Extra mark for appropriate use of Father Ted reference👇

I finally got around to reading this. You should read it too. "We are exporting the very labor of teaching and learning—the slow work of wrestling with ideas, the enduring of discomfort, doubt and confusion, the struggle of finding one’s own voice." www.currentaffairs.org/news/ai-is-d...

Another "let them eat cake" plot showing how bad things are in Consumer Sentiment terms...

Yes kids! What you really need to do is become the greater fool in the biggest stock market bubble ever & invest whatever pennies you can summon from your gig economy hustle because maybe one day - you’ll be able to own a 1 bedroom flat in a bad area with a 90 minute commute👇

i mean, you jest, but this is extremely on the nose

Please will someone administer me morphine. More of this & im not going to pull through🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

4/10 As I explain elsewhere, it isn't a rise in investment (the default assumption of most economists), and because a rise in unemployment is likely to set off monetary easing or fiscal expansion, the inflows are most likely to increase domestic US debt. carnegieendowment.org/china-financ...

2/10 While this is widely believed, it isn't true. Foreign capital inflows don't fund fiscal deficits. They fund current account deficits, and they must be matched domestically either by higher US investment, higher US unemployment, or higher US household and fiscal debt.

What is missed in all this commentary is that Brexit could have been a wonderful success were it not for the pesky problem of the population. Brexit was intended to turn the City into a giant sorting hub for illicit money, backed by the ££. The problem was they forgot that the ££ …

Sought and found asylum in the UK

Every case study like this should be balanced by one such as a 15-year-old with suicidal ideation unable to receive any help because CAMHS has been cut to virtual non-existence.

I don't see how Tesla's Model 3 can survive if Benz can offer an alternative EV this cheap, with this kind of performance, on top of the 15% tariff that it's charged in the US. Imagine what this model does to Tesla in Europe, where Benz pays no tariffs.

"It's amazing what people get so angry about and on that side it's lifting children out of poverty," says Rachel Reeves as Conservative MPs try to shout down her announcement that she is scrapping the two child benefit cap which has pushed hundreds of thousands of children below the poverty line

Totally agree - honestly, lots of people must be feeling a fraction less helpless at this welcome news:

Griffin Protome from a Cauldron (Greece, Samos, 650-640 BCE) Harvard Art Museums, Boston

Chancellor Reeves is hell bent on shrinking the nation’s income with tax increases today. She cut the nation’s ability to invest and spend in the 2024 Budget. Predictably, the budget deficit rose. In 2024/25 it was 5.3%, up from 4.8% in 2023/24. annpettifor.substack.com/p/central-ba...

Trial by jury is a cornerstone of our democracy and an essential safeguard against authoritarianism. It is truly frightening that such a fundamental freedom is now under attack. Once rights are lost, they are not easy to win back. We must resist this with all we’ve got.

Ernst Haeckel. Discomedusae, 1904

Ernst Haeckel, a remarkable German biologist, philosopher and artist who discovered, described and named thousands of new species and mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms. from Haeckel's Kunstformen der Natur (1904)

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil said it was “very mistaken and very irresponsible” of Trump to “threaten other [countries] on social media”. “The world has changed. We don’t want an emperor. We are sovereign countries” www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bri...

I wrote about the flatness of the digital world and why the singularity isn't going to happen:

"Fluffy stuff"? In the #HouseofLords my response to this claim that focusing on anything but profits is wrong

The right to trial by jury is one of the most foundational aspects of our society. It’s not just a service, it has philosophical & moral resonance. I’m beginning to wonder whether any member of this government has ever entertained a genuine thought in their lives?

This is the real black hole in sovereign budgets. Just start seizing all assets registered to offshore LLCs.

The i Paper is reporting that once the changes are brought in, the 20 year route will be applied to refugees who are already here. I can't over emphasise the level of terror this will cause to our refugee population, and the lack of detail and timescale will make it very difficult to calm nerves.

1/8 NYT: "The biggest recipient of Chinese financing over the past two decades has been the United States, where Chinese banks have extended $200 billion in financial support to American companies and projects." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/b...

A new Harvard study—the first large-scale comparison of Amazon, UPS & FedEx drivers—shows what worker power really means: 🔴 Amazon: ~$19/hr, no raises, high turnover. 🟢 UPS (union): ~$35/hr, steady wage growth, long careers. Same job. Different power. Full study → buff.ly/rpn6H5E

Will they be yanking out their Gold teeth? This is too appalling for words👇 www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

The golden age of diversity and democracy in Oz.

This is exactly right. Pettis takes such a beating because it’s comforting to think: global trade⬆️. Must be good. But open capital accounts undermine Ricardo. CA *should* rebalance the cost of labour through currency price. Instead labour is suppressed, currencies rise without exports, $$ debased:

7/10 Free trade, in other words, doesn't mean what we think it means in a global trading regime in which some major economies exert very limited control over their trade and (more importantly) capital accounts, while other major economies...

2/10 "When global prices fail to reflect supply-and-demand dynamics," Steil cites Willkie as arguing, "they distort production and trade flows, killing off more efficient enterprises, fueling imbalances, and breeding resentment."

There was unauthorised movement out of Nazi Germany by Jews, there is unauthorised movement out of North Korea, so there is always going to be some unauthorised movement - you can reduce it by increasing the risk of doing it (we've done this quite a bit - we stopped the lorries, hence the boats).

3/The mistreatment of women in economics has long been an open secret. I have felt the obligation to discuss sexism in the profession with every female graduate student I have had starting as an Assistant Professor to this day.

“Interested in my commentary on her outfits.” I absolutely guarantee she was not.

It is so notable how the language of asylum has changed in the post-Farage/small boats world. “Illegal migrants” was once reserved for right wing papers, Now government spokespeople call basic sustenance and shelter for refugees banned from working “handouts”.

What a waste of vote! A very disappointed Labour supporter. ❤️🇪🇺

To suggest that having lived a life so grim that even an English tribunal will grant you asylum, and to have somehow managed to get here at great risk to life, is a "golden ticket" is absolutely fucking contemptible. Shame on this so-called Labour Party.

This is inevitable👇 We cannot tax, spend, borrow or print. All these things will exacerbate our problems. So what’s left? Selling off land & assets. To fund production (see China)? No to pay for debt & wagefare. This, not Suez, is the end of empire. We are selling ourselves to foreign capital:

Have any of the unions said a damn thing about this corporate coup? @tuc.org.uk @unison.org.uk @unitetheunion.bsky.social

A whole lot of people are asking "why are billionaires and demagogues like this?", and it's just possible we've been overthinking it.

JD Vance speaking like a 12 year old who finally got invited to the rich, popular kid’s birthday party & still doesn’t know he’s picked last for every team👇

To be clear, what we are seeing here is an oscillation. This happens when robust networks break down as the point of equilibrium in phase space moves. There is no going backwards here. There will be fracturing, reorganisation, novelty injection & discovery of a new equilibrium👇

@gilesyb.bsky.social we are so close to chinas emissions declining. Two exponential processes of solar roll out and gdp growth perfectly balanced for an instant before one dominates the other.

This is absolutely nuts Trump did incite the January 6 riot. Splicing a video to make that point is shoddy editorial but hardly a resignation event When BBC is needed more than ever, Telegraph/Boris Johnson running the show www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cd...

Here’s a fascinating question👇 why can’t we afford electrified railways when we *can* afford huge electrified SUVs? The answer speaks to the hidden system that supports our economy:🧵

"A key difference btwn the AI buildout & the Internet buildout leading up to the DotCom Bubble. During the Internet buildout, capex significantly outstripped cash flows. Today it’s reversed mainly bc the mega cap tech “hyperscalers” are also wildly profitable"-Steve Hou www.ft.com/content/2490...

“The elites are ecstatic about imagining a vast, uneducated, and unproductive population forced to pay companies like OpenAI to access the written word and to approximate thought.” Must read piece by Noah McCormack with too many quotaboe lines to select one! thebaffler.com/salvos/we-us...