Please consider joining live tomorrow! My guest Oleksandra Azarkhina is among the best experts for a forward-looking discussion of Ukraine's prospects as a (potential) future member of the European Union.

Extraordinary lecture (here translated into French) by the great Russian author Grigori Chkhartishvili, better known as Boris Akunin, who has dedicated over a decade of work to a reinterpretation of the Russian state as successor of Mongol / Golden Horde governance: www.telos-eu.com/fr/politique...

Oleksandra Azarkhina is a leading civil society activist and independent government adviser in Kyiv. I am proud and honored that she accepted to be the guest for the inaugural episode of this new series.

Europe arguably matters more than ever for the world, and Ukraine is the most fateful issue for Europe at this juncture. So that's the theme of the inaugural session of our new Europe-focused events & podcast series at @piie.com. Consider joining us on Tuesday! www.piie.com/events/2025/...

NEW: @veron.bsky.social hosts virtual series & podcast What now, Europe? launching September 23—exploring Europe's future in a turbulent new era of economic, security, & governance challenges. Register to participate live or subscribe wherever you get podcasts: www.piie.com/events/2025/...

Assuming this video is genuine, it deserves your time.

Watch the EU's flagship speech on one of four US tech platforms, three of which are actively trying torch the EU's digital regulations. Oh and EBS.

👇

Qatar is designated as a “Non-NATO Major Ally” of the United States.

The Speaker of the House of Representative telling elected civil politicians to "yield" to military force. A significant moment.

U! S! A!

In the 80s I went to a lecture by a Bulgarian political philosopher. The whole lecture was delivered with his back to the audience writing incomprehensible symbols on the board. He said afterward that they’d developed this habit so the secret police watching would think they were doing maths.

Zuckerberg saying Meta intends to spend at least 600 billion in the US Zuckerberg at the end caught on a hot mic

It's only Yield Curve Control if it comes from the YCC region of France. Otherwise it's sparkling economic damage.

📜 Bruegel Classics: Is Europe ready for a major banking crisis? 🏦 This 2007 paper by @veron.bsky.social identified perverse incentives stemming from the national fragmentation of banking policy, providing timely insight into a rapidly developing global crisis. 🔗 buff.ly/KnNfuyd #EconSky

Really important thread

Wow, this video

Donald so incompetent he'll be the first fascist to make the trains late.

i find this image so fascinating. it is both a literal example of authoritarianism but also a second-hand reproduction of the aesthetics of other authoritarian states. it's like a simulacra of authoritarianism whose purpose is to attempt to make the simulacra real.

in case meddling with the Fed is not spicy enough for your tastes, get a load of this on.ft.com/3JHOCs5

Yellen not at all pulling her punches in this op-ed for the FT www.ft.com/content/d2ea...

We have no interest in territories. We have the biggest territory in the world which we got by being so concerned by the people in territories that we killed them and replaced them with Russians in the territories we did not have an interest in.

"I came from a fascist country [Iraq]. Fascism isn’t like the clouds are gray and it’s always raining and everybody’s wearing black. Sometimes the sun is shining, there’s beautiful picket fences, sunflowers everywhere, but it lurks underneath everything." www.washingtonian.com/2025/08/25/b...

I guess it shouldn't be surprising that a lot of commentators and analysts in the EU/UK would rather embrace another performative round of European self-flagellation than engage with how bad the America Crisis could get

CNBC: So we should expect the US government to be taking more equity stakes in businesses around the country? KEVIN HASSETT: It's possible, yeah. That's absolutely right.

“Russkiy mir”

This is the best product listing copy I’ve ever read

Immediately after his "segregation forever!" line in his inaugural address, George Wallace asserted that the federal troops at Ole Miss -- sent there after a racist riot killed two and injured hundreds -- were needed more in Washington, DC. This is a very old, very obvious play from racists.

The most common nationality by State / Bundesland in Germany. Sooner or later these migrants or their kids will vote. Tougher anti-Russian stance in the future? Pure speculation at this stage of course… Map by @xruiztru.

Fascinating story on so many levels www.ft.com/content/106b...

My main concern for Trump Zelensky meeting is that Donald tries to read the original Russian version of his statement.

More gold on every iteration

Illuminating insights on Thailand by the late Benedict Anderson, of Imagined Communities fame. newleftreview.org/issues/ii97/...

ICYMI, the saga of Andreas Georgiou's trials is not over. isi-web.org/statement/is...

Comparing Ukraine to Ireland was common throughout the 19th century among both the Ukrainian intelligentsia and government officials. The former stressed the struggle for emancipation from the core imperial identity (British or all-Russian), the latter – the perceived inevitability of assimilation.

Caption this

I think it was Lenin who compared Ukraine to Ireland, and their relations with their much bigger next door neighbours: partly cultural, partly agricultural supply. It’s noticeable too, that the attitude of hard line Brexiteers to Ireland is not a million miles from those of Putin(ists) to Ukraine.

Gave Donald picture to commemorate Alaska summit.

I'm a new kind of mob boss. I'm going to make Ukraine an offer they can't accept.

central planning 2.0 is pretty wild. Let's just skip to the Five-Year Plans and be done with it

Noted: White House CEA Chair Stephen Miran, Trump's choice for temporarily filling an empty Fed seat, least year called for "imposing bans on the revolving door between the executive branch and the Fed." www.reuters.com/business/pro... #econsky

"GPT-5 is the first time that it really feels like talking to an expert in any topic, like a PhD-level expert."

"Even to trade nerds, the complexity of this is just bonkers” If the trade nerds are bamboozled, there's zero hope for the rest of us on.ft.com/4ovmnwQ

And now the census

Folks on the right should find that red line to be deeply, deeply embarrassing

Ghana's stock market is up 100% YTD in US dollar terms. (Merely 43% in cedi.)

Also note the participation of Hungary. I am old enough to remember Hungary abstaining on SAFE and Orbán arguing against joint EU borrowing for defence. But that lasted only until Hungary could access the money. That there is no rule of law conditionality in SAFE also helps, I guess.

A nuanced reading of the imperceptible palimpsests in China's political tea leaves jamestown.substack.com/p/terminal-a...

No. VDL is very carefully navigating between countries that do want to compromise and those that do not, and trying to find middle ground.

As before, ad nauseam, nothing the world can realistically do about the largest economy being run on the whim of an ageing ignoramus than survive as best they can.