This from John MacIntyre on the track record of the WB and IMF in Senegal, and Mackey Sal's administration, is blistering. open.substack.com/pub/johnmcin...

Very sad to hear that Peter Doyle has died. May he rest in peace. He was an all-too-rare iconoclastic voice in international macro. Do read @gabrielsterne.bsky.social and @generaltheorist.bsky.social's tribute to him: open.substack.com/pub/moneyins...

🗞️ Francis Ruiz recently spoke to @bmj.com as more details are unearthed about changes to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) 📈 Changes to NICE's cost-effectiveness threshold & guidance are raising concerns about political interference Read about it 🔽

Paging @phkrause.bsky.social

South Africa having our freedom fries moment

There are those in the development sector that try to romanticize rural life, but most people really are happier living around lots of other people voxdev.org/topic/migrat...

SA’s National Treasury also then releases all budget documentation as soon as the finance minister starts speaking, and then after that the minister, deputy minister, and civil servants are usually available to press and investors. Quite different to the UK’s leaky accountability sink approach.

For this week's @theobserveruk.bsky.social I've written about one of my favourite topics: the productivity of the public sector, how it's measured, why it tends to grow less quickly than productivity in the private sector, and what it means for policy. observer.co.uk/news/busines...

Liberia / IMF program 2nd review staff report. In-depth discussion of impact of USAID cuts (paragraph 3): "The permanent cancelation of USAID projects will have considerable economic and social effects. In February 2025, nearly all active USAID projects—totaling US$434 million (about 7% of GDP) ..."

Zohran Mamdani's New York City win inspires people in Uganda, ruled by an authoritarian president for nearly 40 years.

Internet shutdown in Tanzania as protests erupt over the suppression of opposition politicians challenging President Samia Suluhu.

Huge, unprecedented protests in Tanzania yesterday. I've found literally one post on bluesky. This is why some of us can't fully shut our twitter accounts, much as we might wish to.

Literally one of the greatest soft power brands on planet earth driven into the ground by successive British governments that embrace failure, decline and irrelevance. on.ft.com/3Wq1XIT

Herbert Simon on the internet and attention, 1996

With the death of Raila Odinga yesterday, Kenyan politics has entered a new era. Ken's brilliant post discusses his contributions and contradictions.

There is no need for a moral panic about the UK's welfare system. Far from perfect but recent discourse is nuts Spending is controlled, not spiralling Worklessness is near record lows My column www.ft.com/content/ee67...

Gold prices: also a factor in Ethiopia's debt restructuring. In return for a haircut, bondholders want a warrant that would be linked to export growth. Talks on that have just stalled but there is clearly one export in particular that stands out. And it's not coffee.

I am delighted to share that Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee will join our Department of Economics @econ.uzh.ch at the University of Zurich on July 1, 2026, as Lemann Foundation Professors of Economics. 🧵 1/7

On Yom Kippur many Jewish people in Britain have their phones off to mark the holy day. As it ends at 723pm, some will hear the tragic Manchester news for the first time. At that time, please join many of us to send a message of solidarity to British Jews.Thanks Together coalition for proposing.

Some great charts in this report. This one is my favourite. The UK has signed up the new NATO commitment to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence. The scale of the increase is fiscally challenging, and we've given ourselves a decade. Poland, on the other hand, has done it in just two years.

It’s party conference season – and bombastic statements on immigration are at the top of playlists. I for one am tired of hearing the same old emotionally charged promises that just don’t relate to reality. You too? Here are five things you should be hearing about immigration, but won’t be.

Another incumbent loses amidst concerns over inflation BBC News - Malawi's ex-president wins election in comeback at age 85 www.bbc.com/news/article...

Under two new partnerships announced today, India-based generic manufacturers are expected to produce the highly effective Lenacapvir, a new 6-month injection that prevents HIV transmission, for $40 per patient per year — the same price as daily oral PrEP. www.devex.com/news/new-par...

Trump's Argentine bail out could set up biggest sovereign story of the decade. If Argentina defaults despite the bail out, Trump will want seniority, but IMF cant give it. You can imagine how this descends into a colossal row between IMF and its biggest shareholder www.ft.com/content/4127...

Winners of this year's Ig Nobel awards: Inspired by the observation that zebras aren't plagued by biting flies, this group that found that painting zebra stripes on cattle reduced attacks by biting flies by 20%. This reduced the no. of fly-repelling behaviors (tail flicks, skin twitches) needed.

New note on the status of PEPFAR from Ramona Godbole, formerly of USAID, for @CGDev. 24% by value of USAID’s PEPFAR awards have been reported terminated, including 16% lifesaving HIV programming. Thread and link below.

I have a new article out in the Journal of Democracy comparing mass protests and government collapse in 2025 Nepal, 2024 Bangladesh, and 2022 Sri Lanka: www.journalofdemocracy.org/online-exclu...

A majority of Ugandans say climatic changes have led them to change the crops they plant (60% of those with crops) and the food they eat (53%). Head over to our website to read more: bit.ly/4ppbQng #Uganda #ClimateChange #VoicesAfrica

The other September 11 Most of us remember exactly where we were on September 11, 2001. My wife and I were teaching at the American University of Beirut at the time. I was in the economics department, she at the school of public health on the other side of campus. 1/

How to pay for the Bakerloo line extension, or why England needs more fiscal decentralisation takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/bakerloo-e...

RBM.. said the terms brought on board by IMF included restructuring the debt with the regional creditors with 17 years of moratorium and repayment over 13 years. In the new deal, some of the loans be repaid in local currency, other in USD .. and that payment has started. mwnation.com/rbm-makes-mo...

Slightly diminish a band The Beetles

Not the Archers storyline I was expecting.

1/ - Trade Policy in 2025 - Step 1. Donald Trump invents threatened new tariff rates on your country based on some combination of the trade balance, vibes, personal grievance, vibes, how much he likes you, vibes, or a Peter Navarro formula so stupid it made Lesotho enemy #1. Also vibes.

Excellent article by Pratik Pawar on the consequences of cutting the Demographic and Health Surveys, and efforts to revive them. I'm quoted briefly.

The connecting thread between Chris Hayes, Ezra Klein, Zohran Mamdani and Brian Eno. www.programmablemutter.com/p/the-old-de...

Good reflection of the state of the US-built international order: Global South has criticized OECD for years as a rich country club whose tax deal favors its members. GOP wants to destroy it bc they think its efforts to rein in corporate tax avoidance violate sovereignty www.ft.com/content/e8e7...

Fußball ist ein einfaches Spiel: 22 Frauen jagen einem Ball hinterher und am Ende trifft Chloe Kelly und England gewinnt. Yes, Lionesses. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿!!

Great thread by @hughalderwick.bsky.social on the latest idiotic proposals to change NHS funding to social health insurance & user fees. Classic zombie policies - killed by coherent arguments every few years only to be resurrected by someone who wasn’t paying attention last time

If the World Bank has the courage to take up a program discarded by its biggest shareholder, it should take up the mantle of funding the DHS * It's a global public good essential to the Bank's mission * WB staff already have the expertise to oversee large micro surveys

This week's @odi.global podcast features me and Shuan Githuku from @britishintinv.bsky.social investee Gridworks, talking about DFIs sponsoring new ventures. We also get asked about the trade off between financial returns and impact odi.org/en/insights/...

DR Congo / IMF ECF 1st review staff report. Nice incorporation of WB CCDR GDP climate physical risk impact estimates in the DSA scenarios (the green lines in the figure). www.imf.org/en/Publicati...

Important new book from IMF on China / Africa linkages. Lots of information on trade & investment flows and associated institutions. One among many nice charts on the lending aspect. www.imf.org/en/Publicati...

Assuming these screenshots are genuine then Twitter's AI bot (Grok) is spewing anti-semitism on Twitter. There is a case for Ofcom to prevent Twitter from being accessed in the UK. It is ludicrous that UK public institutions, including the Government and the BBC, are still posting on Twitter.

Hugh Muir recalls the response of London Mayor Ken Livingstone to 7/7 from Singapore. I agree that, despite his flaws & failings at other times, that this was an important message www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Q: What do HS2, nuclear power stations and nuclear submarines all have in common? A: they are 3 current examples of what the government are calling megaprojects. At the Spending Review, they published a report on why these megaprojects go so badly and what should change. Thread below.

I wouldn't be Chancellor for all the money in the world. Incredibly tough job. Impossible ask. Especially over the last decade. contd

Very useful rundown of the last FFD4 negotiations last night - thanks Tim!