Peter Holmes

@pholmes8.bsky.social

4.5K followers 1.8K following 460 posts

Semi-retired trade economist, Emeritus @ UKTPO Sussex. Posts about Brexit, Freeports, WTO and anything else that catches my fancy. Migrating across from other place. Tweeted as @pholmes8. Blogs with others at https://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/uktpo/blog/ .. more

Videos

Economics 44%

Political science 25%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Sam @samdolan.bsky.social · 4h

just resting. The money. It was just resting in my account.

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Ian Rapley @irapley.bsky.social · 6h

Paying external consultants big numbers in order to cut costs

Peter Holmes @pholmes8.bsky.social · 6h

Big pay increases for top management for having worked so hard to repeat this mantra.

Reposted by Peter Holmes

jedi-shaman.bsky.social @jedi-shaman.bsky.social · 6h

Also interesting, I thought
Messages between SB (Steve Bannon?) and Bozo Johnson.

Reposted by Nandita Sharma, Peter Holmes, Alan Richardson , and 8 more Nandita Sharma, Peter Holmes, Alan Richardson, David R. Miller, Adrian Daub, Caroline T. Schroeder, Scott A. Imberman, Samantha Brennan, Georg Weizsäcker, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Jeannette Sutton

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 6h

CNN is reporting the real reason Trump is closing the Kennedy Centre for two years is not for renovation: “the Kennedy Center does not have a 2026/2027 season. There would not have been any programming to announce."

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Luca Migo ❌👑 @victinibcn.bsky.social · 8h

A new email from the Epstein Files reveals that Peter Thiel and Epstein were also meddling in Brexit. That would make a second foreign intrusion into the campaign along with Putin.

From: "jeffrey E." < jeevacation@gmail.com>
To: Peter Thiel
Subject: Re:
Date: Sun, 26 Jun 2016 11:13:31 +0000
retum to tribalism. counter to globalization.
amazing new alliances.
you and I both agreed zero interest rates
were too high, and as i said in your office, finding things on their way to collapse, was much easier than finding the next bargain
On Sun. Jun 26, 2016 at 7:04 AM. Peter Thiel
Of what?
wrote
From: jeffrey E. [mailto:jeevacation@gmail.com)
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2016 3:17 AM
To: Peter Thiel 4
Subiect:
brexit, just the beginning
please note

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 9h

When historians reflect on this regime, cruelty will be the word most often used to define it. www.mprnews.org/story/2026/0...

Deputy attorney general says administration will appeal order to release 5-year-old from ICE custody

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an interview that the Trump administration will appeal a federal judge’s decision to release a 5-year-old and his father from ICE custody in Texas.

www.mprnews.org

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Mark McGeoghegan @markmcgeoghegan.bsky.social · 9h

The PM's internal opponents will surely use the latest Mandelson revelations to emphasise his lack of political judgement in appointing Mandelson Ambassador to the US.

You'd think McSweeney's internal opponents, if they have a lick of sense, would start emphasising his own Mandelson relationship...

Reposted by Steve Peers, Peter Holmes, Mark Priestley , and 1 more Steve Peers, Peter Holmes, Mark Priestley, Steven H. Seggie

Jessica Elgot @jessicaelgot.bsky.social · 10h

Three parties - SNP, Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru - now asking for the police to investigate Mandelson.

Hard to recall a worse public scandal than a cabinet minister allegedly colluding with foreign bankers to share market sensitive info and encourage threats against Chancellor

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 11h

the mad thing is that when Mandelson went on the BBC earlier this month for a grand Sunday geopolitical interview, he knew that the FT knew about the Epstein payments to his husband, and that they were about to come out

Reposted by Peter Holmes

KOJAMF🤘🖤🤘 @kojamf.bsky.social · 16h

BLAKE AUSTIN
IAN AUSTIN
CALL: US Marshal’s office and request / demand Ian Austin’s IMMEDIATE release from the Sherburne County Jail in Minnesota: 612-664-5900

CALL IAN’S STATE REPS IN PA & MN, and demand his immediate release.

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Steve Peers, Peter Holmes , and 2 more Jonathan Portes, Steve Peers, Peter Holmes, Tom Griffin, Steven H. Seggie

Dan Neidle @danneidle.bsky.social · 17h

Who leaked this Number 10 discussion to Jeffrey Epstein? And are there consequences for the leaker?

It’s an internal discussion re. getting markets moving in the aftermath of the financial crisis. No doubt of great interest to Epstein and his financial market clients.

Reposted by Peter Holmes

David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 18h

As ever, the UK's deeply secretive approach to trade talks does them few favours with stakeholder frustration in particular preventing what should be a regular public engagement in Brussels. And thus does the Brexit circus roll-on unsatisfactorily.

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Ed Wilson @eddwilson.bsky.social · 18h

Both Peter Mandelson and Michelle Mone are on "leave of absence" from the Lords.

members.parliament.uk/members/lords

#R4Today

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Prem Sikka @premnsikka.bsky.social · 18h

Private equity owns lion’s share of children’s foster services in England, ‘bleeding the sector of money’.

Profits margins of 19%. Money extracted in interest payments, intragroup charges. Children suffer.

Ban profit-taking entities from foster services.

Private equity owns lion’s share of children’s foster ser...

Three London firms are now the biggest players in the provision of foster carers in England

observer.co.uk

Reposted by Steve Peers, Peter Holmes, Paul Goldstein , and 5 more Steve Peers, Peter Holmes, Paul Goldstein, Halvard Leira, Michael D. McDonald, Daniel Kuehn, Simon Lester, David Darmofal

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

TRUMP TODAY: There was an election in Texas? What?

TRUMP YESTERDAY:

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

Today is the day! To all Voters in Texas’ 9th State Senate District: GET OUT AND VOTE for a phenomenal Candidate, Leigh Wambsganss. She is a highly successful Entrepreneur, and an incredible supporter of our Movement to, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. My very good friend, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, needs a strong conservative Republican in SD-9 to KEEP TEXAS RED! The Radical Left Democrats are spending a fortune to beat a true MAGA Warrior, Leigh Wambsganss. You can win this Election for Leigh, who has my Complete and Total Endorsement. POLLS CLOSE AT 7 P.M. GET OUT AND VOTE FOR LEIGH WAMBSGANSS! Find your closest Polling Location here. Leigh will NEVER let Texas, or the USA, down! President DJT

Reposted by Richard S.J. Tol, Peter Holmes

Alan Lester @alanlester.bsky.social · 1d

It looks for all the world like “anti-global elite” Nigel Farage is obtaining huge donations by routing them from a “high risk” Kazakhstani / Iranian billionaire via a proxy company, flouting restrictions on foreign donations.

Reposted by Nandita Sharma, Richard S.J. Tol, Nicholas A. Christakis , and 10 more Nandita Sharma, Richard S.J. Tol, Nicholas A. Christakis, John McLaren, Andreas Ortmann, Elizabeth Stokoe, Peter Holmes, Anne Norton, Lee Jones, Nancy Langston, Ann Bartow, Magda Teter, David Darmofal

Governor Tim Walz @governorwalz.mn.gov · 2d

It should not take a court order to get a toddler out of a prison.

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Victoria Derbyshire @vicderbyshire.bsky.social · 2d

Donald Trump is mentioned hundreds of times in the latest batch of Epstein files. Among the new documents is a list compiled by the FBI last year of allegations made against Trump by callers to its national Threat Operation Center tip line.

Reposted by Peter Holmes

jedi-shaman.bsky.social @jedi-shaman.bsky.social · 2d

www.complex.com/life/a/backw...

Here's All The Drug Dealers Donald Trump Has Pardoned

President Donald Trump has pardoned several controversial...

www.complex.com

Reposted by Chad P. Bown, Peter Holmes

Simon Lester @simonlester.com · 2d

Krugman: "We don’t know what the US scene will look like a month from now, let alone in 2029, but if we have a non- Trump-like administration going forward, will we kind of go back to something like a rules-based system?"

Bown: "I think it makes too much sense not to."

Makes sense to me too.

Chad P. Bown @chadpbown.com · 2d

Huge thanks to @pkrugman.bsky.social for the invite to be on the show — really fun conversation on all things trade policy, tariffs, and global weirdness.

Also confirming for family record-keeping purposes: this is indeed my “talking to a Nobel Laureate” face.

Talking with Chad Bown

YouTube video by Paul Krugman

youtu.be

Reposted by Peter Holmes, W. Andy Knight, Timothy D. McBride

George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · 2d

Do you get it now?

Peter Holmes @pholmes8.bsky.social · 2d

'At the start of Donald Trump’s first term, he promised that he and his family would never do anything that might even be “perceived to be exploitive of office of the Presidency.”
By contrast, his second term looks rapacious.'
www.newyorker.com/news/a-repor...

Trump’s Profiteering Hits $4 Billion

In August, I reported that the President and his family had made $3.4 billion by leveraging his position. After his first year back in office, the number has ballooned.

www.newyorker.com

Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 2d

New from me: It is not just that the US is experiencing democratic backsliding. Authoritarianism has emerged more quickly than in other benchmark countries.

This graph from John Burn-Murdoch sums it up. 🧵
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/autocracy-...

graph tracking democratic backsliding is occuring more quickly in the US than elsewhere.

Reposted by Patrick Dunleavy, Steve Peers, Leigh Sparks , and 10 more Patrick Dunleavy, Steve Peers, Leigh Sparks, Chris Hanretty, Peter Holmes, Michelle Everson, Robert C. Richards, Tom Griffin, Molly Scott Cato, Vaughan S. Roberts, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Peter Jacobs, Steven H. Seggie

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 2d

I’ve written this lengthy FT analysis overnight about the multiple multi-thousand pound Epstein payments to Mandelson’s husband

these particular paragraphs are worth reading slowly

www.ft.com/content/608a...

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Will Jennings, Steve Peers , and 4 more Jonathan Portes, Will Jennings, Steve Peers, Charles West, Peter Holmes, Edgar Morgenroth, Steven H. Seggie

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 3d

and no I haven't put the Mandelson-Epstein-Reinaldo scoop on twitter

we journalists *can* make Bluesky the place to break news

Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @reichlinmelnick.bsky.social · 3d

BIG news from @bloomberg.com, which confirms that ICE has gone ahead and *purchased* multiple commercial warehouses with the aim of converting them into mass detention camps.

This is likely to be the big detention story of 2026 — literal warehousing of people.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

ICE Begins Buying ‘Mega’ Warehouse Detention Centers Across US

Plans for such centers and jails in nearly two dozen communities have sparked protests over suitability, proximity to homes and schools.

www.bloomberg.com

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Richard S.J. Tol, Will Jennings , and 9 more Joanna Bryson, Richard S.J. Tol, Will Jennings, Peter Thorne, Steve Peers, Elizabeth Stokoe, Peter Holmes, Edgar Morgenroth, Tom Griffin, Christina Pagel, Tim Leunig, Steven H. Seggie

Jim Pickard @pickardje.bsky.social · 3d

I'm not prone to exaggeration but this is probably the biggest scoop I've ever been involved in

Mandelson's partner took £10,000 from Epstein to pay for his osteopath course while Mandelson was de facto UK deputy prime minister, according to new files

more to follow

www.ft.com/content/c950...

Jeffrey Epstein sent £10,000 to Mandelson’s husband, emails show

Epstein sent Reinaldo Avila da Silva payment in 2009

www.ft.com

Reposted by Peter Holmes, Robert Wolfe, Jeremy S. Pal

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 3d

Blanche on Renee Good: "There are thousands -- unfortunately -- of law enforcement events every year where somebody is shot. The civil rights department of the DOJ does not investigate every one of those shootings."

Reposted by Peter Holmes

Resolution Foundation @resolutionfoundation.org · 3d

Despite worrying headwinds, there are encouraging signs in the data about the UK's future productivity growth.

Sophie Hale talks us through ⤵️

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