Today years old when I learned that ironing a dress is much harder than ironing a shirt.
Duncan Weldon
@duncanweldon.bsky.social
Economics writer. Author. Expect history, economics, finance and other stuff. Some cricket. Wrote Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through. Blood and Treasure, on the economics of war, out now.
In which some ECB and Bundesbank researchers quietly whisper “yeah, Mark Carney made some good points at the WEF”. cepr.org/voxeu/column...
How shifts in geoeconomic power are rewiring global trade
Trade growth stalled after the Global Financial Crisis, and world trade is now splitting along geopolitical lines. This poses a distinctive challenge for the EU, whose two largest trading partners are...
cepr.org
Google appears to be getting worse as a search engine at a rate of knots.
New piece from me: Getting over the 2030 energy bill bump On how we're in a period of unusually high energy bills that we should be able to escape from - but only if we start making serious progress on electrification www.nesta.org.uk/blog/the-ene...
The energy edit: getting over the 2030 energy bill bump
Every six weeks Andrew Sissons assesses the most important signals and trends underpinning the UK’s energy transition.
nesta.org.uk
Mitch Marsh enjoying himself. Poor looking crowd though.
I also once boarded Britain’s busiest commuter train for a bit of colour for a piece. Thereby making it even busier and less pleasant. www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...
A rail nightmare: what it’s like on England’s busiest commuter-only train
This evening service from London to Crewe is hot, sweaty and heaving with people, many having to stand or sit in the gangways
theguardian.com
It's nice to see P&P promoting my article as we approach the anniversary of the 1976 IMF Crisis, when unilateral protectionism was furiously debated within the bowels of the British state. It's open access and free to read via the link below.
On advance access "The Political Crisis of British Keynesianism, 1973–1983" by @colmpm.bsky.social (@qmpoliticsir.bsky.social) #OpenAccess doi.org/10.1093/past...
As a general rule: explaining something you know well to smart people who ask good questions but do not know the topic well is a really useful exercise. If nothing else, they tend to ask interesting questions which you hadn’t considered.
How to end the cycle of mistrust between the Treasury and everybody else ft.trib.al/KvmNepY | opinion
How to end the cycle of mistrust between the Treasury and everybody else
The lesson from Manchester is that it takes time for public investment policies to show up in GDP
ft.trib.al
JUST IN: Staff reportedly increasingly concerned that companies are hiring them for the value of their output, as opposed to their wellbeing and development.
Its embarrassing how many grown ass adults live in these fantasies where people work for some nonsense like the artificial cultures oligarchs manufacture over survival.
One of those games that is either going to be ‘a low scoring thriller’ or ‘an absolute walk over’. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricke...
Welsh Fire Men v Southern Brave Men - Cricket - BBC Sport
Find out the in depth batting and bowling figures for Welsh Fire Men v Southern Brave Men in the The Hundred Men on BBC Sport.
bbc.co.uk
My Kindle is quite old and very frequently used. I’ve discovered that the battery life is approx 5-6x longer if I keep it in airplane mode and only connect to wi-fi when I need to download something. Quite surprised that connectivity eats that much charge.
Easiest way to see this is US commercial inventories. Low, especially compared to the last 10y, but very much not apocalyptic.
This also speaks to commodities traders having Ali Baba caves of supplies … follow the use of tankers as floating storage … www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
A man should not have to brush his hair before a *radio* interview from the comfort of his own home. The pivot to video has gone too far.
Good news: the US Army War College has published a really interesting looking essay collection on economic warfare. Bad news: Thats another 270 page document I now have to read. publications.armywarcollege.edu/News/Display...
Some more details here. Just absolutely the maddest story I’ve read all year. www.ft.com/content/06ec... ‘Crush this lady’: how eBay harassment campaign led to $56mn payout
‘Crush this lady’: how eBay harassment campaign led to $56mn payout
Employees’ cyberstalking of Boston couple involving macabre deliveries ended in jail time and financial settlement
ft.com
A really interesting article on what can be done to reinvent and revise the high street. And, yes, it requires an active state backed up by resources
Actual research! If you ever wanted to know how the Big Mac index could be reconstructed on a per calorie basis here it is
‘A rough calculation finds that covering AI capex through identifiable AI income requires revenue on the order of $2.5trn per year, more than tech’s entire combined revenue today (and far higher than what would have been needed a year or so ago, when capex plans were more modest)’.
AI revenues are growing fast, but not fast enough
The returns on trillions of dollars of spending are deeply uncertain
economist.com
There’s something very 1980s about co-ordinated FX intervention.
✍️ The two things no one ever tells you about writing a book... My latest substack, on the weird world of "blurbs", the significance of preorders and... a rare, special limited-time offer! 👇 edconway.substack.com/p/at-least-o...
At least one very good reason to pre-order Trade World
What no-one tells you about writing a book. And my shameless attempt to confront it...
edconway.substack.com
I demand more ‘the EU should learn from UEFA and exercise its global power’ takes. Come on people, it’s August and this is an easy column to write.
Classic poster’s curse. Was about to click send on ‘What a performance from Will Jacks’ when he was caught.
Alternating between Durham and the SunRisers. Both chasing achievable totals. Brook at the crease. So it’s the Hundred for now.
Was arguably too hot for a pub Sunday roast. But I’m not regretting it.
Last time I booked an appointment at my barbers: I had to fill in an online form, confirm my mobile number by entering a number texted to me, scroll through a calender to find availability and enter a second code to confirm my email address. This time: I phoned them instead.