breaking news: being on Bluesky compares to earlier viewpoint compound of reading "the Guardian"; being on X compares to the earlier compound of being a "Murdoch press" reader? (but shaped now by the citizenry instead of journalists).

How To Choose The Best Donkey Skin: A Complete Buyer's Guide: - "about verifying traceability, respecting welfare standards, understanding regional grading systems, and aligning procurement with verifiable sustainability frameworks." www.alibaba.com/product-insi...

Funny, back 10-15 years ago I told friends my prediction that aliens would be announced around when China-USA had become peers as such a recognition would provide a new equaliser across all humans & for a shift to a bigger consciousness www.theage.com.au/world/north-...

The narrowing path: Trade and development in a new era - on changing prospects for trade and development by Pinelopi Goldberg & Michele Ruta cepr.org/voxeu/column...

China expands Africa space ties with new satellite ground station in Namibia China has handed over a newly built satellite ground station to Namibia near the capital, Windhoek, marking another expansion of Beijing’s overseas space cooperation programme. africa.businessinsider.com/local/market...

European leaders should find inspiration in Keynes' insight – that the world becomes richer when economies raise productivity and allow wages to keep pace. Europe’s wage paradox | @michaelpettis.bsky.social engelsbergideas.com/notebook/eur...

Priya Parker recommends The Politics of Ritual by Molly Farneth on a recent episode of The Ezra Klein Show. Check out the full episode here:

Just checking in with you guys everybody OK?

Stefanie Stantcheva is EfIP's (@econfip.bsky.social) guest this week

Hainan is China's island of the future New free trade port is becoming a launchpad for medical tourism, finance reform and even space asia.nikkei.com/opinion/hain...

Iran sentences Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi to seven more years in prison

Getting ready for Fire Horse year in #China…

The quiet rise of Chinese electric car assembly in Kenya www.businessdailyafrica.com/bd/corporate...

And, according to this story, documents reveal the #UK’s Peter Mandelson was involved in undermining a proposed tax on mining super profits in #Australia… www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Good e-CNY update, both domestic & international: 数字货币全球博弈升级，人民币飞跃新关口｜《财经》封面 finance.sina.com.cn/tech/roll/20... CBDC Renminbi

University of Adelaide introduces a "Stalls for All" approach: www.adelaide.edu.au/student/news...

China launches school for interstellar travel "We cannot merely follow in the footsteps of others to the moon, Mars, or beyond the solar system." ...Zhou said." www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202601/28/...

📢now forthcoming in ECMA! The Class Gap in Career Progression: Evidence from US Academia Class is rarely a focus of research or DEI in elite US occupations. Evidence suggests it should be: we find a large class gap in at least one occupation - tenure-track academia...🧵

Auschwitz was at the end of a process. We must remember that it did not start from gas chambers. This hatred gradually developed: from ideas, words, stereotypes & prejudice through legal exclusion, dehumanization & escalating violence... to systematic and industrial murder. Auschwitz took time.

„Ejiao: Ein Luxus, der Millionen Esel tötet“ www.spektrum.de/news/ejiao-e... - nice that the challenges wrought by China's recently elevated demand for donkeys is staying in the headlines, and nice to chime in there too.

Economist & sociologist Beatrice Webb was born #OTD in 1858 + One of the founders, London School of Economics + Co-authored 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰-𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 & 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘺 where she coined the term "collective bargaining" + First female fellow, British Academy, 1931 #WomenInSTEM

China-Africa trade surplus hits record $102bn - delighted to be cited in China Economic Review amid interesting times in China-Africa trade chinaeconomicreview.com/china-africa...

1/2 Caixin: "China unveiled a 500 billion yuan state-backed loan guarantee program aimed at boosting private investment and easing credit access for small and midsize enterprises, marking a major shift in how lending risks are distributed between banks... www.caixinglobal.com/2026-01-21/c...

Mark Carney's speech is indeed brilliant - yet it doesn't set out the consensual forward pathway that he implicitly makes necessary. In some ways it might even be destabilising: go.bsky.app/redirect?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cbc.ca%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2Fmark-carney-speech-davos-rules-based-order-9.7053350

#OTD in 1961, Eleanor Roosevelt became the first Chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW). The PCSW was established to advise POTUS on issues concerning the status of women. Created by JFK in 1961. In 1975, it became the National Association of Commissions for Women.

Africa’s donkey trade moratorium shapes China's approach on Global South In February 2024, the African Union imposed one of the most unusual trade moratoriums in the history of international commerce, halting exports to China of Africa’s donkeys. www.hinrichfoundation.com/research/art...

1/7 Good Martin Wolf piece on the global return of mercantilism. What is new about this piece is that it seems part of a growing recognition among global opinion makers that mercantilism and trade war didn't start when deficit economies with... www.ft.com/content/cd68...

Africa’s donkey trade moratorium shapes China's approach on Global South In February 2024, the African Union imposed one of the most unusual trade moratoriums in the history of international commerce, halting exports to China of Africa’s donkeys. www.hinrichfoundation.com/research/art...

When Hamsun did this, Goebbels had led the extermination of roughly seven and a half million unarmed Jews and non-Jews, including millions of children. But still regarded as smart, even intellectual. Not my definition of those words.

For Africa, the challenge of exporting to China when one is not well-endowed with mineral/fuel resources remains a challenge: www.scmp.com/news/china/d...

Lots floating around re the BRICS, monetary reform, role of USD, SWIFT, .. I recommend reading this: "The BRICS, the dollar and SWIFT: A review of evolving interests and monetary reform momentum" (open access) www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Alice Vickery died #OTD in 1829. She was an English physician, campaigner for women's rights, and the first British woman to qualify as a chemist and pharmacist. #WomenInSTEM She actively supported a number of causes, including free love, birth control, and the destigmatization of illegitimacy.

My thoughts on the latest attack on the Fed in @nytopinion.nytimes.com. So far it is backfiring--and for the same good reasons the Fed was made independent in the first place. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/o...

Given the route to cheaper oil, the Trump administration call for cheaper housing could be ominous: www.barrons.com/articles/pul...

China's response to realising its destiny was to "get old before getting rich" (optimistic scenario), is powerful and informative for economic policy makers and economists everywhere (thread): Getting old after getting rich: Comparing China with Japan (2012) eastasiaforum.org/2012/12/22/g...

China's response to realising its destiny was to "get old before getting rich" (optimistic scenario), is powerful and informative for economic policy makers and economists everywhere (thread): Getting old after getting rich: Comparing China with Japan (2012) eastasiaforum.org/2012/12/22/g...

A clumpy galaxy, observed with the Hubble Space Telescope in the AEGIS survey. It is at redshift 0.75 (lookback time 6.78 billion years) with coordinates (214.81807, 52.82912). 118 volunteers classified this galaxy in Galaxy Zoo: Hubble.

Video message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KckG... www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/s...

Someone was excited about getting up early for work and it wasn’t me

#BOTD 1885 Alice Stokes Paul: American Quaker, suffragette, suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist, and one of the foremost leaders and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which prohibits sex discrimination in the right to vote.

⁉️The ARC has delayed outcomes of ALL grants 1–4 months & increased scheduled outcome windows from 2 weeks to 3 months! This reverses 4 years of progress in providing greater certainty & ability to plan for researchers, their families & unis. Their excuse? Security checks under new ARC legislation👇

Brad Setser on the RMB: "An immovable object is meeting a potentially unstoppable political force." While I think there will definitely be RMB appreciation this year, I don't think it will be nearly enough to satisfy anyone. on.cfr.org/49wu13q

Today is the 81st anniversary of the death of Anne Frank's mother, Edith Holländer Frank, at Auschwitz-Birkenau.

this may be true, but universities also made a stunning mess of themselves. mess A vs mess B.

#NollaignamBan The first woman admitted to the all-male Royal Astronomical Society, Agnes Mary Clerke's analyses were so reliable, thoughtful & wide reaching that she became a revered authority. The Clerke lunar crater was named to commemorate her. www.dib.ie/biography/cl... #DIBLives

MSC Strikes Deal for Construction of Bagamoyo Port in Tanzania - wow it's finally truly kicking off... maritime-executive.com/article/msc-...

Grim UK turning point: Deaths to outnumber births from now on, Resolution Foundation warns Shift prompts ‘hard questions about the future of our public services’ www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

funny though.... it sort of is entering the year of the donkey.... massive investments to boost donkey supply... eg: news.cau.edu.cn/jcdt/f9cf4b8... (and eg www.163.com/dy/article/K...)