blai.bsky.social
@blai.bsky.social
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
One of the most frequently recited pieces of "evidence" that public power won't work is the dysfunction of one of a number of existing public power utilities. I think this is not only pessimistic but misanthropic. It's a position of despair about whether or not we can collectively do good and
February 8, 2026 at 5:56 PM
One of the most frequently recited pieces of "evidence" that public power won't work is the dysfunction of one of a number of existing public power utilities. I think this is not only pessimistic but misanthropic. It's a position of despair about whether or not we can collectively do good and
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
France has ended up in a strange position after using some €250bn of tax-payer money to build a fleet of nuclear power stations. Wind and solar power is merrily entering the French power market at prices nuclear production can't match, resulting in huge surpluses of power.
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Électricité : un rapport confidentiel d’EDF anticipe une explosion des coûts et des risques
« Le Point » s’est procuré le rapport interne d’EDF sur les conséquences de la modulation de son parc nucléaire pour faire place aux renouvelables. Un document explosif, alors que le gouvernement s’ap...
www.lepoint.fr
February 8, 2026 at 10:41 AM
France has ended up in a strange position after using some €250bn of tax-payer money to build a fleet of nuclear power stations. Wind and solar power is merrily entering the French power market at prices nuclear production can't match, resulting in huge surpluses of power.
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Reposted by blai.bsky.social
New essay by @steffenmurau.bsky.social on Trump admin's misunderstanding of dollar hegemony—and four possible futures for the international monetary system. 1/
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/tru...
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/tru...
Trump's Dollar | Steffen Murau
Calls to weaken the dollar have become a feature of Trump's second term. But in today's credit-based system, where the US currency is often created offshore, nativist politics cannot be translated int...
www.phenomenalworld.org
February 7, 2026 at 5:40 PM
New essay by @steffenmurau.bsky.social on Trump admin's misunderstanding of dollar hegemony—and four possible futures for the international monetary system. 1/
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/tru...
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/tru...
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
As someone who has spent quite a lot of time complaining about bad economics metaphors and analogies, I disagree with @gilesyb.bsky.social’s premise: we have to simplify and abstract to think about an economic system and metaphor is unavoidable when we do so.
February 4, 2026 at 11:46 AM
As someone who has spent quite a lot of time complaining about bad economics metaphors and analogies, I disagree with @gilesyb.bsky.social’s premise: we have to simplify and abstract to think about an economic system and metaphor is unavoidable when we do so.
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
New from @gruberte.bsky.social and I in @science.org: The energy transition is at risk, and energy models are missing the threat. Fossil energy networks from oil to coal to gas have minimum viable scales of operation, and those thresholds are closer than we think:
www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
💡🔌
www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
💡🔌
Fossil energy minimum viable scale
Unseen infrastructural threats to safety and decarbonization may arise as fossil energy systems are phased out
www.science.org
January 29, 2026 at 7:26 PM
New from @gruberte.bsky.social and I in @science.org: The energy transition is at risk, and energy models are missing the threat. Fossil energy networks from oil to coal to gas have minimum viable scales of operation, and those thresholds are closer than we think:
www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
💡🔌
www.science.org/doi/epdf/10....
💡🔌
Interesting — Where could I learn more?
January 30, 2026 at 2:04 PM
Interesting — Where could I learn more?
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
This piece is getting at something that I’ve been trying to articulate (not very successfully) in recent conversations when asked if China is the new long-awaited climate champion the world has been waiting for.
My answer is never a simple flat yes, for the reasons that Jeremy touches on here. 1/
My answer is never a simple flat yes, for the reasons that Jeremy touches on here. 1/
January 21, 2026 at 10:29 PM
This piece is getting at something that I’ve been trying to articulate (not very successfully) in recent conversations when asked if China is the new long-awaited climate champion the world has been waiting for.
My answer is never a simple flat yes, for the reasons that Jeremy touches on here. 1/
My answer is never a simple flat yes, for the reasons that Jeremy touches on here. 1/
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
The problem from their point of view is that rapid decarbonization requires public, collective decisions about the organization of production, in a way that threaten capital-owners' authority over both the production process and the political system.
November 10, 2025 at 4:20 PM
The problem from their point of view is that rapid decarbonization requires public, collective decisions about the organization of production, in a way that threaten capital-owners' authority over both the production process and the political system.
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
okay so fun news, I am launching a macro newsletter from Common Wealth about the supply side data and the US economy called Forces of Production
Charts for bsky forthcoming at: @forcesofproduction.com
Launch essay below:
www.forcesofproduction.com/p/atop-the-f...
Charts for bsky forthcoming at: @forcesofproduction.com
Launch essay below:
www.forcesofproduction.com/p/atop-the-f...
Atop the Forces of Production
Announcing the launch of the Forces of Production macro data newsletter
www.forcesofproduction.com
January 20, 2026 at 8:10 PM
okay so fun news, I am launching a macro newsletter from Common Wealth about the supply side data and the US economy called Forces of Production
Charts for bsky forthcoming at: @forcesofproduction.com
Launch essay below:
www.forcesofproduction.com/p/atop-the-f...
Charts for bsky forthcoming at: @forcesofproduction.com
Launch essay below:
www.forcesofproduction.com/p/atop-the-f...
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
still my heart - REPO IS VERY SYSTEMIC piece @alphaville.ft.com
1. We still have no granular data, a full 17 years since run on repo blew up Lehman into a global financial crisis. The OFR now has data on US repo, but European repo is also USD 12 trillion (roughly)
www.ft.com/content/220d...
1. We still have no granular data, a full 17 years since run on repo blew up Lehman into a global financial crisis. The OFR now has data on US repo, but European repo is also USD 12 trillion (roughly)
www.ft.com/content/220d...
Repo is even bigger than we thought
A taxonomy of the engorged and utterly systemic US repurchase market
www.ft.com
January 13, 2026 at 5:24 PM
still my heart - REPO IS VERY SYSTEMIC piece @alphaville.ft.com
1. We still have no granular data, a full 17 years since run on repo blew up Lehman into a global financial crisis. The OFR now has data on US repo, but European repo is also USD 12 trillion (roughly)
www.ft.com/content/220d...
1. We still have no granular data, a full 17 years since run on repo blew up Lehman into a global financial crisis. The OFR now has data on US repo, but European repo is also USD 12 trillion (roughly)
www.ft.com/content/220d...
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
I personally think 2 is the wrong answer. But this is certainly the right question to be asking.
Which means there are only two interpretations:
1) Block’s theory that the ruling class does not rule because they don’t know how is being confirmed in the most spectacular manner.
2) Trump 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 represented oligarchic interests and we are in a madman dictatorship paradigm.
I’m leaning 2).
1) Block’s theory that the ruling class does not rule because they don’t know how is being confirmed in the most spectacular manner.
2) Trump 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 represented oligarchic interests and we are in a madman dictatorship paradigm.
I’m leaning 2).
January 12, 2026 at 6:09 PM
I personally think 2 is the wrong answer. But this is certainly the right question to be asking.
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
Interesting to compare how someone like DeLong evaluates resources spent on bubble-fueled private investment versus those spent on, say, public-school salaries. When do we insist on a rigorous cost-benefit analysis? and when do we say say, it's all fine, something useful will probably come of it?
December 5, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Interesting to compare how someone like DeLong evaluates resources spent on bubble-fueled private investment versus those spent on, say, public-school salaries. When do we insist on a rigorous cost-benefit analysis? and when do we say say, it's all fine, something useful will probably come of it?
Where’s this from?
November 8, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Where’s this from?
Any chance the event will be recorded, for those of us who can’t make it?
October 28, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Any chance the event will be recorded, for those of us who can’t make it?
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
NEW (and I would say groundbreaking) paper from
@gdp-center.bsky.social colleagues mapping the global landscape of climate-related industrial policies.
It finds green industrial policy is increasing fast, is dominated by the Global North + China, and the policy mix differs across countries
@gdp-center.bsky.social colleagues mapping the global landscape of climate-related industrial policies.
It finds green industrial policy is increasing fast, is dominated by the Global North + China, and the policy mix differs across countries
September 22, 2025 at 2:56 PM
NEW (and I would say groundbreaking) paper from
@gdp-center.bsky.social colleagues mapping the global landscape of climate-related industrial policies.
It finds green industrial policy is increasing fast, is dominated by the Global North + China, and the policy mix differs across countries
@gdp-center.bsky.social colleagues mapping the global landscape of climate-related industrial policies.
It finds green industrial policy is increasing fast, is dominated by the Global North + China, and the policy mix differs across countries
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
I'm curious about whether this arbitrage is extending the "insurability" of areas that would otherwise be uninsurable due to increased risk from climate change etc. A convoluted kind of positive externality from finance? 🤔
August 19, 2025 at 6:41 AM
I'm curious about whether this arbitrage is extending the "insurability" of areas that would otherwise be uninsurable due to increased risk from climate change etc. A convoluted kind of positive externality from finance? 🤔
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
Deutsche is Going There, noting the lack of a big USD rally on the latest tariffs shock
March 4, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Deutsche is Going There, noting the lack of a big USD rally on the latest tariffs shock
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
This is why the Chibber et al. anti-woke/anti-PMC stuff is not just politically foolish but irremidiably wrong-headed. They read the result of a management-labour conflict in the tech sector as if it were an organic outgrowth of the universities where *they* work, and the bosses' position...
This to me is one of the central stories about current US politics. The tech barons who decisively threw their support behind Trump wanted commercial benefits, of course; but even more, they wanted to discipline their own employees. That’s the real content of all the anti-DEI stuff.
February 25, 2025 at 2:45 PM
This is why the Chibber et al. anti-woke/anti-PMC stuff is not just politically foolish but irremidiably wrong-headed. They read the result of a management-labour conflict in the tech sector as if it were an organic outgrowth of the universities where *they* work, and the bosses' position...
Thanks for the thread, Mark. Where are the slides from, if you don’t mind?
February 26, 2025 at 3:07 AM
Thanks for the thread, Mark. Where are the slides from, if you don’t mind?
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
Thanks so much, Guntram. I'm glad you found the piece helpful.
I’d caution against cases where we back a single company, and, if that fails, draw the conclusion that industrial policy as a whole doesn’t work.
I'm afraid the issue requires more contemplation. So a thread on your question.
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I’d caution against cases where we back a single company, and, if that fails, draw the conclusion that industrial policy as a whole doesn’t work.
I'm afraid the issue requires more contemplation. So a thread on your question.
1/
Quite liked the rather gloomy paper on the second China shock for Germany by @sandertordoir.bsky.social & Brad Setser. Just one doubt: why so much belief in industrial policy? Looking back at last 5 years, I see that it mostly failed - think Northvolt or Intel. Why optimistic on effectiveness now?
January 23, 2025 at 7:12 AM
Thanks so much, Guntram. I'm glad you found the piece helpful.
I’d caution against cases where we back a single company, and, if that fails, draw the conclusion that industrial policy as a whole doesn’t work.
I'm afraid the issue requires more contemplation. So a thread on your question.
1/
I’d caution against cases where we back a single company, and, if that fails, draw the conclusion that industrial policy as a whole doesn’t work.
I'm afraid the issue requires more contemplation. So a thread on your question.
1/
Reposted by blai.bsky.social
A whole lot of things worth reading in Adam Hanieh’s new book, but this point near the end — that fossil capital’s power is a manifestation of underlying dynamics of capital accumulation rather than a cause in itself of failures to end fossil fuels — seems pretty vital to me.
December 8, 2024 at 9:04 AM
A whole lot of things worth reading in Adam Hanieh’s new book, but this point near the end — that fossil capital’s power is a manifestation of underlying dynamics of capital accumulation rather than a cause in itself of failures to end fossil fuels — seems pretty vital to me.