Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Mattias Vermeiren

Gregor Semieniuk @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social · 4d

🚨NEW PAPER🚨
We all know the 2022 energy price shock fueled the cost of living crisis. It also caused a profit bonanza for the very rich. We show the US reaped the largest profits ($377bn) of any country. 50% went to the richest 1%, only 1% to the bottom 50%. A🧵 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

River or sankey diagram showing the allocation of profits from global oil and gas companies to quantiles of the US wealth size distribution via financial system intermediaries, such as asset managers, and categories of ultimate beneficiaries, such as business owners, pension funds and shareholders in listed companies. The scale is hundreds of billions of US dollars, and ultimately 50.4% of profits reaching the US personal wealth distribution go to the richest 1% of households.

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Manuela Moschella @manuelamoschella.bsky.social · 11d

How do political institutions shape today’s wave of economic interventionism? 🇺🇸 vs 🇪🇺

Find out in our new article just out in @govjournal.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @donatodc.bsky.social

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Ferdi De Ville @ferdideville.bsky.social · 25d

The "45% tariff" equivalent on intra-EU trade line is everywhere, even in von der Leyen’s #SOTEU last week.

That number is misleading, as Smaghi explains. Lower intra-EU trade isn’t just about barriers but also consumer preferences for domestic products like food.

iep.unibocconi.eu/europes-inte...

Europe’s Internal Tariffs: Why the IMF’s 44% Estimate Doesn’t Hold Up | IEP@BU

iep.unibocconi.eu

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Mattias Vermeiren @mattvermeir.bsky.social · 25d

“Pretty strong evidence” that the US current account is mostly driven by foreign dynamics is actually pretty weak evidence if you only focus on household balances and ignore the evolution of the sectoral balances of the US government and US corporations…

Michael Pettis @michaelpettis.bsky.social · 25d

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According to the WSJ, after a few years in which the earnings of the poor rose faster than the earnings of the rich, in 2025 the earnings of the rich have risen faster. In theory this should have resulted in a lower US trade deficit.
www.wsj.com/economy/us-e...

The Two-Speed Economy Is Back as Low-Income Americans Give Up Gains

High-earners and older Americans are faring better than ever, while fortunes are sliding again for low-wage and young workers.

www.wsj.com

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Sebastian Diessner @sebdiessner.bsky.social · 27d

💥 New article out @reggovjournal.bsky.social

Skill-Biased Policy Change: Governing the Transition to the Knowledge Economy in Germany, Sweden & Britain

@ndurazzi.bsky.social @federicofiletti.bsky.social @simonetonelli.bsky.social David Hope, Hanna Kleider

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Skill‐Biased Policy Change: Governing the Transition to the Knowledge Economy in Germany, Sweden and Britain

How have advanced capitalist democracies transitioned from a Fordist to a post-Fordist, knowledge-based economy? And why have they followed seemingly similar policy trajectories despite different eco...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Joe Weisenthal @weisenthal.bsky.social · Sep 5

The U.S. has lost 78k manufacturing jobs this year

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Alex Cobham @alexcobham.bsky.social · Sep 5

The video on the FT.com front page right now is one for the ages - the collective heads of US big tech fawning over the 'leadership' of President Trump. Their participation tells you about their values. Their specific emphasis reveals what they are getting out of it.

Screenshot from FT.com.

Heading: Technology sector: Big Tech bosses court favour with Trumps at White House dinner

Image: video still. Mark Zuckerberg addressing Donald Trump, with caption of remarks reading "...together and you know I think you know all of the companies here are..."

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Thea Riofrancos @triofrancos.bsky.social · Sep 3

I’m in @financialtimes.com on Trump’s recent move to make the Pentagon the top shareholder in the US only rare earths mine. This is the “worst of all worlds” resource nationalism: a toxic mix of environmental harm, militarism, Big Tech, financial de-risking, and asset appreciation. Link below ⬇️

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Angela Wigger @angelawigger.bsky.social · Aug 18

If you are interested to know more about how EU industrial policy is being financed, in this SOMO long read, I am outlining key features of InvestEU, its redistributive effects and how it empowers financial capital - at the expense of democratic oversight and the urgently needed green transition.

SOMO - Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations @somoamsterdam.bsky.social · Aug 18

Behind the grim reality of EU’s green transition → InvestEU ←

InvestEU uses public money and debt to guarantee profits for investors, claiming to unlock billions for the green transition.

But it is an illusion of climate action.

Read our full analysis ➡️ www.somo.nl/behind-investeus-trojan-logic/

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Cody Hochstenbach @codyhochstenbach.bsky.social · Aug 29

De partijen die de afgelopen jaren aan de knoppen hebben gezeten, is er veel aan gelegen de voordelen voor huiseigenaren te beschermen. Ten koste van de volkshuisvesting.

Ik schreef voor NRC een essay over wonen als verkiezingsthema. Morgen in de krant, nu online:
www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2025/...

Opinie | Kopen is niet superieur aan huren

Huren vs. kopen: Doordat het woonbeleid al decennialang de koper bevoordeelt boven de huurder, is de woningmarkt verworden tot een veroorzaker van ongelijkheid, ziet Cody Hochstenbach.

www.nrc.nl

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New Left EViews @newlefteviews.bsky.social · Aug 28

Re: Trump v Fed: Some (very hastily written and heavily edited) reflections on the nature of central bank–government interdependence in the era of crisis and how financial- not fiscal dominance is what should be keeping us up at night. Also Powell is Thomas Becket.

jacobin.com/2025/08/cent...

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cornelban.bsky.social @cornelban.bsky.social · Aug 28

Just out: How China builds strategic dominance in high-innovation niches fracturing the economic status quo in the world: Government Guidance Funds turn fiscal money + SOE assets into venture capital with planning discipline. A different game than Europe or Korea. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Financing technological innovation in China: neo-developmental financial statecraft through government guidance funds

This paper examines China’s distinctive approach to financing innovation, contributing to debates on the derisking state, neo-developmentalist alternatives, and economic statecraft. It focuses on t...

www.tandfonline.com

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Daniela Gabor @danielagabor.bsky.social · Aug 26

we heterodox economists have been saying this for decades, but now Big Finance is saying it, you know it's the end of liberal macro institutions, a death brought to you by Donald Trump.

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Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · Aug 17

Drawing on the likes of Leah Downey, Arjun Jayadev, Leon Wansleben & @geoffmann.bsky.social, I have a new piece in @nybooks.com on money, power, and central banking.

Whose Fed? | Brett Christophers

For the past twenty years, central banks have rarely been out of the news. Called upon to stabilize the global financial system when it appeared at risk

www.nybooks.com

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Philipp Heimberger @heimbergecon.bsky.social · Aug 20

Unlike today, central banks in the 1980s avoided financial losses when implementing anti-inflationary measures because they didn't remunerate bank reserves and their balance sheets didn'tt carry the legacy of a decade of large asset purchases at low interest rates/long maturity.

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Erik Peinert @erikpeinert.bsky.social · Aug 11

My book is out today! Read my stuff! academic.oup.com/book/60584?l...
…
The book looks at the long-run evolution of policy around monopoly and competition in the US and France over the 20th century, using extensive archival research to track the main policy actors who changed it at key moments.

Monopoly Politics: Competition and Learning in the Evolution of Policy Regimes

Abstract. Motivated by the contemporary extremes of monopoly power in the United States and globally, this book uses an in-depth comparison of the United S

academic.oup.com

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Tom Pepinsky @tompepinsky.com · Aug 8

You wanna read a paper called "The Political Economy of Shitcoins"? Of course you do. @mcopelov.bsky.social and I are at your service.

Full paper: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Blog post: tompepinsky.com/2025/08/08/c...

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Cryptocurrencies and the Political Economy of Money

At a time when the U.S. government has floated the idea of a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and tech oligarchs question the viability of the sovereign state in the age of blockchains, there is a need f…

tompepinsky.com

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Mattias Vermeiren @mattvermeir.bsky.social · Jul 30

📢 New publication on the constraints faced by the multilateral development banks in the roll-out of the Wall Street Consensus. Check out my co-author @anissabougrea.bsky.social’s🧵 here below 👇

Anissa Bougrea @anissabougrea.bsky.social · Jul 29

🚨New article out with @mattvermeir.bsky.social in @compchange.bsky.social: "Rolling out the Wall Street Consensus? MDBs & the Trilemma of Private Capital Mobilization"
We examine why MDBs are failing to deliver on the promise of "mobilizing trillions" for the SDGs👇
Here:

Rolling out the Wall Street Consensus? Multilateral development banks and the trilemma of private capital mobilization - Anissa Bougrea, Mattias Vermeiren, 2025

This article offers the first comprehensive account of the challenges Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) face in implementing the Wall Street Consensus, a fi...

journals.sagepub.com

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Mattias Vermeiren @mattvermeir.bsky.social · Jul 30

📢 New publication on the constraints faced by the multilateral development banks in the roll-out of the Wall Street Consensus. Check out my co-author @anissabougrea.bsky.social’s🧵 here below 👇

Anissa Bougrea @anissabougrea.bsky.social · Jul 29

🚨New article out with @mattvermeir.bsky.social in @compchange.bsky.social: "Rolling out the Wall Street Consensus? MDBs & the Trilemma of Private Capital Mobilization"
We examine why MDBs are failing to deliver on the promise of "mobilizing trillions" for the SDGs👇
Here:

Rolling out the Wall Street Consensus? Multilateral development banks and the trilemma of private capital mobilization - Anissa Bougrea, Mattias Vermeiren, 2025

This article offers the first comprehensive account of the challenges Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) face in implementing the Wall Street Consensus, a fi...

journals.sagepub.com

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Reposted by Mattias Vermeiren

Anissa Bougrea @anissabougrea.bsky.social · Jul 29

🚨New article out with @mattvermeir.bsky.social in @compchange.bsky.social: "Rolling out the Wall Street Consensus? MDBs & the Trilemma of Private Capital Mobilization"
We examine why MDBs are failing to deliver on the promise of "mobilizing trillions" for the SDGs👇
Here:

Rolling out the Wall Street Consensus? Multilateral development banks and the trilemma of private capital mobilization - Anissa Bougrea, Mattias Vermeiren, 2025

This article offers the first comprehensive account of the challenges Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) face in implementing the Wall Street Consensus, a fi...

journals.sagepub.com

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Daniela Gabor @danielagabor.bsky.social · Jul 25

I've written the final instalment of Dispatches from Seville:

For COP30 in Belem, Brazil's leadership of the Baku to Belem Roadmap to USD 1.3 trillion renews the ’investible climate’ agenda in Seville

www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/aft...

After Seville | Daniela Gabor

COP30 in Belém

www.phenomenalworld.org

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Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · Jul 10

It makes sense to expect a new age of inducements for institutional capital pools to hold sovereign debt (aka financial repression), as @martinsandbu.ft.com argued last week. Alas, it appears state managers are too macrofinancially incompetent to pull that off and instead are self-sabotaging bigly.

Dutch pension funds set to sell €125bn of government bonds
Overhaul of Eurozone’s largest retirement sector is expected to put pressure on continent’s debt markets

Pension funds 💔 gilts
For whom the bell tolls

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Karthik Sankaran @rajakorman.bsky.social · Jul 5

I threw everything in here—the dollar, bonds, the future of the defense umbrella, the insistence on centrality, stablecoin, why centrality is not always strength, the evolution of US & global (r,g ) dynamics, and a shoutout to Steven Solomon. But no dad jokes alas.

Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · Jul 5

“The months since April 2 have clarified the multiple contradictory desires of the Trump administration vis-a-vis its position in the global economic hierarchy.”

@rajakorman.bsky.social on Trumponomics, dollar diplomacy, and multipolarity

www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/mon...

Monetizing Primacy | Karthik Sankaran

Trumponomics, dollar diplomacy, and multipolarity

www.phenomenalworld.org

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Daniela Gabor @danielagabor.bsky.social · Jul 2

Ive written about @ecb.europa.eu and @ec.europa.eu push for a Savings and Investment Union:

SIU, the new answer to 'how do we pay for' , is a Trojan horse for the American welfare model, increasingly in the hands of (private equity) financiers

www.ft.com/content/052e...

EU’s shift to a US savings model risks dismantling its social contract

Political choices should be debated democratically, not hidden in technocratic agendas of ‘financing gaps’

www.ft.com

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Andrei Sterescu @andreisterescu.bsky.social · Jun 30

. @martinsandbu.ft.com argues that we’re entering a new era of financial repression and financial nationalism where governments are increasingly steering capital toward domestic priorities rather than leaving it to market forces. A 🧵 looking back on financial repression:

on.ft.com/3TlujSW

Get ready to embark on a new era of financial repression

Tariffs are not the only flashpoint; another economic policy war is shaping up

on.ft.com

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