More Davos speak.

Translating Davos speak www.ft.com/content/ab4f...

I'm with the FT's Katie Martin and Pimco on this.

The first sentence will be the Davos 2026 summary when people write about it in the future.

Oh, the times...

Well, Rosa Luxemburg warned everyone a long time ago with "socialism or barbarism" and here we are, yet again: www.ft.com/content/dede...

Macron already in mourning mode for the Atlantic order: www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

Also see: www.ft.com/content/beea...

This is an interesting exercise. But we should be clear that if the Fed wants yields on a particular tenor of Treasuries to be some value, that value is what the yield will be. Sales by the ECB or PBOC will have no effect whatsoever.

This is quite hilarious.

This coming crisis was already predicted by Giovanni Arrighi, Jason W. Moore and Richard Lachmann--first names that come to mind among many in the WST tradition. But when Kagan writes about it, it makes it into the headlines and everybody gets excited. Sigh.

c) can Europe afford the fallout from weaponised firesales? this is by far the hardest question for two reasons: 1. Open equity Euroarea funds w cross currency vulnerabilities 3. European banks w USD funding vulnerabilities

MUST READ thread before Monday night's forecasted G4 / SEVERE geomagnetic storm. Auroras could be seen as far south as the U.S.-Mexico border at times. Widespread mid-latitude displays are possible. Here's what you need to know to have a successful aurora chase tonight! 🧵 #heliophysics #aurora

We are currently experiencing a severe (G4) geomagnetic storm! This is in addition to the severe solar radiation storm already ongoing. (Now would be a hilarious time for the Sun to throw out another large flare, to cause the simultaneous trinity of space weather effects).

Financial war in response to trade war and territorial threats? More and more people appear to be calling for it. So I updated my post on U.S. Treasuries holdings—now with the latest data. benjaminbraun.org/posts/treasu...

IR papers that explore the implications of texting while drunk will soon follow.

👇

Deutsche Bank here with the good stuff. Game on.

"It confirmed my underlying theory about what was going on. These were a group of entirely self-satisfied American liberal elites who were enacting a morality tale in which Sheen and The West Wing and that whole highly sentimental vision of power and politics is a central device."

I'm co-chairing the Society for Social Studies of Science @4sweb.bsky.social Conference in Toronto, Oct 2026. #STS #scipol #innovation Theme: "TechnoPower • Technoscientific Futures". Open panel submissions portal is open! ls! Deadline: 2nd February 2026 www.4sonline.org/about_the_co...

Perennial reminder of this excellent paper about how secret police forces are swamped with underachievers “We don’t want clever people. We want mediocrities.” (Ungated summary here ajps.org/2019/10/08/w...)

Welcome to a post-human world: the vast anonymity of the data centre www.ft.com/content/7692...

My co-author @mkeremcoban.bsky.social and I have written about how this unfolded in the case of Turkey--here is a link to our paper: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

I realised I follow several journals and now I learn about new publications and interesting papers often here first - so I made a Starter Pack with journal accounts in case you wanted to as well. Let me know if I missed an important journal and I'll add it. go.bsky.app/L57tAru

The secretive powerbroker with a tight grip on corporate Spain www.ft.com/content/708b...

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... The AI Shift: Agentic AI is coming for quantitative research

finally!!

Join us for the 3rd(!) round of our workshop/mini-conference! We promise great research, fun people, and rumor has it that you will also get a chance to eat the best Chinese food in all of Norway if you attend!

Gramsci in a meme

Good vs. ICE by the brilliant Jesse Welles...

This is all so impossibly dumb, but nested in the dumb is “crypto-empowered states.” Crypto is just poorly regulated finance. If a whole state is crypto empowered, then it just has a loosely regulated financial system. That’s not new or special.

Executive, legislative, judiciary…aaaand the President’s morality: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/08/u...

When much of the EU's infrastructure (especially finance, security and communications) depends on the US, European leaders do not have much room for autonomous policy response. I would not expect any major opposition in the short run. But I am not sure whether they have a long-run strategy either.

First they executed Socrates for corrupting the youth. Then they came for Plato.

“i want back my rocking chairs, / solipsist sunsets, / & coastal jungle sounds...” A poem by Renee Nicole Good, who was murdered by ICE earlier today. lithub.com/renee-nicole...

Vanguard of capitalism seeking yet another spatial fix: www.ft.com/content/2848...

@unidir.org is starting a Space Security Research Fellowship where up to 10 lucky folks will have the opportunity to work with and learn from @almuazcarate.bsky.social and @saraherixson.bsky.social . Check out this amazing opportunity here: unidir.org/job/research...

Phew! Dodged that one, didn’t we? www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

It *was* cheaper to do so, but no longer.

Either they are truly clueless and choose to wait-and-see, or they, too, see an opportunity in all of this and hence their silence in between the lines. Both are awful. Can’t say which is worse. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Neo-Imperialism is upon us and will be here for a while.

Worry not — the guardians of the rules-based international order are “waiting for the facts” and “monitoring the situation”

Oh. Goodbye MTV :( m.youtube.com/watch?v=eTeg...

This is a fun Christmas tradition in Catalonia. Happy holidays! www.my times.com/athletic/6913469/2025/12/24/lamine-yamal-barcelona-christmas-caganer/?source=athletic_user_shared_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta

From Private Eye:

To which, may I add:

I am way ahead of time, as I just signed a holiday card, saying "Happy 2027!"

Combine David Brooks and his nostalgia for the past, and this is what you get:

Insurance for AI errors as a new business model: US mortgage lenders insure against artificial intelligence screening errors www.ft.com/content/9317...