FDR would've felt incredibly vindicated by all of this. A core proposition of the New Deal was that the country's ruling class was incapable — at best — of defending the Constitution, and that it was up to a dissident vanguard of intellectuals, in conjunction with workers and farmers, to do it.

Australians will be getting 3 hours of free electricity a day because of how many people have installed solar - this is seriously huge considering the massive solar uptake in Australia happened while the federal government delayed action on climate www.abc.net.au/news/2025-11...

“When oligarchs can capture regulatory systems, when tech platforms can shape electoral outcomes, when concentrated wealth can buy political influence—you’re arguing about whether democratic majorities have authority to constrain private power at all.” open.substack.com/pub/mikebroc...

Terrific essay. Pope Francis was unequivocal in his rejection of neoliberalism (Fratelli Tutti), and Pope Leo is emphasizing the need for an economy that works for the have-nots. These positions are consistent with a return to Catholic social teaching.

It was also connected to the Milton Friedman/Chicago School focus on the consumer, a shift away from the more holistic New Deal (and Founding Father) focus on protecting against concentrated economic power. It’s why trade and antitrust conversations are traveling a similar path.

Public Citizen surfaces concerns about what’s in these agreements and whether they reinforce a deregulatory model. We’re heading into USMCA review season. Is this what we should expect?

i don’t think you can maximin vote share with polls and spreadsheets, and i think it is a problem that the most prominent and influential political commentators right now are more devotees of data than experts in narrative

🎯

Listen to @theameilee.bsky.social and @toddntucker.com talk about trade policy & what’s really at stake. It’s not just about stuff, it’s about people.

Always thought it was sad that Ayn Rand—one of the most successful authors of children's fantasy books of all time—had little enough saved in the bank in her old age that she had to rely on public assistance until her death, but I'm glad it was there for her.

I think USTR under Biden made huge inroads in opening up public engagement, but there's always more to do. If we get the chance to rebuild from the ashes, hopefully we can hire back a more diverse and representative policy workforce, and thus a more pluralistic and democratic one as well.

It explains the relentless push for TPP in 2016, even though the Admin was told repeatedly it would alienate blue collar workers in swing states (and divide the Democratic Caucus).

this was totally obvious to everyone who was actually watching the whole time, glad to see it in print

Excited for the new leaders @steelworkers.bsky.social. Congrats to Roxanne Brown and team! usw.org/press-releas...

A left wing politics that is oriented around your rights and identity as an individual consumer instead of your responsibilities as a member of a social or political community is basically a left aesthetic pasted onto an internalized neoliberal ontology.

For context, 13 million jobs in one manufacturing sector in the EU is the same as the total number of manufacturing jobs in the United States.

7/9 For global economic growth, in other words, what really matters is not whether exporting ships lowers freight costs, but whether their production raises or reduces total production by boosting or repressing global demand. The benefits of trade cannot be isolated and measured incrementally.

The ACA had plenty of kludges & complexities. But it's good that it used multiple tools in parallel to achieve its goal, in part because its sponsors *didn't know what was going to work*. They did not know that the Medicaid expansion would end up far more consequential than the mandate. That's ok!

You deserve to know that your hard-earned money is secure. We’re tackling fraud and financial crimes head-on — to protect your savings, your retirement, and your loved ones.

My latest column: on.ft.com/4o1WELP America’s rare earth delusion

It's also important to have a conversation about what "centrism" is. A lot of today's "centrist" Democrats are way to the right of Dwight Eisenhower, without realizing it. But some prominent ex-neocons are now defining themselves as social democrats. Things are changing.

Small reminder that whilst rare earths are a key chokehold, the cost of doing industrial policy to build European capacity - from uptake guarantees to price floors - should be within the realm of the reasonable. It’s not a massive market in dollar terms, just an important one.

“You can win elections by tacking to the middle; lots of people have. But you can also win elections by staking a moral position and convincing people to agree with you. You can earn support by demonstrating what is important to you instead of just being determined to nod along with what you hear.”

With the caveat that in some cases trade agreements might run contrary to those policies.

The soybean crisis may have been induced by tariffs, but it's the *culmination* of a lack of resiliency in the farm economy, with overdependence on exports and single crops and self-perpetuating bailouts. Great breakdown from Naomi Bethune: prospect.org/politics/202...

Posen acknowledges the existence of neoliberalism *and* that economists missed the problem of concentration risk in goods and services. He still thinks TPP is a good idea, but perhaps he'll eventually see that it aggravates exactly that kind of risk. www.youtube.com/live/kNiZYVd...

Great conversation with you and Charles!

If you are around Oxford (UK) I'm giving a talk at the law school this Thursday at 12 at the IECL seminar room. Topic is: "The Servile State revisited" -- it is reconsideration of distributism as an alternative to brutal capitalism and communism. Open to public

1/5 David Miliband argues that a program that reduces the external debt of very poor countries "is financial engineering that provides a triple dividend: governments can get breathing room on... www.ft.com/content/f48d...

The AI boom is masking a manufacturing decline. @aarongregg23.bsky.social and @federicacocco.bsky.social have the story, with comments from @markmuro1.bsky.social @michaelrstrain.bsky.social and me. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

1/4 Interesting piece by Jonathan Levy, who argues that the current "polarization" in American politics, in which capitalism and democracy have seemed at cross purposes for over a decade, is neither new nor necessarily a bad thing. @_jonlevy www.wsj.com/politics/uni...

In line w Aghion’s message: “𝗜𝗻 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲, 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝘄𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗶 𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆. 𝗜 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝘄𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝘃𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲, 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲, 𝗔𝗜, 𝗯𝗶𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵.” Amen escapeforward.substack.com/p/the-new-ge...

This piece by The Telegraph on the global race for robotics is doing the rounds. Was glad to contribute some thoughts. Germany is in some ways Europes hope. Hope Berlin invests in letting this sector grow. www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...

Fukuyama now describes himself as a social democrat. Literally. End of History presumes a New Deal economic foundation without realizing it's a presumption.

The inability of the US and Europe to build an own supply of rare earth refining - knowing for years it was a huge vulnerability - must be one of the most catastrophic policy failures of the decade. One reason it‘s hard: the West cannot free trade its way out when China controls the price mechanism

"Industrial policy can never work" edition X.

The 1948 Democratic vision for multilateral trade was to internationalize the New Deal, including labor and antimonopoly rules. What we got with the WTO in 1995 was internationalized Reaganomics instead.

Anders is right. German industry matters hugely for the upstream value chains in CEE. There’s a reason Czechia has stagnated alongside the German economy.

Finalized my 2025 book tour! Coming through New York, DC, Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Oxford and Cambridge. Click here for details: timwu.net#booktour

The Policy Conference moves to the conversation “Trade policy and #Competitiveness: Friends or foes?” With 🔺Elizabeth Baltzan, US Trade Representative 🔺 @bernd-lange.bsky.social @socialistsanddemocrats.eu 🔺László Andor, @feps-europe.eu Tune in LIVE 🔴 webstreaming.cor.europa.eu/en/cor/a-cle...

Feed: "Atlantic Council" By: Beth Baltzan on Monday, September 29, 2025

Pleased to publish this essay in advance of the Transatlantic Forum on GeoEconomics tomorrow: www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-res...

The IMF too long assumed imbalances would recede. The Fund is now - thankfully - marching back into the global imbalance part of its mandate. IMF staff just released an interesting new paper. “Do trade imbalances boost incomes in surplus economies at the expense of deficit economies? 1/

Similarly in Africa - one of the reasons the Biden Administration shifted away from FTA negotiations with Kenya toward something more modular was out of respect for continental integration efforts across Africa, and to avoid undermining the AfCFTA. Colonial patterns persist.

Folks reach too quickly for the 'Europe should pivot to China' line in response to Trump’s tariffs. It’s a vibes argument that shatters on contact with reality. China’s market isn’t growing for EU exporters – it’s shrinking. At home, competition is getting fiercer as China exports its way... 1/

Last week, the French government announced an extra €1,000 bonus for EVs with batteries made in Europe. Another data point that “buy European” is picking up some real traction this fall. www.ecologie.gouv.fr/presse/augme...

Periodic reminder that if this is your goal, CPTPP is a bad idea. on.ft.com/41QhKUm

This is what unites workers in places like Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and West Virginia with workers in developing economies: they object to the model of extractive economic governance we've had for 40 years.

This is where you find common ground between workers in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, West Virginia -- resource-rich states -- and workers in developing economies. They feel exploited.

The ASML-Mistral move is a bet on a sovereign EU tech ecosystem. So my take in Bloomberg aligns with Jefferies - this is more than a narrow ASML business decision. But it fits with ASML's tradition of ensuring a diversified, stable supplier ecosystem, now adding in geopolitics