I only just caught up with this sad news. A lovely guy and an excellent economist. A big loss.

MalcolmSawyer@malcolmsawyer.bsky.social · 2w ago

Very sorry to hear this news on the passing of Robert Blecker. Always a joy to see him at conferences and enjoy his company and his many intellecrtual contributions. Deepest condolences to his family and friends.

Very good from @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social. Entirely correct that a fundamental reset of the institutional framework is needed. We’ve tested the current one to its limit. It doesn’t work.

Giles Wilkes@gilesyb.bsky.social · yesterday

How to end the cycle of mistrust between the Treasury and everybody else - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Must read from @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social The need to micromanage is really hard to uproot. Something for Healey's advisers to think about too

!!

looks like shit brother

Richard Murphy@richardjmurphy.bsky.social · 2d ago

I did an infographic on Marx recently. This seems like the appropriate follow-up. In one way or another, I used AI in creating this post. I also used a word processor, my brain, thinking time, coffee, discussion, and about 50 years of reading.

1. Open weights has caught the frontier 2. Qwen imho is serially guilty of benchmaxxing, so we’ll see 3. openai and anthropic both have unreleased models that beat this by a lot 4. those releases are delayed to accommodate government-mandated release gates

Important stuff here from @lmacfarlane.bsky.social. I had a busy week (school holidays); I spotted the “higher tax rate loses money for Scotland” headline, thought it sounded dubious at best, and mentally made a note to come back and check it. Fortunately Laurie has done it for me.

Laurie Macfarlane @lmacfarlane.bsky.social · 4d ago

🚨 NEW: @danneidle.bsky.social claims Scotland’s 48% tax rate has lost public revenue. But is this actually true? My new deep-dive says no – Dan’s analysis doesn’t prove anything. It’s a long read, so buckle up 🧵

Piketty's fundamental observation that r>g means rising wealth to income ratios remains incontrovertable because it's just accounting. Since Capital in the 21st Century we've had another decade of r >> g, so even if shares of wealth remain constant, wealth to income ratios have to rise.

Joe Sarling@joesarling.bsky.social · 5d ago

Getting flashbacks to reading Piketty in 2013

I realise the details are unlikely to be forthcoming, but I'd like to to know more about why OpenAI and Anthropic are unable to set up secure test environments without internet connectivity. It doesn't appear a particularly difficult task.

One only needs to look at the outcomes of 40 years of neoliberalism to see that ending 40 years of neoliberalism would be a mistake.

Checking this hourly.

Financialisation: rarely discussed.

Only facts from the Economist.

I suppose we should be thankful that the rise in gilt yields is not attributed to Burnham and Healey themselves.

Andy Gibson (@AndyGibsonTV) / InformingBritain.com@informingbritain.com · 2w ago

"IRAN WAR NARROWS HEALEY'S OPTIONS" #DelphineStrauss / @LucyFisher.FT.com / @IanKMSmith.FT.com for @FinancialTimes.com #IranWar pressures are shrinking Chancellor #JohnHealey’s fiscal options and squeezing the government’s buffer. #FTWeekend #TomorrowsPapersToday

Good if not very encouraging lunch with the FT, with the head of the Met Office. www.ft.com/content/bde8...

In the past we would sometimes forgive even very bad writing if a paper contained a correct proof of an important, interesting result. But we probably should not do that anymore. An important job of the human researcher in possession of a proof machine is to digest the proof and

Immediately printing myself a copy of Orwell's Politics and the English Language. www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-f...

Politics and the English Language | The Orwell Foundation

"Political language... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind."

orwellfoundation.com

Simon Kuper@simonkuper.bsky.social · 2w ago

After 24 years as an FT columnist, this is my last column. It's not as drastic as that - I'm going to become an FT feature writer (after much-needed long holiday). Me @financialtimes.com on my method for writing column, how I learned to be shouted at, 2016 etc. Free link as.ft.com/r/aebbeadf-5...

Are you telling me there is a potential inconsistency in flying for eight hours to talk to six people in a seminar room about one's very important research on greening the financial system?

Benjamin Braun@benbraun.eurosky.social · 2w ago

I was just there, on a day trip after the SASE conference in Bordeaux. Where thousands of academics had gathered (in unbearably hot university buildings). Many (most?) had travelled there by plane. Still thinking that if we keep doing conferences at all, we need much stricter air travel rules.

If you remember that Janan Ganesh exists you lose.

at the same time

I think it would be useful if journalists stopped adding the word 'radical' to descriptions of energy secretaries for the apparent reason that they understand the urgency of the climate crisis. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Jo Michell@jomichell.bsky.social · 3w ago

I’m sorry, but what is ‘radical’ about the policies pursued by Miliband?

This one’s pretty funny.

I should stop reading this.

Socialism inside a decade then, according to Musk.

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 2w ago

‘I got carried away’: Elon Musk expresses regret about Doge and wading into Trump’s orbit

Oil hits $100 for first time since May ft.trib.al/zlFdkV9

Oil hits $100 for first time since May

Attack by Houthis on Saudi Arabian tankers in Red Sea threatens further squeeze on energy supplies

ft.trib.al

I find myself strangely underwhelmed by the OpenAI hugging face story. Once we had autonomously running LLMs connected to the internet this kind of thing was a dead cert — it was just a case of if not when.

Finding that I can still summon up a bit of savage indignation for governments blowing smoke on public spending with real world consequences. No, the aid money is not paying for the bus subsidies. But the aid is still being cut.

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 ago

New 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.

Same here.

Brad DeLong@braddelong.bsky.social · 2w ago

Hormuz closure removed Gulf crude and LNG → emergency stocks were released, pipelines bypassed, and non-OPEC output plugged some of the gap → prices spiked, then partially retreated → but the adjustment happened vai drawdown and rationing, not new durable supply or permanently altered demand... 1/

European gas, 52-week high.

NBP front month gas also up 3% to....dun dun duuuuuhhh...149p/th. This means it is now exactly at the peak of the crisis, again/for now (take your pick).