"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...

War becomes more likely if you lead the escalation. “The actual force presence in Arctic military sites has gone down as some of the Arctic brigades were deployed to Ukraine and sustained heavy losses” www.ft.com/content/4130...

This wide-ranging diversification away from the US is a predictable response to the tariffs: India-EU, EU-Mercosur, Canada with a dozen new deals... Starmer in China. Expect the diversification to continue. The US only accounts for 17% of the world's imports. I wonder what it'll be in a decade?

"Clothes can shape behavior: suits can make wearers think more abstractly and behave more assertively; medical uniforms can increase the wearer’s empathy; and police uniforms can heighten their threat sensitivity and readiness to use force." www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Rats and ships seem positively benign compared with this lot. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Watch, as voters turn away from Reform in the realisation that they're merely turbo-Tories.

A week after the Trump climbdown over Greenland, it's worth underlining that the age-old forces of militarism and markets run international relations, not statecraft or sense.

Another response to Trump's isolationism. EU and Mercosur bloc sign trade deal after decades of talks - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Finally some backbone from European leaders. Has Trump provoked a rare outbreak of European unity- the one thing he and Putin don't want? www.bbc.com/news/live/c1...

Never mind politics affecting trade, for Trump, tariffs *are* politics. Donald Trump threatens tariffs on allies over opposition to Greenland plan - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Never mind politics having consequences for trade, for Trump, tariffs *are* politics. Donald Trump threatens tariffs on allies over opposition to Greenland plan - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Good blog on WTO reform by Stuart Harbinson: ecipe.org/blog/wto-ref...

JOMO - the Joy Of Missing Out - is now a thing. And here's me thinking it was a Malaysian development economist. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jomo_Kw...

As predicted "Demand from other economies has been more than sufficient to offset the US slump." www.chathamhouse.org/2025/12/chin... "Global South destinations, including Southeast Asian nations and Africa, were again bright spots for Chinese exports." ASEAN is China’s biggest trade partner.

Paying to speed up environmental breakdown. www.ft.com/content/6276...

Savvy countries will discover there’s a way to mitigate the harm incurred by Trump’s tariffs—and it’ll boost their own economies while making goods cheaper too. www.wired.com/story/us-tra...

Delighted to hear that The Invisible Doctrine, the film by @peterhutchison.bsky.social and @lucas-sabean.bsky.social, is being offered free to view on YouTube for the holiday season. It's all yours! youtu.be/gR4eSEetKP0

Horrendous. I visited the camp near Cox's Bazaar in 2018 and conditions seemed barely liveable then, never mind now, with funding cut in half. It also makes me cringe when so-called leftists celebrate the demise of USAID, saying its closure is uniformly better for the global South. Clearly not.

On the importance of legal text in trade agreements. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Anyone who suggests that globalisation is over needs to look at the data again. Maybe this is an unoriginal point, but two major crises do not signal the end of the international economy. Services trade is booming. Trade is more and more about tourism, business travel, and digital services.

Another nail in Europe's coffin over the long run. China won't buy its exports because it'll make everything at home. on.ft.com/4p9iJbY

Books are even better.

The super-rich have thrived at our expense over the last 35 years. This much wealth in the hands of 156 people is corrosive to the public good. Today's budget must take steps towards a system where billionaires do not exist!

V true - trade deals aren't a magic panacea. And if it's hard for businesses in rich countries to take advantage of them, it's triply difficult in a lot of developing countries. www.politico.eu/article/rach...

Martin Wolf: "Brexit has been nothing short of an economic disaster." www.ft.com/content/17e1...

As is my experience in other negotiations, China talks softly, stays out the limelight and quietly achieves its objectives.

On the last official day of #COP30 climate talks, countries are divided on whether to commit to phasing out fossil fuels. Vanuatu's minister for climate change says big polluters like Saudi Arabia are obstructing action despite "scientific clarity" on the need to transition to clean energy.

Provocative article here from Aditya. I agree: what's on the table isn't enough, and the UK left needs to get inventive, quickly. But he misses the point that billionaires drive up asset prices, putting them out of reach of the rest of us. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... youtu.be/8FDRgkN3jqM?...

Trump caves on Swiss tariffs because Rolex gave him a gold clock. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

"For the first time in four years, the UN climate conference is being held in a democracy." www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I'm currently in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where my friend Mohammad Razzaque writes: "In this evolving and tumultuous era, development cannot be delinked from geopolitics, nor can industrial transformation be imagined without strategic economic statecraft." asia.fes.de/news/adaptin...

"International liberalisation was supposed to raise economic growth for all, as trade and capital flew between countries, levelling out prices and boosting efficiencies. But ..." @dangay.bsky.social

Imagine being the guy tasked with telling MBS his hideous vanity mega-project is doomed. Don't do it in a foreign embassy or be anywhere near a meat grinder. ig.ft.com/saudi-neom-l...

Here's the BBC again with its refusal to identify the perpetrator during the Israeli genocide in Gaza: "there's no hiding what this war has done." No - what the Israeli army has done. No wonder, when Israel vetted the story before allowing it to be released. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Check the figures and find out how the economy behaved before and after neoliberalism. bylines.scot/news/economi...

The strange case of zombie neoliberalism – Part 1 bylines.scot/news/economi...

🧵1. In the hundreds of consultations with governments and companies in countries in the global South, everyone mentions the lack of inter-Ministerial coordination. Different parts of government don't speak to each other. This is also true of some richer countries. Why?

Interesting paper asking whether the EU is an environmental leader in trade. Conclusion: to some extent because it's the biggest importer and exporter of environmental goods, but it's got a lot of work to do in some areas. I didn't realise the UK ranked so highly www.researchgate.net/profile/Sara...

1. Now we know where power really lies open.substack.com/pub/dangay/p...

A thought-provoking piece. One of the shortcomings of AI that's less talked about is that its main perception of intelligence is goal orientated and utilitarian - an 'intelligence' that concerns end-states not process: much like those who promote it. on.ft.com/3L2oNDH

As so often, Scotland presents a slightly more humane and sensible face.