David Woodruff
@dmwoodruff.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, LSE. CPE, central banks, monetary history, intellectual history of social science, Karl Polanyi, Soviet economic history, complaining about neoliberalism, etc. He/him.
Reposted by David Woodruff
The task is not to make anti-fascism consistent with the financial system, but to make the financial system consistent with anti-fascism.
Bloomberg taking a shot across the bow of @zackpolanski.bsky.social — but should we listen to an economist (and Times columnist btw) whose main concern regarding Reform is its fiscal policy? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
November 25, 2025 at 7:43 AM
The task is not to make anti-fascism consistent with the financial system, but to make the financial system consistent with anti-fascism.
Reposted by David Woodruff
"[I]f history were to repeat itself and we were to return to the so-called "normalcy" of the 1920's—then it is certain that even though we shall have conquered our enemies on the battlefields abroad, we shall have yielded to the spirit of Fascism here at home."
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944
November 25, 2025 at 10:59 AM
"[I]f history were to repeat itself and we were to return to the so-called "normalcy" of the 1920's—then it is certain that even though we shall have conquered our enemies on the battlefields abroad, we shall have yielded to the spirit of Fascism here at home."
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944
Reposted by David Woodruff
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
If Karl Polanyi were around today he would sound not like Blue Labour but like this.
The task is not to make anti-fascism consistent with the financial system, but to make the financial system consistent with anti-fascism.
Bloomberg taking a shot across the bow of @zackpolanski.bsky.social — but should we listen to an economist (and Times columnist btw) whose main concern regarding Reform is its fiscal policy? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
November 25, 2025 at 9:35 AM
If Karl Polanyi were around today he would sound not like Blue Labour but like this.
The task is not to make anti-fascism consistent with the financial system, but to make the financial system consistent with anti-fascism.
Bloomberg taking a shot across the bow of @zackpolanski.bsky.social — but should we listen to an economist (and Times columnist btw) whose main concern regarding Reform is its fiscal policy? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
November 25, 2025 at 7:43 AM
The task is not to make anti-fascism consistent with the financial system, but to make the financial system consistent with anti-fascism.
Bloomberg taking a shot across the bow of @zackpolanski.bsky.social — but should we listen to an economist (and Times columnist btw) whose main concern regarding Reform is its fiscal policy? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
November 25, 2025 at 6:10 AM
Bloomberg taking a shot across the bow of @zackpolanski.bsky.social — but should we listen to an economist (and Times columnist btw) whose main concern regarding Reform is its fiscal policy? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Despite planning to continue paying the banks 3 x more in interest on reserves than they pay in corporate and related taxes, Reeves is reduced to begging the banks for PR help to sell her budget. on.ft.com/4iDbqqB
November 24, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Despite planning to continue paying the banks 3 x more in interest on reserves than they pay in corporate and related taxes, Reeves is reduced to begging the banks for PR help to sell her budget. on.ft.com/4iDbqqB
My department has just announced a tenure track position for a scholar in any field of political science except for political theory (and IR, which is in a different department at LSE). For details, please see here: jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
Assistant Professor in Political Science
Assistant Professor in Political Science,
,
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span>LSE is committed to building a diverse, equitable and truly inclusive university</span></em></p>
<p style="text-ali...
jobs.lse.ac.uk
November 24, 2025 at 9:09 PM
My department has just announced a tenure track position for a scholar in any field of political science except for political theory (and IR, which is in a different department at LSE). For details, please see here: jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
In case you were wondering, the bond market consists of 11 white men and 1 Asian woman.
www.ft.com/content/e01f...
www.ft.com/content/e01f...
What big bond investors want from the UK Budget
Gilt market players call on government to cut spending and steer clear of inflationary tax rises
www.ft.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:19 PM
In case you were wondering, the bond market consists of 11 white men and 1 Asian woman.
www.ft.com/content/e01f...
www.ft.com/content/e01f...
It's staggering to me that apparently there's no significant constituency within Labour to address bank taxation; on the left, only @zackpolanski.bsky.social has been making noise about this.
Over the last 11 financial years, the UK Treasury has spent more on paying interest to the banking sector on their reserves than it has taken in from them in corporate and sector-specific taxes. In 2024-25, it paid over 3 times as much for interest on reserves as it received from taxes on banks.
November 23, 2025 at 10:12 AM
It's staggering to me that apparently there's no significant constituency within Labour to address bank taxation; on the left, only @zackpolanski.bsky.social has been making noise about this.
An LLM trained on chapter 12 of Keynes’ General Theory could write most of the markets commentary you’ll ever encounter. {\very mild hyperbole}. For instance: on.ft.com/44pGR1k
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes
www.marxists.org
November 22, 2025 at 6:45 AM
An LLM trained on chapter 12 of Keynes’ General Theory could write most of the markets commentary you’ll ever encounter. {\very mild hyperbole}. For instance: on.ft.com/44pGR1k
I was wrong. It’s not just tabloids that with ‘tax raid’ incessantly affirm the presumptive legitimacy of current wealth, income, and tax. The FT’s AI got me 11 recent uses and concluded the phrase was becoming ‘established FT terminology’.
The British phrase ’tax raid’ condenses a whole indoctrination into a tabloid headline:
an instruction not to seek extortion/theft in low wages or high prices but in tax, to understand wealth & income as the innocent, inviolable fruit of diligence, to sanctify the market’s ‘mute compulsion’. Grim!
an instruction not to seek extortion/theft in low wages or high prices but in tax, to understand wealth & income as the innocent, inviolable fruit of diligence, to sanctify the market’s ‘mute compulsion’. Grim!
November 22, 2025 at 6:37 AM
I was wrong. It’s not just tabloids that with ‘tax raid’ incessantly affirm the presumptive legitimacy of current wealth, income, and tax. The FT’s AI got me 11 recent uses and concluded the phrase was becoming ‘established FT terminology’.
Reposted by David Woodruff
Today on #TransDayOfRemembrance we remember our trans siblings who have lost their lives to transphobia, hatred & violence…🧵
Today, on Transgender Day of Remembrance, we remember the transgender lives lost to violence.
The Green Party stands shoulder to shoulder with transgender people in the face of increasing transphobic rhetoric in our society and politics.
The Green Party stands shoulder to shoulder with transgender people in the face of increasing transphobic rhetoric in our society and politics.
November 20, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Today on #TransDayOfRemembrance we remember our trans siblings who have lost their lives to transphobia, hatred & violence…🧵
Reposted by David Woodruff
I don't use the word lightly, but this is really just evil isn't it. "Your identity makes us uncomfortable so be gone from public spaces." Fuck off.
I mean come on: we'll ask but reserve right to exclude you on the basis of how you look. Oh, and if you try to use your birth sex specific facilities we'll kick you out of those as well.
Get fucked.
Get fucked.
November 20, 2025 at 12:08 AM
I don't use the word lightly, but this is really just evil isn't it. "Your identity makes us uncomfortable so be gone from public spaces." Fuck off.
Reposted by David Woodruff
At least it's honest, right? Intrusive questioning of women who don't conform to norms about how they should look, and women then being banned if they tell their inquisitor to mind his own sodding business, has always been the logical end point for the patriarchal project that is TERFdom.
November 20, 2025 at 6:43 AM
At least it's honest, right? Intrusive questioning of women who don't conform to norms about how they should look, and women then being banned if they tell their inquisitor to mind his own sodding business, has always been the logical end point for the patriarchal project that is TERFdom.
Reposted by David Woodruff
Ok Harvard, your turn
Breaking News: Larry Summers will step down from OpenAI’s board, he said, after the release of emails indicating a close relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Larry Summers Resigns From OpenAI’s Board
Mr. Summers’ departure from the artificial intelligence company’s board followed revelations of his communications with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
nyti.ms
November 19, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Ok Harvard, your turn
Reposted by David Woodruff
This Transgender Awareness Week, we come together to celebrate the resilience and bravery of the transgender community in the face of relentless attacks.
My message to you is simple:
I am with you. I love you. I will never stop fighting for you.
My message to you is simple:
I am with you. I love you. I will never stop fighting for you.
November 18, 2025 at 10:17 PM
This Transgender Awareness Week, we come together to celebrate the resilience and bravery of the transgender community in the face of relentless attacks.
My message to you is simple:
I am with you. I love you. I will never stop fighting for you.
My message to you is simple:
I am with you. I love you. I will never stop fighting for you.
Reposted by David Woodruff
it is almost as if accommodating and conceding to far right ideas legitimizes them and signals to voters that the far right is a legitimate choice for governance
The Danish Social Democrats are currently on course for their worst election result since at least the Second World War, despite their brand of far-right accommodationism being touted as a blueprint for other centre-left parties.
Oh
November 18, 2025 at 2:24 PM
it is almost as if accommodating and conceding to far right ideas legitimizes them and signals to voters that the far right is a legitimate choice for governance
Reposted by David Woodruff
Always an air of surreality around fiscal discussions when this stuff isn’t on the table.
Over the last 11 financial years, the UK Treasury has spent more on paying interest to the banking sector on their reserves than it has taken in from them in corporate and sector-specific taxes. In 2024-25, it paid over 3 times as much for interest on reserves as it received from taxes on banks.
November 14, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Always an air of surreality around fiscal discussions when this stuff isn’t on the table.
Always an air of surreality around fiscal discussions when this stuff isn’t on the table.
Over the last 11 financial years, the UK Treasury has spent more on paying interest to the banking sector on their reserves than it has taken in from them in corporate and sector-specific taxes. In 2024-25, it paid over 3 times as much for interest on reserves as it received from taxes on banks.
November 14, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Always an air of surreality around fiscal discussions when this stuff isn’t on the table.
Reposted by David Woodruff
Which is why I think the current denigration of humanities and non-STEM fields is bonkers. From where do ideas like "causality" derive? They *do not* organically emerge from "the data."
November 13, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Which is why I think the current denigration of humanities and non-STEM fields is bonkers. From where do ideas like "causality" derive? They *do not* organically emerge from "the data."
Reposted by David Woodruff
Over the last 11 financial years, the UK Treasury has spent more on paying interest to the banking sector on their reserves than it has taken in from them in corporate and sector-specific taxes. In 2024-25, it paid over 3 times as much for interest on reserves as it received from taxes on banks.
November 12, 2025 at 9:30 AM
Over the last 11 financial years, the UK Treasury has spent more on paying interest to the banking sector on their reserves than it has taken in from them in corporate and sector-specific taxes. In 2024-25, it paid over 3 times as much for interest on reserves as it received from taxes on banks.
TIL that employee contributions to UK national insurance are ludicrously regressive: rate goes down from 8% to 2% on income > £50,270. And it's getting even worse: threshold is infrequently updated & would be nearly £10000 higher if adjusted for post-Covid inflation.
November 12, 2025 at 3:09 PM
TIL that employee contributions to UK national insurance are ludicrously regressive: rate goes down from 8% to 2% on income > £50,270. And it's getting even worse: threshold is infrequently updated & would be nearly £10000 higher if adjusted for post-Covid inflation.
BoE rolls out new defence of QE-QT, stressing low costs for long-maturity debt in QE decade. But it's drawing arbitrary boundaries: analysis (APF Q3 Rept) fails to note that BoE conditioned QE on HMT accepting gilt issue limits, part of causal chain to catastrophic austerity. on.ft.com/3JY23EM
Bank of England’s Andrew Bailey says QE will offset its costs in long term
Bank governor responds to investors and politicians after value of its holdings of UK government bonds fell
on.ft.com
November 12, 2025 at 2:31 PM
BoE rolls out new defence of QE-QT, stressing low costs for long-maturity debt in QE decade. But it's drawing arbitrary boundaries: analysis (APF Q3 Rept) fails to note that BoE conditioned QE on HMT accepting gilt issue limits, part of causal chain to catastrophic austerity. on.ft.com/3JY23EM