Karl Whelan
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karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan
@karlwhelan.bsky.social
1.9K followers 660 following 170 posts

Professor of Economics, University College Dublin. www.karlwhelan.com has research, teaching materials, stuff on the ECB and even a few old blog posts. Remember them? Currently doing research on betting and prediction markets and some macro things. .. more

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karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Nov 20
You can find out more about me at karlwhelan.com

My research is at
karlwhelan.com/blog/?page_i...

Teaching materials on macroeconomics and money and banking at
karlwhelan.com/blog/?page_i...

My work on ECB monetary policy for the European Parliament is at
karlwhelan.com/blog/?page_i...
Karl Whelan | Economist, University College Dublin
karlwhelan.com

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · 16h
Well, the good news for you is that you get to live in a country that works the way you want it to. But perhaps you can understand why people who want to see important and widely-beneficial infrastructure projects get done are frustrated with that system.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · 16h
It's 20 people versus the biggest infrastructure project in the country. Yes, I'm comfortable with that.

Other parts of the world manage to get things built while maintaning democracy. There are clearly many better and faster ways to build infrastructure without endless JRs.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · 17h
Or perhaps a legal system so complex that all those officials, consultants and planners can't manage to meet every single box ticking requirement.

Either way, claims that "this is democracy" are undermined by it being clear the vast majority of people just want to get on with projects like this.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · 17h
Bye bye!

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · 20h
Can't rely on hope any more. Those grown-ups have a long track record of taking forever to reach decisions and rescinding major projects completely, putting them back to square one.

The government should pass legislation saying the Metro project as passed through planning is legal & not reviewable.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · 20h
Whatever the benefits of these reviews, it's not about democracy. There is a huge democratic mandate for this project.

Every system has tradeoffs. If there's a technical error in the planning process, so be it. It's been debated enough.

Time to actually get things done.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · 21h
Supporters of Ireland's planning system say it is wonderfully democratic. But here is a major project supported by repeated democratically-elected governments and put through a rigorous planning process (including plenty of public input) being stopped by 20 people. That's not democracy. It's chaos.
Dublin’s €10 billion MetroLink to face legal challenge from group of 20 Ranelagh residents
Judicial review could delay planned 18.8km line running from Swords to Dublin Airport and through city centre
www.irishtimes.com

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Oct 4
5 radical things to do about housing, none of which would get a single house built. Comical.

www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
Lorcan Sirr: The five things Ireland must do to help fix housing
Introduce a residency requirement, change the legal definition of ‘rent’ and start counting bed spaces
www.irishtimes.com

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Oct 3
Now it's being framed as "saving jobs". The country is at full employment. Letting restaurants earn bigger profits won't create a single new job - if they more hire people, they will just take them from elsewhere. And the measure is hugely expensive. An awful policy. And I suspect Paschal knows it.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Oct 3
Ireland's VAT cut for hospitality business is a great example of how politics and lobbying triumphs over economics. Never something anyone considered before Covid, but once they saw it could be done, the restaurant sector fought like hell to get it brought back.

www.irishtimes.com/politics/202...
Paschal Donohoe confirms no personal tax changes to be made in budget
Minister for Finance says focus will be on tax measures that keep jobs in the country and enhance Ireland’s competitiveness
www.irishtimes.com

Reposted by Karl Whelan

bellmanequation.bsky.social
Noah Williams @bellmanequation.bsky.social · Sep 25
Routine for every class now:
- sign out previous person who used the system
- sign in to AV system computer
- verify sign-in with authenticator on phone
- wait for phone face ID to recognize
- wait for AV system computer to load
- kill Microsoft Teams auto-launch
- sign in to course system web page

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Sep 17
"The appointment is expected to be well received internally at the IMF"

Funny.
jsphctrl.ft.com Joseph Cotterill @jsphctrl.ft.com · Sep 17
Being a co-founder of a global macro fund with no less a personage than Stephen Miran gets you in the door to be deputy managing director of the IMF these days I see. www.ft.com/content/1209...
Scott Bessent’s chief of staff set to move to IMF
Dan Katz expected to become second to fund chief Kristalina Georgieva
www.ft.com

Reposted by Karl Whelan

jsphctrl.ft.com
Joseph Cotterill @jsphctrl.ft.com · Sep 17
Being a co-founder of a global macro fund with no less a personage than Stephen Miran gets you in the door to be deputy managing director of the IMF these days I see. www.ft.com/content/1209...
Scott Bessent’s chief of staff set to move to IMF
Dan Katz expected to become second to fund chief Kristalina Georgieva
www.ft.com

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Sep 15
I bet the Bank is super careful about its budget for tea and biscuits because "public money dear boy ..." but somehow they think it's fine to implement their main policy in a way that is unnecessarily expensive for the taxpayer.

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Simon Wren‐Lewis, Jonathan Hopkin

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Sep 15
The real policy issue here is left to the final sentence. There is no monetary policy rationale to pay interest on all reserves to banks. Tiering works perfectly well. Whatever the rationale for their current approach is, it's not about the need to set short-term market rates appropriately.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Sep 15
Yep. I'm well aware he was a terrible guy. Deleted the post to stop this kind of nonsense being in my messages.

Reposted by Karl Whelan, Jonathan Hopkin, John Hogan

danielagabor.bsky.social
Daniela Gabor @danielagabor.bsky.social · Sep 15
it's Monday, another day when Andrew Bailey, the governor of the Bank of England, enjoys fiscal powers nobody gave him, and uses them against the government

www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Bank of England urged to slow bond-selling plan to help cut record UK borrowing costs
Ex-MPC members say ‘quantitative tightening’ should be scaled back or halted entirely, saving the Treasury up to £10bn a year
www.theguardian.com

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Sep 12
One person's logical fallacies and invalid arguments are another person's "common sense". I didn't like the guy at all. I just thought the reaction to Ezra's piece wasn't fully justified.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Sep 12
Yep. I wasn't a fan.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Sep 12
These ideas go way beyond one guy and those young minds are exposed to them everywhere. Ezra's point - "Liberalism could use more of his moxie and fearlessness" - is these ideas need to be challanged with the same energy with which they are being promoted.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Sep 11
I will also point out that I don’t post much here but I made the Hitler analogy in response to an article by Simon Jenkins praising Trump. But because it was Trump not guys like Kirk.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Sep 11
Ok, but I didn't make the argument about Hitler, did I? Sorry I replied tbh. Too old for this shit.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Sep 11
He said lots of stuff that was obviously wrong but people who live in a bubble of self-feeding disinformation usually really belive the nonsense they spout is correct. I suspect he rarely believed he was outright lying. And while he added to the division, he was more a symptom than a cause.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Sep 11
Congratulations on the Godwin's law in one step contribution. This guy literally was not Hitler.

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Sep 9
I gave up after writing this and then seeing the exact same discussion a year later. I'm out of the UK fiscal commentary business.

karlwhelan.com/blog/?p=2132
On the UK’s Fiscal Black Hole | Karl Whelan
karlwhelan.com

karlwhelan.bsky.social
Karl Whelan @karlwhelan.bsky.social · Sep 9
When it’s annual black hole season, you’ve gotta do the black hole thing. It’s a modern British cultural tradition.