Xi goes up to eleven.

If there's one thing markets hate more than policy uncertainty, it's terrible policies with certainty. #EconSky

Until the WH renovations are done?

CNN International ticker now reporting that a tremor off the Alaskan coast has "triggered a local tsunami about 5cm high." Slow news day?

Proof that everything is more fun in pidgin -- a welfare analysis of tariffs, which asks the crucial question, "Why tariff still dey?" 1/3

50 years later, Ekeh's "two publics" reconsidered? youtu.be/DkI3j4lGlII?...

Good work by the Ghanaian diaspora: edition.cnn.com/2025/07/11/p...

Ackman-Sock drop first set in ATP Newport Challenger in 21 minutes.

It says, "Your tariff has been raised to 25%. Thank you for your consideration."

An American classic for the Fourth -- going back to the good old days when X was just a letter and a band. (Maybe recorded at the Ark in Ann Arbor?)

With Perricard and Diallo in the first two rounds, Taylor Fritz has to be wondering what a 5-seed is worth at Wimbledon these days.

Around the post, break point down in the deciding set of the men's doubles final at the French Open. Zeballos!

Here is an estimate of the effects of US cuts on my university -- Wits University in Johannesburg. groundup.org.za/article/wits...

Alcaraz going full Jailhouse Rock at Roland Garros tonight.

To paraphrase Ramaphosa's spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya: we survived the "TV show" (Oval Office event) and went on to have a constructive bilateral meeting (private lunch) -- the latter being the primary objective of the SA delegation.

Fact check

My initial reaction -- a diplomatic masterclass by Cyril Ramaphosa. Calm and calculated responses to a very difficult setting and meeting today

Alt text: Pope and Sinner.

Useful to note that despite repeated predictions of a mining boom across Africa total mineral production from the continent has been stagnant since the mid-2000s.

Orientation: youtu.be/BxHyliIspkA?...

The Deputy Secretary's apartheid flag-color tie is jarring, especially on this occasion.

"We'll plug her into the fast-charger and be back after the break."

A left-wing/conservative electoral alliance that boycotts elections? I think there's a paper in there, #Polisky.

I'm not generally in favor of voter suppression, but "no shirt, no service" might be in order here.

I like the focus on challenges posed by "endogenous policymaking shocks." Evokes "what to do when the guy in charge likes to lick the light socket, policy-wise."

Saw the Alarm as the opening act at Pier 84 in NY, 29 June 1983. After their set, I remember thinking, "Damn, I hope U2 brought their A-game." (They did.)

RIP Mike Peters #TheAlarm

I like the focus on challenges posed by "endogenous policymaking shocks." Evokes "what to do when the guy in charge likes to lick the light socket, policy-wise."

I propose the Bickerstaff rule of effective challenging: In the NBA playoffs, no coach shall challenge a call before the last two minutes of the game (with the exception of an earlier call that fouls out a star player).

On tonight SA time (GMT +2 hours): wits-za.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

"State Capture whistleblower" is accurate but understated. Jonas testified that, as Deputy Minister, Zuma's cronies offered him $30m to help capture the Treasury, asking if he had a bag for the cash. When he refused, he thought he might be punched in the face. www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018...

Not on my bingo card: "Markets are crashing because markets are based on the stock value of companies who today are embedded in modes of production that are bad for the United States." --Marco Rubio (remarks at NATO headquarters, 4 April 2025)

The premise that all bilateral trade balances could or should be zeroed out with tariffs is at the heart of the dumbness, but USTR algebra is sloppy, too: "Let ε<0 represent the elasticity of imports with respect to import prices", then "The price elasticity of import demand, ε, was set at [+]4."

The column in the Liberation Day chart labeled "Tariffs Charged to the US" for South Africa is actually the US bilateral trade deficit divided by SA exports to the US: (14.7 - 5.8) / 14.7 = 60%. Kinda not what a tariff rate is! #econsky #tariffs

Wow.

Returning to play some vinyl after decades of digital music on repeat and shuffle, it's surprising to rediscover how short one side of an "LP" is. And then the music just stops.

Good for Rasool! Expect SA to pay back in same way! Spectacular! Crazy Trump & Musk Inc not to rule the world!

Lesotho is one of the biggest African exporters of textiles (solid good old cotton stuff) to the US under AGOA. Trump’s “co-president” Elon Musk, also applied for a licence to operate his Starlink satellite internet provider there. www.bbc.com/news/article...

US President Trump said Lesotho was a country “nobody has heard of”. Africans, ever generous in spirit, have offered him help. The “Trump Golf”shirt used by Trump at his many his many courses, branded by Greg Norman, is made in Lesotho.

Electoral democracies in Africa have better records of socially inclusive and economically sustainable development than their non-democratic counterparts in the three decades since the end of the Cold War: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... (open access)

US politics seems disoriented by a new "$100 bill on the sidewalk" paradox: if it's really possible for presidents to do whatever they want whenever they want, why has it never happened before?

Archive Request xkcd.com/3052

I was feeling unfulfilled by studies of Africa's intraregional trade where the punch line is a coefficient for a dummy variable in a gravity model. So I made this Dorling cartogram of 2022 trade flows. Countries are circles proportional to GDP, with recorded trade flows overlaid.