostly in munitions.

As it runs out of weapons, the Pentagon is expected to ask the White House and Congress in the coming days for as much as $50bn in additional spending for the military. About the same as the entire USAID budget used to be.

"Almost every action the Trump administration takes in the area of geoeconomics screams 'diversify and insulate' at its trading partners," says Alan Beattie. More to the point, the FT graphs person has been reading William Styron. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

😆

Did a blog: Trump's war in the Middle East spells the end of the wrongheaded idea that taxation in rich countries must be a race to the bottom. open.substack.com/pub/dangay/p...

“Moved to Dubai for tax shelter and now I’m in a bomb shelter,” says someone quoted in the FT. UK Inland Revenue and wealth tax proponents glued to their screens...

"Chinese companies gave themselves the ability to misvalue imports to reduce tariff costs. The US government, while letting consumers take the hit, will be shelling out $ bns to a rising number of Chinese companies." It’s payback time for Trump’s tariff fiasco - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

"the WTO does not get the attention it once did, for good or for bad, and thus these discussions tend to happen outside of the public gaze." At the Cancun Ministerial in 2003 Evan Davis, then a BBC reporter, told me that the meeting was well down the UK news agenda. www.ids.ac.uk/opinions/int...

This is directly anti-development; it contradicts everything everyone in economic development works towards. We *want* industrial capacity. Luckily, some Asian countries have developed it. It's the US (&EU) that over-subsidises farmers so they outcompete more efficient ones from poorer countries.

This short para from Martin Wolf's latest should be required reading. If most people understood it, it'd clear up a lot of misperceptions. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Quelle surprise: www.jagonews24.com/en/business/...

Financial markets are reacting hard to new #Fed governor Warsh's alleged hawkishness. I don't understand. Is Trump a populist authoritarian who'll do whatever he can to force interest rates lower and reduce Fed independence - or not?#FederalReserve, #FOMC, #MonetaryPolicy www.ft.com/content/e830...

"The world many outside the west have long dreamed about – of multipolarity, strategic autonomy, even de-dollarisation – is taking shape..." I don't agree. India is doing trade deals but it's unique. The rest of the South is worse off under the Trump world order. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Breaking News: The U.S. trade deficit rose sharply in November, as President Trump’s tariffs generated intense volatility.

The EU-India trade agreement (the sibling of all deals, not the mother) risks choking off Bangladesh's exports to the EU unless active measures are taken to secure better EU market access for Bangladesh. Insightful article by my friend Mohammad Razzaque. www.thedailystar.net/business/new...