En het hele punt van veilige activa is een diepe, liquide markt. 9,4 biljoen aan verschillende staatsobligaties, onder verschillende voorwaarden, kun je niet in een handomdraai verenigen onder een paraplu - de markt zal het daar niet mee eens zijn. Dat is niet zomaar een detail dat je weg kan wuiven

Twee stukken over eurobonds in het ESB. Wesseling maakt een aantal goede punten maar lijkt vooral op zoek naar redenen om gezamenlijke uitgifte te vermijden. Maar Kolodziejak heeft gelijk: het is slimmer om investeringen in collective publieke goederen voor héél Europa op Europees niveau te regelen

I never knew I needed a triceratops skeleton displayed in my living room open.spotify.com/episode/5T5R...

Give it up for a strategic pepsi reserve www.reuters.com/world/india/...

Neither the left or right are prepared to face Britain's grave energy crisis. I've written for @theguardian.com on how decades of complacency cannot be magicked away by drilling in the North Sea – or even by hoping that renewables will quickly power everything.

*DOJ PROBING $2.6B IN OIL TRADES RELATED TO IRAN WAR: ABC Overdue. But what if the trades are coming from inside the house?

Germany had a rare political window - historic consensus, a debt brake suspension, genuine public appetite for modernisation/investment - and instead they used it to cover current expenditure

They should have acted on infrastructure investment last year when they had the chance - instead they've wasted the vast majority of it on current expenditure bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-05-06/friedrich-merz-is-struggling-to-move-germany-forward-a-year-after-taking-office

Novo is making a comeback thanks to oral semaglutide - which happens to be the only GLP-1 approved and currently on the market that is structurally compatible with oral administration - maybe they lucked out, after all www.ft.com/content/627a...

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American healthcare costs drive global imbalances - fascinating from @rajakorman.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/631a...

The best policy solution to post-Soviet gangster capitalism is re-nationalizing strategic assets, letting the state run them properly first - and only then considering re-privatization, as I argued in my piece on Ukraine here: chipsgunsandmoney.substack.com/p/why-ukrain...

If we're going to copy the Chinese model, we shouldn't forget the "hide your strengths, bide your time" bit

I'm all for flexing muscle on the global stage. But you do have to wonder whether trade barriers are the right tool for this strategic moment - especially when the subsidy instruments that are being prepared are still pretty weak

This is what I told Bloomberg TV on 20 April: “My interpretation: it’s a call for confidence. The UAE wants to join the list of elite central banks around the world that have a currency-swap agreement with the Federal Reserve” Around minute 9:40 here youtu.be/z1fgZVJ5EHY?...

“Openness to trade and strict state-aid rules work in a world that was rule-based,” Wunsch said. “This world is gone and if you stick too much to a world that is gone, you’re just naive.” www.ft.com/content/1c25...

Goede punten in dit stuk van @marcelcanoy.bsky.social - al kun je je afvragen of een aantal van deze voorbeelden echt marktfalen zijn, en niet gewoon consequenties van hoe de politiek de juridische kaders - en dus de markt - heeft gestructureerd esb.nu/koester-geme...

New: Washington has two choices Either cut a humiliating deal — or launch an impossible military operation chipsgunsandmoney.substack.com/p/washington...

It's much more fundamental than that. International politics isn't just office politics between bureaucrats. Same logic applies as on the street: When you get punched, you have to punch back. Once you show weakness, you're finished. You must have that iron in you

As I was saying... www.thenewworld.co.uk/paul-bali-tr...

Are Bessent's proposed swap lines with Gulf and Asian states an indication that the dollar has become what Susan Strange--the OG theorist of the geoeconomics of international currencies--called a "Negotiated Currency"? A short 🧵(1/10)

Everything is about to get a lot more expensive chipsgunsandmoney.substack.com/p/everything...

The core of the issue is that, like the French, the Russians didn't address the underlying political economy grievances that led to the insurgency in the first place www.ft.com/content/9b9e...

Een derde van onze drinkwaterbronnen is al aangetast door bestrijdingsmiddelen. Voornamelijk uit de landbouw. Korter douchen? Prima. Maar dan ook aanzienlijk minder vervuiling door landbouw en industrie. 𝐃𝐞 𝐤𝐫𝐚𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐡𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐰𝐢𝐣𝐥 𝐝𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐧 𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐟𝐭𝐢𝐠𝐝 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐭: 𝐝𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐧𝐚𝐚𝐫 𝐝𝐞 𝐳𝐞𝐞 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧.

Iraqi politicians chose Ali Al-Zaidi as new candidate for prime minister Relatively unknown, he has a month to submit his government to parliament for approval The US Embassy in Baghdad appeared pleased with the choice www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Vond het al een sterk verhaal dat we *weer* een handout aan huiseigenaren moesten geven - "Woningbezitters kunnen funderingsschade vaak prima zelf betalen" esb.nu/woningbezitt...

Brussels should get expanded legal powers to fight corruption across the EU politico.eu/article/greece-european-prosecutor-farm-fraud-case/

DR Congo will invest $100 million to create a paramilitary force to provide security at its mines, with funding provided by the US and United Arab Emirates. www.semafor.com/article/04/2...

These people are clueless. First they're cheerleading the Iran war, setting off a world-historic energy crisis, then they try to cast blame on Brussels - without ever stopping to look in the mirror and wonder if their own strategic and intellectual failures have led them here

Most likely though, any attempt to meaningfully reduce the deficit through tariffs would lead to REE export controls and other coercive tactics. Europe just lacks real leverage - and buying stuff isn't leverage

A few good points made in here

We need a strong state to lead the charge on strategic industrial policy

🔴🇫🇷 Lancement de la méthode Notre-Dame de Paris : « C’est 150 grands projets industriels, plus de 70 milliards d’euros d’investissement, 30 000 emplois à la clé, 63 départements impliqués. Ce sont les cathédrales industrielles de l’indépendance française. » @EmmanuelMacron

But they’ve already demonstrated that they can close it at will

Micron start met de productie van nieuwe GDDR7-videogeheugenchips. Het gaat om chips met een geheugendichtheid van 24Gbit, ofwel een capaciteit van 3GB. Het bedrijf volgt daarmee Samsung en SK hynix op. Het geavanceerde videogeheugen zou bijvoorbeeld in toekomstige RTX 50 Super-varianten… #Tweakers

We've now reached a point where think tanks and policy institutes refer to steel as a "critical mineral"

Interesting take www.ft.com/content/7ec2...

. @valinasr.bsky.social on Iran's strategic approach to the war: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZA8...

Voor wie nog niet las, toch even doen. Brekelmans, zijn voorgangers én opvolger spraken als ministers van defensie keer op keer over hoe het onmogelijk is om slachtoffers te achterhalen. Hele goede onderzoeksjournalistiek en één trip naar Irak leert: dat kan wel. www.groene.nl/artikel/excu...

Or that fundamentally economic growth is social change. And the UK is very conservative and nostalgic polity, growth is only wanted if it changes nothing. And its not entirely stupid, growth in the UK requires break the constitutional system's entrenchment of Outer Britain's rentier middle class.

Best for Britain also highlight a push for UK membership of the European Union would galvanise support among progressive voters Support for rejoining the EU is high among Labour (83%), Liberal Democrat (84%) and Green Party (82%) supporters with more than 3 in 5 (63-69%) of each strongly supporting

Overdue and necessary overhaul www.ft.com/content/7507...

I read this but China is already driving the GLP-1 price collapse in Anglo markets. All the compounded semaglutide, tirzepatide, retatrutide you can get in UK/US is just Chinese-manufactured black/grey market product

Happy Tax Day, New York. We’re taxing the rich.

Every major oil shock, put on the same timeline. The 1973 embargo was the longest lasting. The 1990 Gulf War was the biggest reversal. The 2026 Hormuz crisis is the steepest climb and drop. But the line isn't finished yet.

giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Promising signs on transmission - "Recently, the growth rates of M2, a broad money supply gauge, and total social financing have slowed while economic growth has held up relatively well, further weakening the correlation between credit growth and economic growth." www.yicaiglobal.com/news/china-s...

There's also no telling what this could spiral into if e.g., China gets involved on a spare missile parts level, as some outlets reported. Beijing sources 50% of its crude and 30% of gas from Persian Gulf. Hydrocarbons are a country's lifeblood. Japan entered WWII because of US oil embargo...