Leopold Aschenbrenner trajectory from German green youth activist to Silicon Valley overleveraged financier encapsulates perfectly elite politics over the past decade
Telling everyone this is the book for our times. Hope in corporate dystopias and the ashes of derisking states.
Benjamin Braun@benbraun.eurosky.social · 2w agoExtreme drought, raging fires, "Make America Great Again" Christian nationalism, privatization of "near space programs dealing with communications". If, like me, you hadn't read Parable of the Sower (1993) & Parable of the Talents (1998) before – there's never been a better time.
Christ almighty. The British obsession with itemized “pay fors” for everything is insane. This is just really not how fiscal policy or government works anywhere functional.
Bloomberg News@bloomberg.com · 2w agoNew UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham will use money allocated to helping poor countries deal with the worst impacts of climate change to fund a new cap on bus fares across England.
the Wall Street War Consensus, brought to you by Mark Carney via a new multilateral bank.
it is a great scandal that OfS allows Education as an Asset Class to be derisked through the state's student loan system, with the complicity of public universities. www.ft.com/content/6c54...
The UK’s biggest university is a private company
Supporters say franchised providers widen access to further education, but others doubt the real value of their ‘no frills’ courses
ft.com
In 2022, we warned about the dangers of Housing as an Asset Class in a report for the European Parliament. Lots of wise heads nodded. But here we are again, and we cannot even blame China for this political failure
Clem Fon@clemfon.bsky.social · last mo.With more social housing funded by rerouting of public money and regulated savings à la Circuit du Trésor? With stricter rules for private equity housing investment? With true public support for thermal isolation? Ahah, no. Blended Finance, baby. @danielagabor.bsky.social @benbraun.eurosky.social
sounds like Burnham is going to continue the Starmer 'slash and burn' approach to UK higher education, but now with the added injury of 'rebalancing towards technical education, which we really need'
well Kemi I grew up in a socialist dictatorship too - and I promise you Ed Miliband's soft social democracy is not that. Not once has he denounced capitalism :)
James Murray@james-bg.bsky.social · last mo.I'm sorry, what?
Our unions are pushing back against a Labour politician that may try to change a status-quo that has been deeply harmful for workers - all to protect a few jobs in fossil sectors that we cannot afford to keep running because they are literally destroying the planet
Daniela Gabor@danielagabor.bsky.social · last mo.it was surprising to hear Unite's Sharon Graham criticize Ed Miliband's record as 'job destroying' climate activism. We hope she reconsiders, on a day where UK is under extreme heat warnings. The climate crisis is real, we need a Chancellor who fights it. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
it was surprising to hear Unite's Sharon Graham criticize Ed Miliband's record as 'job destroying' climate activism. We hope she reconsiders, on a day where UK is under extreme heat warnings. The climate crisis is real, we need a Chancellor who fights it. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
Progressive economists reject Unite leader’s criticism of Ed Miliband
Sharon Graham is urged to withdraw her claim that the energy secretary would cost jobs if he became chancellor
theguardian.com
Tightening against an energy price shock is a crude response, that only works if it chokes the economy, and green investment with it. It shouldn't be so controversial for the ECB to accept it.
Benjamin Braun@benbraun.eurosky.social · last mo.The ECB just hiked into an oil price shock, again. In our new paper for the EP Monetary Dialogue, we argue that this needs to stop. 🧵 If inflation is a function of the energy mix (✅) and the energy mix a function of monetary policy (✅), then even a narrow reading of the ECB’s mandate ... 1/
the short-lived life of a super majority Labour government with BlackRock politics was so obvious even a professor of economics could predict it
Saul Staniforth@saulstaniforth.bsky.social · 2mo ago@unitesharon.bsky.social says Keir Starmer must do the right thing and step down & the leadership election to replace him must be fought on real change & policies, not personalities.
I've been long skeptical of Kevin Warsh's hawkish aura - yesterday he proved me right. Despite his critique of QE distorting market signals, inflating asset prices, blurring monetary/fiscal lines, the Warsh Fed won't reserve Powell purchases of US Treasuries under cover of 'repo/reserve stability'
Haha magnificent Cabo Verde, size of a small Spanish town and a 40yo goalie
quite extraordinary that Andrew Bailey has responded to Mehreen Khan (+mine + gilt investors) critique of Bank's Quantitative Tightening with a defense so full of monetarist holes you can drive a plough through them: apparently we are of the mark! why? Bailey won't say!
Yeap, the fascists are burning down houses and the liberals respond with 'ah, they may have a point, too many migrants'
flyingrodent@flyingrodent.bsky.social · 2mo agoYes, look: these horrible people spent most of the last two decades deliberately rehabilitating as much of the National Front’s politics as possible, while telling audiences that anyone resisting them was a traitor plotting to destroy Britain. *Of course* they are going to stick to that now.
you may have left twitter but you're still funding Elon Musk with your pension savings. unfortunately, we won't see many denounce that complicity.
I can believe it, the BBC Radio 4 has been stoking anti migration feeling systematically, their morning program has a daily update on how many crossed the Channel, a bizarre obsession w a small number of people
Dave Vetter@davidrvetter.bsky.social · 2mo agoI almost can't believe this, but *right now*, BBC Radio 4 is broadcasting a programme about the scourge of illegal immigration, through a lens of faux concern.
Ken Rogoff, the austerity ideologue who fiddled excel spreadsheets for policy-based evidence, here defending status-quo with alarmist confidence of white male privilege
Jonathan Portes@jdportes.bsky.social · 2mo agoJust embarrassing, laughable stuff from Ken Rogoff here. "Mitterand came in being Andy Burnham, and the markets collapsed". archive.ph/O2OlH
On my way to Paris for a keynote on 'Michel Aglietta and the ambivalence of money' and I am going to risk a joke about objet petit s
the AI Derisking State, brought to you by the Trump Administration - like its predecessor, this derisking-based industrial policy cannot match China's industrial/credit planning machine www.ft.com/content/8559...
What we know about the plan to give Americans an equity stake in AI
OpenAI has proposed a sovereign-wealth-style fund to ease public anxiety about the impact of artificial intelligence
ft.com
thanks @benbraun.eurosky.social @realbrianjudge.bsky.social @mkblyth.bsky.social for letting me talk about macrofinancial life of sovereign bonds for 1.5h. judging by this week's OECD conference, next summer school should be for Ministers of Finance (and Gillian Tett)
Benjamin Braun@benbraun.eurosky.social · 2mo agoWhen sovereign bonds yields move, the first questions are: 1) Is the move due to actions taken by the Fed? (Global financial cycle – H. Rey) 2) Have growth expectations changed? 3) Who is trading in secondary markets, who holds repo positions? @danielagabor.bsky.social, day 2. #financedemocracy
You, a macroeconomist, despair that journalists have used this stupid metaphor for ages and then the people actually in charge of fiscal decisions have no clue what they're taking about.
Jo Michell@jomichell.bsky.social · 2mo agoWhat a fantastic idea! We can use Insta to tell people that the government is like a household! This will help guide voters towards better choices!
Jesus @cnewf.bsky.social this is exactly the discourse of UK senior management www.nytimes.com/2026/06/01/m...
A University System Went All In on A.I. Now It’s Tearing Itself Apart.
nytimes.com
I remember talking to an Ethiopian who entrusted some of her savings to the government to build a dam as a 'transformative plus national pride' logic
Katie Martin@katie0martin.ft.com · 2mo agonot even joking when i say very broad retail bond market participation would be an important way to help #thediscourse 'ok so i lend you £100 for five years? but what if we have inflation and it's not worth £100 in five years' time? is that interest rate high enough to make up the gap?' etc
bloody hell, I shouldn't be surprised by this but I am.
𝙰𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚑 𝙰𝚋𝚒𝚣𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚑@abizadeh.bsky.social · 2mo agoStatement from the Econ Student Union
Two main exemplars of China’s new workers’ literature available in translation, both highly recommended. They are breathtaking memoirs of migrant workers going through staggering numbers of jobs & places. Hu Anyan’s was a bestseller, Xiao Hai’s is due to be published in China only later this year.
Excited for a day of debate on progressive transformations in Europe with optimists of the will @i-laboetie.bsky.social
