At a time when Ancient Greece is topping the bill, here’s something else to stimulate your thinking. Everyone from Mark Carney to Xi Jinping is quoting Thucydides to make points about today’s power politics, but what are the real lessons from the past? Details below @hellenicsociety.bsky.social

“Brussels has rebuffed a British request to participate in decision-making in the EU, further delaying a deal to reset post-Brexit relations with the bloc.” @financialtimes.com I’m shocked, shocked I tell you.

Great to listen in to an interview with @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social at Globe primary school, where I spend time helping pupils to read and enjoy books. A great reminder of the variety of attitudes to reading !

@pmdfoster.bsky.social What do you think of the @martinsandbu.ft.com article today given our chat last week ! @davidheniguk.bsky.social

I’m cautious about signing up to too much where the UK commits to follow future EU changes without any say (aka dynamic alignment). But if Parliament agrees to dynamic alignment in certain areas, it makes no sense to require primary legislation for every subsequent change.

My piece for @capx.co on why globalisation hasn’t failed but is a victim of its own success. capx.co/globalisatio...

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Only World War Three could turn it back

capx.co

OK where do I file my compensation law suit ?

Great article @antonspisak.bsky.social

Centre for European Reform@centreeuropeanref.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The EU wants trade to do geopolitics, but the #Mercosur deal is a reminder that signing isn't delivering. New @centreeuropeanref.bsky.social insight by @antonspisak.bsky.social Read here: buff.ly/IESx33T

How do you stop getting 90% of your @bsky.app feed being about US politics ?

I see that the EU supported China in arguing that the US Inflation Reduction Act breached WTO rules, with which unsurprisingly the WTO panel agreed. How does that square with Buy European restrictions I wonder ?

Always goods to read @robertshrimsley.bsky.social Rutherford Hall @financialtimes.com. An adjacent article on gym equipment seems to have escaped from the column…

Would you say that a speech one of whose main points was misleading was brilliant ? I agree with Martin Wolf @financialtimes.com that Mark Carney’s comparison of Communism and the rules based system was misleading (“The reality of a world after rupture”). That seems a pretty major flaw in the speech

Great analysis in trademark style !

Alan Beattie@alanbeattie.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Today's Trade Secrets. In which I madly ignore my own "nobody knows anything" advice & try to spot patterns (though not intent) in Trump's tariffs. I think I have. Some tariffs he TACOs, some he imposes. But all the explicitly coercive geopolitical ones like Greenland get TACOd and achieve nothing.

Having to seek refuge on @bsky.app from the ugliness on X. The Andy Burnham recriminations are like a war with no prisoners taken.

The question we’re all asking is whether FIFA will demand that President Trump hands back the world peace award they gave him recently.

Ignacio Bercero going for the jugular here. This means it really is serious. www.bruegel.org/first-glance...

The end of the Turnberry truce: how the EU should react to US coercion over Greenland

The EU should be prepared to hit back against US economic pressure, deploying trade and anti-coercion measures

bruegel.org

Anything happening today ?

“The internet is not a fantasy. It is a real place, real life. X remains a public square. Bluesky, by contrast, is where the teachers’ pets meet after class to study.” Stella Tsantekidou @newstatesman1913.bsky.social Ouch ! But true.

“The dangerous triumph of neo-mercantilism” great article by Martin Wolf @financialtimes.com. Most politicians are instinctively neomercantilist: they laud exports and decry imports. But many also see that better living standards require economic change. That’s the case for liberalism.

It’s bad enough that @gideonrachman.bsky.social ‘s articles @FT are always wholly predictable. But he’s stretched the elastic even further by suggesting that Trump’s tariffs should “prompt Keir Starmer to rejoin the single market.” What, tomorrow ? How about the EU just drop its barriers instead ?

USTR finding that things not entirely going their way.

America belatedly discovers the benefits of multilateral trade liberalisation … @financialtimes.com

Good news for trade and common sense for Canada. There was never any justification for the EV tariffs.

Benjamin Hunting@huntingbenjamin.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Who else is excited that Canada has dropped tariffs on Chinese EVS from 100% to 6.1% for the first 49,000 units?

It looks like we can stop talking about China’s surplus of over $1trn. That is goods alone. China is likely to run a deficit of more than $200bn in services. None of that avoids the challenges posed by China’s approach on trade but it is misleading that the media only focus on goods.

The futile search for the cost free tax rise goes on: at @drodrik.bsky.social talk at #LSEevents yesterday the good old transaction tax aka stamp duty got rather too sympathetic a response. I’m sure that would encourage savers to put their cash into the shares the UK Govt is trying to push.

Great to hear @drodrik.bsky.social speak at #LSEevents this evening on “shared prosperity in a fractured world”. Lots to ponder on raising living standards, tackling climate change and relieving global poverty. Much rests on an industrial policy for services NOT manufacturing.

What should businesses be looking our for on international trade in 2026 ? My thoughts on the US, UK/EU, China and the competing dynamics of fragmentation and alliance building, for Pagefield: www.pagefield.co.uk/news-insight...

Five trade trends to watch out for in 2026 - Pagefield

After one of the most disruptive years ever for trade in 2025, what are the things we should watch out for which will indicate the direction of travel in 2026? The impact of the mid terms on US trade ...

pagefield.co.uk

The Theresa May EU deal (which Labour opposed) had: - alignment on industrial goods regulation - freedom to diverge on services - a non CU common tariff (“magical thinking”) Ironically it looks like we are trying to go back to exactly that.

@samuelmarclowe.bsky.social given the title of your substack we are waiting for your view on the US proposals to reform the WTO, notably by doing away with the principle of MFN. Are we in an era of LFN (Least Favoured Nation, with no special deals) ?

Repeat after me: “there is no such thing as ‘a’ customs union with the EU. There is only membership of ‘the’ EU Customs Union.” In the sense that any country with ‘a’ CU (only Turkey btw) simply follows the rules set by EU member states. Better to join the EU @wesstreeting.bsky.social