Disturbing read with striking charts, especially on the new capital goods trade deficit with China and on the share of sectors in which DE and CN share a comparative advantage. People have been warning that the export-led model was headed for this wall for many years... www.ft.com/content/239e...

“Perhaps we should finally force states to share sovereignty and resources not just with the EU, but with a broader group of actors that I call the fifth estate of democracy. Perhaps we should give real meaning to the term European multi-level governance.” www.ips-journal.eu/topics/europ...

“[we are] putting too much emphasis on long-term decline because we use outdated economic indicators that were developed to measure growth during the Fordist phase of capitalism.” Katrina Forrester reviews Melinda Cooper’s Counterrevolutions www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

How can Europe keep up?

I guess it was just a matter of time before xAI was added to this web. www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Many thanks to @regstud.bsky.social and @rsablog.bsky.social for giving me the opportunity to share my thoughts on designing better maps in academia. And to @cchlebna.bsky.social for encouragement and feedback.

This is how the separation of powers works in Brussels: Just build two highways through the European Quarter right between Commission, Council and Parliament.

I assume you saw this, but ICYMI, and for others here: www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Brussels might seem chaotic and dirty sometimes but it has so many great urban designs!

🚨 New publication out: “The Anatomy of Chinese Capitalism” (Competition & Change / Köncke, Erlbacher & Schmalz, 2025) How and to what extent does the party-state govern top Chinese firms? We unpack this with new data and a sectoral lens. 🔗 doi.org/10.1177/1024... @sfb294.bsky.social

By re-allocating funds that were previously earmarked for investments in climate, environment and people to an ominous "Competitiveness Fund", the European Commission's proposal for the new budget seems to effectively represent a huge transfer of resources from labour (people) to capital.

Scharfsinniges Update zur politischen Ökonomie des russischen Geheimdienstkartenhauses www.republik.ch/2025/07/24/d...

Another example of our new era where China is not only supplying us with cheap consumer goods but dominates strategic sectors. We were really sleepwalking into this across the board from energy to mobility to military technology. And now it comes down all at once.

Rational voting theory is hitting the wall

The fight against climate crisis in @janeaflegal.bsky.social ‘s framing: A fight between feedback loops, that is, of the climatic feedback loops triggered by our emissions and driving us deeper into crisis versus the societal/political feedback loops that we try to unleash to get to net zero.

mostly I want people to think of quantitative data as a specific subset of qualitative data, which it is (qualitative data on the reaction of a measuring device to empirical experience, whether numerical or in other form)

🚲🚲There is nothing more efficient in the world of machines and animals than a human on a bicycle. The humble bicycle is an amazing machine. www.jstor.org/stable/24923...

This Vienna street isn’t “closed” because cars have been removed. It’s been opened to everything else, to a diverse and invigorated civic life for people, because cars have been replaced by a multitude of wonderful things. Language matters. HT @dmoser.bsky.social for the pic. #OpenStreets

100 percent! Chinese cars now dominate the market almost everywhere but North America. Very clear in my recent travels to East Asia and the Middle East, for example. Easily a 9:1 ratio!

Good point here: as global trade plunges into chaos, it is all the more important to closely align the policy environment steering demand for green tech with the industrial policies that try to expand their production.

1 witz

"[..]Geld spart der Staat dadurch nicht. Denn der Bund kann sich am Anleihemarkt Kapital für unter 3% Zinsen beschaffen. Private Investoren erwarten mindestens das Doppelte[..]. Die zahlen am Ende in jedem Fall die Bürgerinnen und Bürger" /2

While German politicians and car manufacturers are busy whining about „the need for technological openness“, Vietnam is advancing electrification in big steps by banning ICE motorcycles, soon cars. electrek.co/2025/07/20/v...

Schon gewusst, „dass dem Staat 28,5 Milliarden Euro durch illegale CumCum-Geschäften entzogen wurden? Jetzt bewegt sich Finanzminister Klingbeil endlich […]. Aber das Geld ist noch längst nicht zurück: Dafür braucht es den Einsatz von mehr Personal. Jetzt unterzeichnen ✍️ und teilen!“

Fascinating survey data on the missing Biden voters by Lake Research. The voters who sat out in '24 weren't looking for a centrist or turned off by trans rights. They want a genuine economic populist agenda: take on corporate greed, lower costs, and make the wealthy pay their fair share.

Graphic from the Monde article this cites. Would want to show this to all the anti-bike lane politicians out there. Parisians are using bikes as commuting vehicles, avoiding massive amounts of additional cars and metro crowding at peak periods.

Die Bundesregierung sagt, Sie könne den Kommissions-Vorschlag zum neuen EU-Haushalt nicht akzeptieren, weil ein "umfassender Aufwuchs" in Zeiten der Konsolidierung nationaler Haushalte nicht vermittelbar sei. Ich halte das aus ein paar Gründen für keine kluge deutsche Position:

The growing system of detention camps in the USA is really scary. Superb reporting by FT. ig.ft.com/us-immigrati...

We proudly present: The Fiscal Space

I was explaining to my Ukrainian colleague the phrase ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’. She told me the equivalent in Ukrainian is ‘The only free cheese is in the mousetrap’ - which is so much better

To remember the good news

China is probably going to pass 50% EV new car sales this year. ICE technology is a dead man walking www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...

The U.S. has supercharged corruption while pretending it's an innovative government efficiency improvement

Trade, Dollars,Energy...even MODERNITY & the FUTURE. America has now attacked each pillar at the foundation of its hydrocarbon global order A quarter of the way to the 22nd Century, everything is up for grabs TY for inspo:Mark Blyth,Helen Thompson,Bentley Allan phenomenalworld.org/analysis/bri...

Obviously this is correct - & not just because it affirms my pro-rhetoric prejudice. The state’s relations with economic interests are political: it’s conflict & consent. Yet we treat them as governed by physical laws (as if ‘bond markets’ weren’t people). Bond markets & tories know this of course.

Do EU recovery funds promote cohesion between regions? No, says article: core regions profit more than peripheral ones sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

TIL: The US envoy to negotiate taking up diplomatic relations with the Bolsheviks in 1919, William Bullitt, proposed to split the Russian Empire into 23 independent states - and Lenin actually liked the idea. www.groene.nl/artikel/euro...

This is interesting — “The Hidden Wealth of Cities” by the World Bank, on how the PUBLIC SPACES in cities are a great economic investment and asset rather than a cost or liability. But too many cities aren’t taking smart advantage of the economic benefits. openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/c...

Just as the EU is moving towards banning PFAS, “the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, might end up narrowing the definition and letting some forever chemicals off the regulatory hook.” www.ft.com/content/5885...

A common feature across most studies on the economic impacts of climate change is the finding of non-linearity, meaning that economic damages increase disproportionately as climate change intensifies. What we know from the past gives us little guidance for understanding the world we are heading into

DK & FI: We would only like to have solidarity where *we* need it www.ft.com/content/4559...

Interesting read. (Much better insulated water tanks do not even need that clever tech, correct?)

Well, Europe is following the US loser path and the new German government seems very keen on keeping it like that. www.ft.com/content/f867...

Impressive. What is the rest doing? www.ft.com/content/e517...

Breaking: EPP as aligned with the far right and Orban as ever

“The places that seem to be doing the best in terms of economic efficiency, traffic safety, social equity, and environmental sustainability are frequently the places with the fewest highways and major arterials per capita.”

whenever i see grok screenshots i remember how it's running on methane-gas generators in a black neighborhood in memphis www.politico.com/news/2025/05...