whole heartedly agree about this though. an absolutely necessary first step.

Nice dip into the rise of loneliness in China by @newlefteviews.bsky.social jacobin.com/2026/01/chin...

For non-UK, what's more crucial for sovereignty and geopolitical leverage, especially regarding the holdings of US assets, is the creation of a deep market for joint liabilities for a global euro. A great recent piece by the mighty @shahinvallee.bsky.social: www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/a-g...

A lot of this is custody for US assets owned by non-UK entities under UK jurisdiction. It doesn’t mean they cant be leveraged, but the UK would have diminish London’s status as safe haven for this sort of activity. (hahaha_yes_sickos.jpeg). I’m just curious why they’ve risen so sharply—any ideas?

Great thread on central bank independence by DL. Worth your 2 minutes

Starmer is wrong to opt for suppliance on the basis that the UK has no leverage over the US. British holdings of Treasuries have ballooned and surpassed China's. European holdings overall are major.

Is China exceptional or just another case of industrial development? A striking recent data point implies the answer might be: both. I argue that solo households are both a sign of great success and that China can't escape global 'dual economy' dynamics. jacobin.com/2026/01/chin...

"The more dramatic and speedy the capitalist development, the greater the severity of the social dislocations that generate these dual-economy patterns." Good synthesis of China's political economic and demographic crises

There’s a wonderful clarity to Dominik’s writing here:

Is China exceptional or just another case of industrial development? A striking recent data point implies the answer might be: both. I argue that solo households are both a sign of great success and that China can't escape global 'dual economy' dynamics. jacobin.com/2026/01/chin...

The gist is that the growth of central bank power became a convenient foil for populist politics, both left and right, which in turn has provoked a lot of centrist pearl-clutching about 'independence'. All of this is misguided, but people remain deeply committed to versions of this narrative. 🧵 1/n

My weekend essay in @unherd.com on why central bank independence is a distraction. The real danger lies not with unelected technocrats but in the aggrandisement of power by authoritarians and the global financial sector—that’s true even for the Fed. unherd.com/2026/01/the-...

It’s crazy that Canada would jeopardize its alliance with the US because it needs that alliance in order to protect Canada from the only country that has a potential motive, the geographic proximity, and military capability to invade Canada, which is oh never mind..

Every time I pass a fountain, I toss a euro in and wish for the end of dollar hegemony. www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/a-g...

This is very good but in a way the conclusion is even worse than @newlefteviews.bsky.social describes. The power to be prioritised in the next crisis imv will sit with major hedge funds who are now guardians or purveyors of liquidity in Treasuries and Gilts. unherd.com/2026/01/the-...

Very nice. ICYMI, Luttwak wrote was what a remarkably prescient piece in the 1990s about the antecedents and probably consequences of ceding macroeconomic management to central bankers. Quite apart from what he is now, this piece really does stand out. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v1...

The other "Incredibly Prophetic Luttwak LRB Piece from the 1990s" is of course this one, tho' I think it's been rediscovered more recently (Blyth I think posted it with some incredulity a few years ago). www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v1...

All of this thread. @newlefteviews.bsky.social nails it on this unherd.com/2026/01/the-... . I wrote some notes with similar breaking points to clients on an asset management side potential outcome perspective that at some point I will release to public.

Simon Kuper in today’s FT on the bamboozled blue-suited governing elite: “Some tribe members did stints at US universities … and fell for a country that’s now outside their circle of trust.” Blue suit Klaas Knot, also FT today: www.ft.com/content/77f4...

Agree with Karthik that weaponising centrality in that domain is self-terminating.

I agree w. Dom re: WH desire to weaponize $ & capture Fed for domestic & int’l reasons. IMO MAGA detests DM CBers as “globalists” (in sense of routinely thinking/interacting across borders) & as technocrats. But IMO it also underestimates MADness of weaponizing a particular aspect of centrality.

Great start to the weekend - new essay from Dominik. The idea that Trump wants Fed control to increase coercion of US allies is a significant unpriced risk. Cc @rajakorman.bsky.social @ruoshuiresearch.bsky.social @econreporter.bsky.social

My weekend essay in @unherd.com on why central bank independence is a distraction. The real danger lies not with unelected technocrats but in the aggrandisement of power by authoritarians and the global financial sector—that’s true even for the Fed. unherd.com/2026/01/the-...

I think present those pull factors along with a continued worsening of the other site, I'd be pretty bullish about this place: enough people moving over here would actually change the tone (which I personally find exceptionally off-putting and lacking in demographic- and viewpoint diversity).

"You must reduce your manufacturing share of your economy and shift from tradable goods to non-tradable goods, whether that’s your policy or not." jacobin.com/2025/12/glob...

How not to talk about capitalism The more it penetrates our daily lives, the less we seem to understand the “system that runs the world” By Dominik Leusder

“Readers braving [Beckert’s] 1100 pages should mentally prepare to end up without a clear idea of what capitalism is; they can find comfort in the fact that the author doesn’t have one either.” www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...

Review of new Beckert and Branko books about capitalist past and present. Former seems to fall into that “explains everything; explains nothing” bucket while still remaining undertheorized. Seems to be the general issue with the New Histories of Capitalism

Twitter/X's new terms have some people shook but the last big absent pull factor for this site is the existence of group DMs. Come on then @jackdodo.bsky.social

For Jacobin, I sat with @michaelpettis.bsky.social for a long conversation about the global trading system. We talked about his influential framework for understanding imbalances, hashed out some of our disagreements, discussed the role of finance and remedies. jacobin.com/2025/12/glob...

Necessary piece on the insanity of pursuing ‘price stability’ through sky high rates during a massive deflation in a developing country that depends on heavily on volatile food and energy imports. (by @jwmason.bsky.social et al). open.substack.com/pub/jwmason/...

Great to see this follow-up to the systemically significant prices paper. Bringing good news: Many of the sectors most decisive for supply-driven inflation are 𝘢𝘭𝘴𝘰 the main inequality drivers. Meaning two birds, one stone!* *For monetary policymakers open to sectoral price stabilization measures.

Excellent review & essay by @newlefteviews.bsky.social on thinking about capitalism's role today, including this key reminder that the global economic order is itself responsible for the domestic challenges to it in the US that risk undermining its key patron www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...

"If my country engages in industrial policy to increase the manufacturing share of my economy, then whether you like it or not, my industrial policy becomes your industrial policy in reverse." jacobin.com/2025/12/glob...

For Jacobin, I sat with @michaelpettis.bsky.social for a long conversation about the global trading system. We talked about his influential framework for understanding imbalances, hashed out some of our disagreements, discussed the role of finance and remedies. jacobin.com/2025/12/glob...

Je vous recommande cette lecture de livres récents sur le capitalisme, son histoire et son présent. @newlefteviews.bsky.social fait utilement le point sur le problème que pose cette catégorie historique qui voudrait tout embrasser, au risque de perdre son sens. www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...

For the New Statesman, I wrote about this thing we call capitalism. By way of Borges and Braudel, I review the mappings and musings in Sven Beckert’s and Branko Milanovic’s brilliant new books. www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...

Beckert departs from...conventional historical timelines, in which capitalism comes of age in the early modern period, drives the agricultural & industrial revolutions & conquers the world on the backs of empires Instead, Beckert starts...12th century in Yemen www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...

For the New Statesman, I wrote about this thing we call capitalism. By way of Borges and Braudel, I review the mappings and musings in Sven Beckert’s and Branko Milanovic’s brilliant new books. www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...

These two pieces (essay from @newlefteviews.bsky.social and conversation/debate from @danielagabor.bsky.social pushing back some orthodoxy from Haldane with clarifications) pair really well together on central banks and their "independence" jacobin.com/2025/08/cent... www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and...

Splendid text, by @newlefteviews.bsky.social, reviewing a book I haven't read, Beckert's, and one, @brankomilan.bsky.social's, which I would like to review www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/1...

“…central bankers like Powell or Ueda are now the resplendent agents of world history, whose every word is of global systemic and political import and whose meticulously scripted press conferences weigh on the minds of financial analysts like a dull nightmare.” - @newlefteviews.bsky.social

🚨🎙️ Friends –– David Adler, Anton Jäger and I are restarting our 'Eurotrash' podcast. Our first ep back is actually an important one, with David reporting from the Global Sumud Flotilla currently en route to Gaza, bearing aid and being attacked by drones. Listen in! www.patreon.com/posts/15-eur...

🚨🎙️ Friends –– David Adler, Anton Jäger and I are restarting our 'Eurotrash' podcast. Our first ep back is actually an important one, with David reporting from the Global Sumud Flotilla currently en route to Gaza, bearing aid and being attacked by drones. Listen in! www.patreon.com/posts/15-eur...

One point: central bank independence was the core tenet of neoliberalism, but it was the rise of market-based finance and the deflationary bias in fiscal policy, key features of the neoliberal era, that forced central banks into a position that made political backlash inevitable.

This is a great article on Central Bank "Independence" jacobin.com/2025/08/cent...

Lev Menand is blistering here. Must listen. Meeting the moment. Incredible stuff from @weisenthal.bsky.social and @tracyalloway.bsky.social on Odd Lots. overcast.fm/+AA5AWNdOBV0

Incisive writing here on the "central bank independence" that Trump is undermining. Can't help but think about this from a climate perspective, as climate policymaking, like inflation, suffers from a time inconsistency and credibility problem. What would a "climate Fed" do?

A refreshing take on the myth of central bank independence: The Long Twilight of Central Bankism jacobin.com/2025/08/cent...