KLIMAATRECHTVAARDIGHEID | Journalist @westervangaal.bsky.social ziet dat burgers de democratie tegen zichzelf beschermen door de staat voor de rechter te slepen. Hij tipt deze maand podcasts en artikelen daarover uit onder meer The Wave, Drilled en EU Observer. f9udw.r.sp1-brevo.net/mk/mr/sh/1t6...

Nieuwsbrief! 👇, (en inschrijven is leuk!) f9udw.r.sp1-brevo.net/mk/mr/sh/1t6...

Very belated repost, but ok: Europe's national leaders will meet today to discuss the future of industry (in a castle, of course). Can it remain competitive? If so, how?

Tata sounds alarm over anti-ETS lobby which descended on Antwerp yesterday. Jeroen Klumper, Tata’s director of sustainable transition: “The idea is that grey products become more expensive, making green products more attractive. If that gets delayed, it takes longer to recoup green investments.”

Nieuwsbrief! 👇, (en inschrijven is leuk!) f9udw.r.sp1-brevo.net/mk/mr/sh/1t6...

Good piece by @westervangaal.bsky.social euobserver.com/202590/dereg...

Yesterday’s Antwerp summit didn’t go as industry lobbyists planned. They pushed EU leaders to double down on cutting regulations, but it backfired. Now everyone can see: deregulation won’t fix Europe’s economy.

Some brutal charts in the new Rhodium Group note, updating their previous research on Germany and China Shock 2.0 Food for thought ahead of Merz's trip to China in 2 weeks.

Caption this

When it comes to rising electricity demand everyone talks about AI and data centres. But their contribution to rising electricity demand is only 8% between 2025 and 2030. The rest is largely electrification of transport, buildings and industry. This says new @iea.org Electricity 2026 report.

‘Bijzonder’ indeed.

New essay by @steffenmurau.bsky.social on Trump admin's misunderstanding of dollar hegemony—and four possible futures for the international monetary system. 1/ www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/tru...

That's interesting: how the party misread its voters or vice versa. Ceci dit: I had no idea FTA's were so popular. Was all the TTIP/Ceta trouble - including in Germany - mostly about anti-Americanism, then?

Big step for the ECB, but also, no good reason why offering collateralised loans to other central banks had to involve so much drama - you can lend on these terms to the Sparkasse Saarbrücken, why not Banco Central do Brasil?

Yesterday we learned US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has ordered the Boy Scouts of America to MAGAfy or lose funding. They want to turn the #BoyScouts into #TrumpYouth. We've seen this movie before.

We hebben nóg twee nieuwe themanieuwsbrieven! Een over 'klimaatrechtvaardigheid', door klimaatjournalist @westervangaal.bsky.social en over 'identiteit' door journalist @martehoogenboom.bsky.social - waar wil jij de meeste tips over? Of alledrie, mag ook! Abonneer hierrr www.oneworld.nl/nieuwsbrief/

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This is out in the NRC, and it's about #Ukraine and the use of the word #genocide. „Het is een zeer restrictieve definitie. Als we teruggaan naar de definitie uit de Genocide Conventie van 1948 en de praktijk in het Strafhof […] lijkt het me vrij helder op dit moment.” www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2026/...

What could possibly go wrong with the U.S. administration’s drive toward financial deregulation? History suggests it is precisely here that the political roots of future financial disasters - at enormous public cost - are laid.

America was an unprecedented global hegemon because it used to be good at the boring shit needed to stay powerful.

Spain's constitution promises democracy at work. Last year, @yolandadiaz.bsky.social convened an expert group to study how to make good on that promise. Lead by @isabelleferreras.bsky.social, we have delivered what is, we think, the highest-level 400-page report on economic democracy out there. 1/2

1/7 SCMP: "Chinese scholars have called for greater urgency in reducing reliance on US dollar assets, particularly after Washington and its allies froze about US$300 billion in Russian foreign exchange reserves in 2022." www.scmp.com/economy/glob...

‘De VVD wist 29 voorstellen binnen te halen, wat overeenkomt met 34 procent van haar plannen. Daaronder vielen onder meer bezuinigingen op de zorg voor gehandicapten en ouderen.’ 👍

"In its competition with China, Western capitalism is programmed to fail... Systems in which market forces are directed by the state have an inherent advantage over ones in which government has been captured by corporate power." -- John Gray

1/5 Chinese industrial firms now operating at a loss, per www.uscc.gov/sites/defaul...

Just did an hour of live radio (!) with @alexis-madrigal.bsky.social and KQED Forum talking about China's leadership of the green tech revolution. Podcast version should be available here ... soon. www.kqed.org/forum/201010...

Pretty good this: Central bankers should be more open "to debate their policy positions" with lawmakers. "This isn’t the same as the explicit control demanded by Trump.....[but] central banks’ independence might be bolstered through more transparent co-ordination with fiscal authorities."

"Will Trump’s turn to economic nationalism, unchecked executive rule, and fiscal profligacy cause the greenback to lose its reserve currency dominance?" Economic historian Nick Mulder on the two dimensions of de-dollarization: speed and width. weltinnenpolitik.substack.com/p/two-dimens...

Chuffed to be published in a Slovak newspaper for the first time, and such a prestigious one at that! 😀

Agriculture is only a tiny part of EU-Mercosur free-trade agreement • EU tariff cuts on Mercosur-made meat will apply only to small share of European imports • Real economic rationale of deal could lie in industrial and services trade, as well as mineral products www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

And chapeau DB’s George Saravelos. Because:

New post: thechinalab.substack.com/p/hot-cheap-...

Magisterial impression of jimmy carter @theresthistory.bsky.social by @holland-tom.bsky.social. Truly, top notch.

Europe is the largest holder of US debt, which, it has been suggested, could be weaponised as leverage. But even if governments could coerce investors into selling trillions in US holdings, Europe itself would likely be directly in the line of fire ====> free to read for the first few clicks

NEW: I tracked all Chinese lithium battery factories announced or built in the past decade 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 China's borders. The truth is, companies like CATL & BYD are so technologically advanced that there's little international competition. European and Asian countries are welcoming them with open arms.

European investors hold between €8 trillion and €12 trillion of US financial assets, including government debt and equities. If European investors threatened to dump US Treasuries, the flood of supply could drive up US borrowing costs and weaken the dollar, forcing Washington to back down.

MEPs inflicted a major defeat on the EU Commission’s trade agenda on Wednesday, after narrowly passing a resolution that effectively delays ratification of the Mercosur trade pact, potentially for up to a year.

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Guess I was wrong on Mercosur being a 'done deal.' Bad look for European claiming they can be a geopolitical alternative to the US and China. 🤔

Europe is the largest holder of US debt, which, it has been suggested, could be weaponised as leverage. But even if governments could coerce investors into selling trillions in US holdings, Europe itself would likely be directly in the line of fire ====> free to read for the first few clicks

We hear it all the time: Since the turn of the 2010s, thanks to the rise of tech, the US has pulled ahead economically. This idea is everywhere from Washington to Davos—and it's paralyzing Europe But it's simply not true! Let's look at what's really happening, with charts🧵

Markets opened to another dollar sell-off, a mini repeat of the ‘sell America’ trade that followed Trump’s ‘liberation day’ last year. With it, the question of whether the euro can replace the dollar is back. But as before, that would take far stronger backing from the ECB and EU capitals.

Europe can coerce capital if it has to, it did so, and can do it again where there is political will

Financial war in response to trade war and territorial threats? More and more people appear to be calling for it. So I updated my post on U.S. Treasuries holdings—now with the latest data. benjaminbraun.org/posts/treasu...

Didn't see this excellent piece from @robinwigglesworth.ft.com and @tobyn.bsky.social before posting the below, obviously FT Alphaville: Could Europe really leverage its $12.6tn pile of US assets? www.ft.com/content/beea...

"I've received several gloating messages from a Chinese nationalist friend gleefully anticipating Europe’s humiliation. By giving way on Greenland Europe would confirm we are in a might-makes-right world. For China that is a potentially enticing prospect"

On the one hand, Europe will be worried about a tit-for-tat economic spiral. But the politics of this fight really favor Europe, just as it favored the Liberals/Carney in Canada. Moreover, a major European economic response that roils markets c/d really hurt Trump politically w/ midterms 4/

NEW: China’s charm offensive: Beijing bypasses Brussels in bid to soften EU trade push Planes, beef, pork and visas. China is laying it on thick in the capitals My first report of 2026 - divide & rule is back (did it ever go away?)