I don’t want to seem out of touch but I don’t actually understand the economy anymore.

NEW from me: Political hostility, high visa fees and (in the case of the UK) stagnant incomes are making the UK and US less attractive destinations for top international talent. That steep decline in the appeal of moving to the US after 2016 is 👀

The car crisis tops today’s EU summit but leaders keep staring at the wrong problem The issue isn’t the 2035 engine ban - it’s demand falling off a cliff today With @sandertordoir.bsky.social and @lucasguttenberg.bsky.social, we show why flipping regs won’t help - and what the EU can do instead.

Interesting comparison on display along the Pustertal railway in South Tyrol, Italy. Left: catenary portal from the late 80s. Right: RFI's 2025 edition. The size escalation comes probably down to standardization efforts. Correct, @chittimarco.bsky.social ? (photo isn't mine)

Social media use begins global decline. For the first time, time spent on social media is falling worldwide. An analysis of 250,000 adults across 50 countries shows average daily use dropped nearly 10% since 2022, reversing a decade of growth. buff.ly/z7nfRnN #ShareGoodNewsToo

Hat jemand aus der journalistischen Zunft Südtirols eigentlich schon mal was zum lustigsten aller Steuerhinterziehertricks geschrieben? Auf immer und ewig handgeschriebenes Zettele "Bancomat außer Betrieb" raushängen und schon ist der rechtlichen Pflicht scheinbar genüge getan?

#Berlin makes losses in the millions on its ... residential parking permits. Because the price of about €10 per year is lower than the costs to the administration (which is about €42). www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/koste...

Wer's immer schon mal wissen wollte: Auf der Brennerbahn fahren täglich zwischen Bozen und Trient (nur eine Richtung) 54 Personenzüge - erste Fahrt 5:00 Uhr, letzte 23:15 Uhr. Bei rund 18h Betriebszeit (die 2h Wartungspause am späten Vormittag ignorierend) ergibt das im Schnitt 1 Zug/20 Minuten.

We don't realize how radically different (and overall better) intercity rail travel is today in many European countries compared to before WWII, which is generally considered the peak of the railway era. trains per day, Milano-Roma (one direction) 1938 = 18 tomorrow = 91 five times more

And this is true also for regional service on most lines that survived the cuts of the postwar years. Daily trains between Bologna and Imola (one direction) 1938 = 11 1975 = 21 1998 = 31 ( w/ 1 hourly-ish clockface IR regional express) 2025 = 58 (with 2 hourly clockface fast and 1-2 hourly locals)

Italy has seen a strong post-COVID jobs recovery—employment rates are up 4%, hitting their highest levels on record Unfortunately, that still leaves them with by far the worst employment rates in the EU

Interesting (German-language) interview with Martin Ausserdorfer, former board member of the Brenner Base Tunnel construction company. He argues that the BBT's biggest challenges...

One more lane, bro

Hab mich schon mehrfach geärgert, dass meine Bank keine Echtzeitüberweisung außerhalb der Geschäftszeiten ermöglicht hat (rechtswidrig?) oder mir mitteilt, dass der Dienst "derzeit" deaktiviert sei (erinnert an die Bars mit den Schildern "derzeit keine Bancomat-Zahlungen", höhö). Jetzt erfrecht...

TRAFFIC EVAPOURATION! We all know about INDUCED DEMAND, that is one more general lane never fixes traffic congestion (it makes it worse) Well, here is the opposite: traffic evaporation. By reallocating general lanes to transit or active modes, private traffic movement well evaporates!

"Danaos Geschenk" Unabhängig vom Inhalt bezweifle ich hiermit, dass Peterlini jemals an einem Humanistischen Gymnasium seine Matura abgelegt hat (wie sein offizieller Lebenslauf behauptet). www.tageszeitung.it/2025/07/22/d...

I wouldn't have guessed that Italy skews young...

Netter Artikel zur Brennerautobahn, aber vielleicht magst du das noch ausbessern lassen, @lmgasser.bsky.social ?

Ausgehend von diesem kurzen Thread vielleicht mal ein paar Take zur Elektrifizierung der Vinschger Bahn: An sich ein tolles Projekt, aber leider wurden dabei schon fast mehr Timelines gerissen als man überhaupt zählen kann. Schauen wir uns das zunächst mal näher an:

Kleines Faktoid: Bis heute gab's nur einen einzigen unibz-Absolventen im Südtiroler Landtag - und ausgerechnet ein Freiheitlicher, der Kurzzeitabgeordnete Hannes Zingerle 2017-2018. Seither nada.

Pope Leo XIV: ‘There Couldn’t Be A Better Time To Get The Fuck Out Of America Forever’

This is interesting — a recent study of mode share (the % share of transportation trips by car, transit, walking, biking etc) relative to city size and income levels in almost 800 cities in 61 countries. Interesting results. HT @davidzipper.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Rise of the rentiers: Inheritance flows in % of national output have increased strongly in advanced economies, with a particularly massive increase in Italy. Inheritance is very important for wealth accumulation. Source: Economist via @patrickkaczmarczyk.bsky.social

It’s 9am TFT time here, and citizens are already gathering to protest Tariffs by the United States. Our plain clothes Officer Penguins are attempting to maintain calm, but unfortunately we keep losing them in the crowd.

Trump is imposing a 10% tariff on the Heard and McDonald Islands. The Heard and McDonald Islands are uninhabited.

“Three years after Russia’s invasion…what do Europe’s armsmakers have to show for themselves? The Economist has compiled data for Europe’s ten biggest defence firms [on] four lines of output. There is more momentum than critics imagine though gaps remain” www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

Some observations about the Marine Le Pen verdict: 1) WOW. They really went for it: prison term (w/electronic tag) and 5 years of ineligibility. That's almost exactly what the prosecutors asked for, so she's seriously guilty. 2) Will this halt the progress of the far-right in France? No. But... 1/

NEW 🧵 Is human intelligence starting to decline? Recent results from major international tests show that the average person’s capacity to process information, use reasoning and solve novel problems has been falling since around the mid 2010s What should we make of this? www.ft.com/content/a801...

Bin ja auch prinzipiell gegen "Gratis"-Öffis für alle in Südtirol, aber die Ablehnungsbegründung vom Abgeordneten Noggler finde ich trotzdem... bemerkenswert.

Im Dezember kam raus, dass die Flughafenverlängerung in Bozen mutmaßlich durch Irreführung der Zivilluftfahrtbehörde erreicht wurde (es gilt die Unschuldsvermutung). Und jetzt muss die halbe Flotte von Sky Alps (7 von 14 Flugzeugen!) wegen Mängeln bei der Wartung am Boden bleiben. #läuft

Expect more, much more of this in months to come... bsky.app/profile/dral...

Kann mir irgendwer eigentlich sagen, wo diese "Bauernbund-Schätzung", dass die Neutrassierung Bozen-Meran eine Milliarde kostet, eigentlich herkommt? Wer hat sich das aus der Nase gezogen?

The latest Economics Show w/ @draliceevans.bsky.social & @jburnmurdoch.ft.com is going straight onto my course ‘reading’ list podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

To be honest I find the "lolwut" reaction among many Brit intellectuals to this intensely annoying. If everyone wants a more united Europe then Sofia, Cluj, Prague or Krakow developing world class unis that Brits, Americans and Chinese want to study at is brilliant news

Current American foreign policy is about draining power from the US and its allies, thereby creating atmospherics in which Donald Trump feels good and Elon Musk converts lost state capacity into personal profit. The weakness, in other words, is the point. snyder.substack.com/p/affirmativ...

The Papua New Guinea Courier is in rare form.

Having watched with growing alarm the developments of the last 24 and 36 hours in Washington, I thought I’d take a stab at how the US media would cover this story if it was happening in a foreign country. Here’s that story that should be written this weekend: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/musk-s-jun...

Triumphgeschrei bei SkyAlps: 200k Passagiere im abgelaufenen Jahr (rund die Hälfte davon am Flughafen Bozen). Damit hat SkyAlps fast die jährliche Transportleistung der Mendelbahn erreicht (206k Entwertungen im Jahr 2022), fairerweise ist aber anzumerken, dass die auch einen Monat/Jahr zusperrt 😉

So, What are the "problems" of aerial cable cars for transit? There are a few issues that will keep this technology from becoming mainstream mass transit solutions but rather a niche tech suitable for specific contexts and needs. A thread

Bozen installiert 15 neue Überwachungskameras: ganze 11 davon links der Talfer, nur 2 rechts der Talfer. Auch ne schöne Art zu zeigen, wo's in Bozen was zu holen gibt. Und welche Leute es schaffen, ihre Anliegen in der Gemeindepolitik duchzusetzen.

Die halbe Welt redet grad von congestion pricing aka City-Maut. Imho auch eine gute Idee für Bozen - mit 8 Kontrollstellen wäre der Innenstadtbereich schlagartig entlastet. Allein an der Zählstelle knapp westlich der Meraner Kreuzung werden im ⌀ 20k Autos/Tag gemessen (auch wenn manche davon... 1/2

Österreich saniert die Luegbrücke also angeblich nur, damit keine Touristen mehr nach Südtirol kommen können. 😁 Selten so eine wirre Aussage gelesen.

The Koralmbahn is gonna be a real game-changer for rail transport in southern Austria and between Wien and Italy. The current main line is charming but painfully slow, and it misses Graz. The Koralmbahn will cut travel times and put all the major cities in S. Austria on a single line

“Living in a culture where 30% of the contents of a bookstore are translations is very different from living in a culture where only 3% of the books are.” translationpatterns.substack.com/p/3-percent-...