@ironeconomist.bsky.social
I’m going to become the joker
November 26, 2025 at 1:01 PM
I’m going to become the joker
Here is how I am feeling about the budget on budget eve.
November 25, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Here is how I am feeling about the budget on budget eve.
Reposted
Ultimately the minimum wage is a brilliant tool, but it can’t compensate for “we haven’t built any housing”, “we have cut cash transfers to the bone” and “all the third spaces have been cut to pay for social care”.
The minimum wage is not a cure all — we’re asking too much of business
Politicians spend too much time uttering cheap rhetoric about cheap labour
www.ft.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Ultimately the minimum wage is a brilliant tool, but it can’t compensate for “we haven’t built any housing”, “we have cut cash transfers to the bone” and “all the third spaces have been cut to pay for social care”.
Reposted
this is because people want to turn their cities into museums of their own past. they don't want the future. they want to turn into dust reflecting on how awesome they used to be
It’s really incredible how we decided that cities should no longer be physically shaped by the industries that carry them. I wrote this about the tech industry’s lack of a built legacy in Manhattan over a decade ago, but it could be written 10x over in the Bay Area newyorkyimby.com/2014/12/how-...
How New York City is Robbing Itself of the Tech Industry's Built Legacy - New York YIMBY
With strict limits on growth in Midtown South and on the Brooklyn waterfront, tech giants are leaving little architecture behind for future generations.
newyorkyimby.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:00 AM
this is because people want to turn their cities into museums of their own past. they don't want the future. they want to turn into dust reflecting on how awesome they used to be
Wake up, check the ft.com over breakfast, and they are leading with a story about people shorting the £. So seems like its going great for reeves then. www.ft.com/content/fefd...
Currency traders bet against sterling ahead of Budget
Investors buy option protection on fears Rachel Reeves’ tax-raising measures could hurt growth
www.ft.com
November 25, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Wake up, check the ft.com over breakfast, and they are leading with a story about people shorting the £. So seems like its going great for reeves then. www.ft.com/content/fefd...
Not since the Corn Laws have we had a government this committed to keeping food prices high.
UK supermarkets set to be hit by higher business rates after Treasury U-turn
Chancellor expected to use Budget to include large retail premises in the top band of the property-based levy
www.ft.com
November 24, 2025 at 11:31 PM
Not since the Corn Laws have we had a government this committed to keeping food prices high.
Reposted
A source close to Rachel Reeves commented: “People are going to love this budget. She’s really done it this time and she will definitely, positively, not have to do another one like this.”
A market analyst said: “Hmmmmmmmmmmm.” 2/2
A market analyst said: “Hmmmmmmmmmmm.” 2/2
November 23, 2025 at 11:18 PM
A source close to Rachel Reeves commented: “People are going to love this budget. She’s really done it this time and she will definitely, positively, not have to do another one like this.”
A market analyst said: “Hmmmmmmmmmmm.” 2/2
A market analyst said: “Hmmmmmmmmmmm.” 2/2
Guys guys guys I regret to inform you the absolutely mental breastfeeding people are At It Again. www.medela.com/en-us/lactat...
Our Commitment to Breastfeeding
We are fully committed to the International Code and resolutely support mothers, babies and families along their breastfeeding journey.
www.medela.com
November 23, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Guys guys guys I regret to inform you the absolutely mental breastfeeding people are At It Again. www.medela.com/en-us/lactat...
It’s great though. A year round sport. We then get a month of recriminations, then it’s Christmas and then we get to start forecasting the spring statement changes that will be needed when growth and spending once again disappoint the forecasts.
All the news is people shouting about a budget which has been going on for approximately 45 years and still hasn’t been delivered
November 23, 2025 at 9:46 AM
It’s great though. A year round sport. We then get a month of recriminations, then it’s Christmas and then we get to start forecasting the spring statement changes that will be needed when growth and spending once again disappoint the forecasts.
Well after my PhD I did a bunch of research for a defence firm but then in my late twenties was having my first child and I needed a house in London so went into hedge funds.
November 23, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Well after my PhD I did a bunch of research for a defence firm but then in my late twenties was having my first child and I needed a house in London so went into hedge funds.
I do get unreasonably angry about this because it’s now been widely known that ‘the us has among the worst maternal mortality in the developed world’ is false definitively for a decade, and pretty much everyone competent remotely interested in this topic knows it, and yet journos just don’t care.
What is most enraging to me is that this guardian article repeats the lie that US maternal mortality is among the worst in the developed world. This is straightforwardly untrue and known to be a result of measurement differences.
November 22, 2025 at 4:29 PM
I do get unreasonably angry about this because it’s now been widely known that ‘the us has among the worst maternal mortality in the developed world’ is false definitively for a decade, and pretty much everyone competent remotely interested in this topic knows it, and yet journos just don’t care.
What is most enraging to me is that this guardian article repeats the lie that US maternal mortality is among the worst in the developed world. This is straightforwardly untrue and known to be a result of measurement differences.
November 22, 2025 at 4:24 PM
What is most enraging to me is that this guardian article repeats the lie that US maternal mortality is among the worst in the developed world. This is straightforwardly untrue and known to be a result of measurement differences.
It takes a photon created in the center of the sun about 1000 years to reach the edge of the sun and then just 7 minutes to reach earth.
Man, everything is so bleak, anyone got a fun fact or little bit of trivia they want to share
November 22, 2025 at 3:44 PM
It takes a photon created in the center of the sun about 1000 years to reach the edge of the sun and then just 7 minutes to reach earth.
Britians most eminent urban economist absolutely nailing it here.
The housing crisis has been brewing for a long time, according to Professor Paul Cheshire 👇
November 22, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Britians most eminent urban economist absolutely nailing it here.
In 2004 interest rates were broadly similar to now so I really don’t understand people who think we can’t build enough to get price to income ratios back to 2005 levels. Obviously we can! And on the right hand chart many places are close to switching to dark blue at 12+ 😱😱😱
November 22, 2025 at 11:40 AM
In 2004 interest rates were broadly similar to now so I really don’t understand people who think we can’t build enough to get price to income ratios back to 2005 levels. Obviously we can! And on the right hand chart many places are close to switching to dark blue at 12+ 😱😱😱
Woke up this morning with big plans but then a WhatsApp chat lured me into heritability discourse and then @leftoutside.bsky.social tagged me into housing discourse and now I might aswell clear my schedule. 🤣
November 22, 2025 at 11:34 AM
Woke up this morning with big plans but then a WhatsApp chat lured me into heritability discourse and then @leftoutside.bsky.social tagged me into housing discourse and now I might aswell clear my schedule. 🤣
This is my favourite ‘it’s bad everywhere’ chart from the ONS. They did for each statistical area house price/earnings. In 1997 hardly anywhere was over 5, now all the most populous areas are over 12.
Figure three look at the scale 😱😱😱 www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopula...
November 22, 2025 at 11:32 AM
This is my favourite ‘it’s bad everywhere’ chart from the ONS. They did for each statistical area house price/earnings. In 1997 hardly anywhere was over 5, now all the most populous areas are over 12.
I think this is a very important point in yimby discourse: people say they don’t like densification but in London at least the densification is happening anyway. It happens via house shares, kids living in parents houses forever etc. you get the densification with or without more housing!
A long time ago Ian Mulherin made this chart and this is densification. That part is already happening! Look at the line for London!
November 22, 2025 at 11:04 AM
I think this is a very important point in yimby discourse: people say they don’t like densification but in London at least the densification is happening anyway. It happens via house shares, kids living in parents houses forever etc. you get the densification with or without more housing!
Reposted
Very good by @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk - as per.
Government by Breakage
What a failed appliance promotion shows us about our state
www.joxleywrites.jmoxley.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 7:50 AM
Very good by @joxley.jmoxley.co.uk - as per.
Reposted
England has 25.8 million homes and 4,632 were demolished in the last year, at which rate the average existing home will need to last for around five and a half thousand years.
November 21, 2025 at 2:30 PM
England has 25.8 million homes and 4,632 were demolished in the last year, at which rate the average existing home will need to last for around five and a half thousand years.
So many British regulators basically take the position that looks like:
‘It’s so important this work gets done, sure we are not doing the work, but what that means you have to give us more money and then we might do the work; and the work we are not doing is important honest’.
‘It’s so important this work gets done, sure we are not doing the work, but what that means you have to give us more money and then we might do the work; and the work we are not doing is important honest’.
"I would make those people stand in front of the tower. I would make them stand and look at it"
Building Safety Regulator chair, Andy Roe, asked to respond to commentators who call for the regulator to be axed:
Building Safety Regulator chair, Andy Roe, asked to respond to commentators who call for the regulator to be axed:
November 21, 2025 at 11:55 AM
So many British regulators basically take the position that looks like:
‘It’s so important this work gets done, sure we are not doing the work, but what that means you have to give us more money and then we might do the work; and the work we are not doing is important honest’.
‘It’s so important this work gets done, sure we are not doing the work, but what that means you have to give us more money and then we might do the work; and the work we are not doing is important honest’.
It’s important for everyone to realise that over the last 12 months borrowing outpaced the OBR forecast even though growth has surprised to the upside quite substantially relative to OBR forecasts. Their spending forecasts are routinely too optimistic imo.
November 21, 2025 at 7:43 AM
It’s important for everyone to realise that over the last 12 months borrowing outpaced the OBR forecast even though growth has surprised to the upside quite substantially relative to OBR forecasts. Their spending forecasts are routinely too optimistic imo.
This is one of my favourite bits on here: the Uk actually taxes its top decile a lot and under taxes the middle, giving us Europes most progressive taxation system. European taxes for the top decile and then they get frozen out of the benefits system because the middle do not pay their share.
November 21, 2025 at 7:34 AM
This is one of my favourite bits on here: the Uk actually taxes its top decile a lot and under taxes the middle, giving us Europes most progressive taxation system. European taxes for the top decile and then they get frozen out of the benefits system because the middle do not pay their share.
It is actually somewhat incredible that Labour is doing this ten days before what will be labours most important fiscal event of this parliament.
November 17, 2025 at 9:09 AM
It is actually somewhat incredible that Labour is doing this ten days before what will be labours most important fiscal event of this parliament.