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Without data centers, GDP growth was 0.1% in the first half of 2025, Harvard economist says | Fortune

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David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 1d

Virtual growth (or a bubble set to burst) fortune.com/2025/10/07/d...

Is a U.S. without data centers a country without GDP growth?

fortune.com

David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 3d

“living his best life” on holiday not doing research - a sobering message here for all academics (including the vast majority without Nobel prizes)
www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Nobel committee unable to reach prize winner who is ‘living his best life’ hiking off grid

Fred Ramsdell was among those honoured with a 2025 Nobel Prize in Medicine but might not know because he is somewhere in Idaho and uncontactable

‘Sweat equity’: homebuyers turn builders for £10k off their mortgage

David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 6d

Mixed feelings about this scheme: it creates opportunity to learn new skills and gain a discount on a house (cooperative housebuilding is the future) yet it also looks like a way to secure cheap labour (the going rate for a labourer is probably > £20 per hour) www.theguardian.com/money/2025/o...

In exchange for 500 hours of work, the schemes can provide more than just a route to home ownership

Efficient Inefficiency: Organisational challenges of realising economic gains from AI

Reposted by David Spencer

Stuart Mills @stuartmills.bsky.social · 8d

Simon called it the "Information Fallacy." We call it "efficient inefficiency"--more efficiently doing things which aren't worth doing:

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Organisations are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI). Where AI performs productive tasks more efficiently than humans, organisations will…

www.sciencedirect.com

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David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 11d

A notion of a hierarchy of courses fits with a functional view of education (one in step with human capital theory) www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Labour to bring back maintenance grants for students on ‘priority’ courses

Education secretary says means-tested grants for ‘those who need them most’ will be funded by new international student levy

‘Moral hazard’ warning after £1.5bn government loan guarantee for JLR

David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 11d

I guess it is equally morally hazardous to not intervene to protect jobs in the wider car sector www.ft.com/content/27e5...

Carmaker receives official backing after cyber attack that has halted production

www.ft.com

David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 12d

An influence on me growing up in Leeds and a poem that still resonates www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v0...

Tony Harrison · Poem: ‘V.’

www.lrb.co.uk

David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 12d

Tony Harrison RIP. He never forgot his roots in Leeds and wrote with great passion and force www.theguardian.com/books/2013/f...

Tony Harrison's poem V is a timeless portrayal of working-class aspiration

Anthony Clavane: V reflects the social divisions that seem to have hardened 25 years after the poem's Channel 4 appearance caused outrage

Government mulls financial support for JLR supply chain firms

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David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 15d

the more you say it, the more likely it will happen

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David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 15d

Not yet a furlough scheme but evidence of the active role that the state can and must play in managing shocks www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Fears are growing that some of the car maker's suppliers could go bust without support.

Northern Powerhouse Rail plans delayed again

David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 16d

Can we please retire the term Northern Powerhouse? It was and is largely meaningless www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The BBC understands the prime minister will now not announce plans for a rail link between Manchester and Liverpool at the Labour Party conference.

UK forecast to have highest inflation in G7 this year by OECD

David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 17d

The UK has always been more inflation-prone than other countries - partly a product of its industrial relations system and partly an effect of its exposure to import inflation. Getting to grips with inflation entails reform beyond monetary policy www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

The influential policy group lifts its forecast for UK inflation, saying it will be 3.5% in 2025.

UK borrowing hits five-year high for August at £18bn

David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 21d

To stress a point often missed, govt borrowing acts to offset gaps in private spending and offers a support to growth - worry less about it than an economy that systematically fails to sustain higher private sector investment www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Worsening public finances mean Rachel Reeves will almost certainly announce tax rises in November budget

Furloughing and COVID-19: assessing regulatory reform of the state

David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 23d

On the case for a furlough scheme post-pandemic, see below @cjres.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/cjres/articl...

Abstract. This article assesses regulatory reform of the state in the context of the move to furloughing in the UK. It establishes that furloughing was a s

academic.oup.com

David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 23d

The UK labour market is "too flexible" to cope with disruption like a cyber attack and it would be better if it had a furlough scheme to protect jobs and livelihoods www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

JLR supply chain staff told to apply for universal credit, union says

Staff are being laid off with

AI could boost UK economy by 10% in 5 years, says Microsoft boss

David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 23d

“could” and probably won’t if the aversion to business investment in the UK economy remains www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Boss Satya Nadella said it was the biggest investment the firm had made outside of the US.

UK labour market cools as pay growth slows and job losses rise

David Spencer @davidaspencer.bsky.social · 24d

Forget the rise of the robots, the labour market is cooling on the back of increased uncertainty and continued weak investment www.theguardian.com/business/202...

ONS figures come as the government is under pressure to revive Britain’s economy before the budget