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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 19h

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nadiya_...

en.wikipedia.org

David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 1d

He came up with the word but I think the theory, at least in its initial form, came from a brilliant essay by @catvalente.bsky.social catvalente.substack.com/p/stop-talki...

Stop Talking to Each Other and Start Buying Things: Three Decades of Survival in the Desert of Social Media

I bet you're wondering how we got here...

catvalente.substack.com

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 5d

Very important insight here.

Jonathan Hopkin @jonathanhopkin.bsky.social · 5d

This sets me thinking if the current pattern concentration of wealth is a key contributor to authoritarianism because it means there are monopolies that are very sensitive to political pressure and few enough of them that you can blackmail them one by one

404 Media @404media.co · 5d

New: Apple just removed ICEBlock, the app for reporting sightings of ICE, from its App Store after DOJ pressure. ICEBlock's developer tells 404 Media "we are determined to fight this."

"Capitulating to an authoritarian regime is never the right move."

www.404media.co/iceblock-own...

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 5d

RIP Claus Offe. He built his own monument in his work; here’s something great.
www.hwiesenthal.de/publik/hw/2l...

www.hwiesenthal.de

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Reposted by David Woodruff

Steven Klein @stevenklein.bsky.social · 5d

Another giant...I don't think anyone could so effortless move between theory, sociology, and political economy

Hertie School @hertieschool.bsky.social · 5d

The Hertie School mourns the passing of Prof. Dr Dr h.c. Claus Offe, Professor Emeritus of Political Sociology, an extraordinary scholar, teacher and colleague.

We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and all who had the privilege to know him.

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Paula Villa Braslavsky @paulita.bsky.social · 6d

Claus Offe, ein so wichtiger Sozialwissenschaftler, RIP

youtu.be/2uxg2TGXfeQ?...

Krise, Kritik und Zukunft des Sozialstaats (mit Claus Offe und Stephan Lessenich)

YouTube video by Critical Theory in Berlin

youtu.be

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Pavithra Suryanarayan @pavisuri.bsky.social · 7d

I hope Starmer doesn’t retreat from the tone he struck yesterday. Lesson from the U.S.: the far right will accuse you of everything they already do. The shamelessness IS a tactic. Biden simply retreated from engaging. But people need to keep hearing a version of what starmer said. Every Single Day.

Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 7d

People often claim it's a mistake to call far-right figures racist. But it's extremely telling how much they hate being called racist. Farage doesn't welcome it. He is afraid of it. And he has benefited from people's reticence about using it to describe his policies.

Twlldun @twlldun.bsky.social · 7d

Harry Cole here, suggesting that because someone in Utah shot Charlie Kirk 3 weeks ago, Keir Starmer shouldn’t be nasty about Nigel Farage in the U.K.

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 7d

Or to put it more bluntly, this is crazy—so much so that I for a moment wondered if he could have been misheard. But the whole speech appears geared to telling the Trumpists exactly what they want to hear.

Claudia Sahm @claudia-sahm.bsky.social · 7d

How does the Fed selling assets raise their price (lower the yield)?

Matt Peterson @mattpeterson.bsky.social · 7d

Warsh says “interest rates can be made lower.” He draws a distinction between the Fed’s short-term policy rate and long-term rates for mortgages and other financial products. It’s the latter he’s more concerned about. He will lower long rates primarily by ridding the Fed of its financial assets

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Pavithra Suryanarayan @pavisuri.bsky.social · 8d

This is a very interesting thread. Two points: first, is the fear that violence will now come for a class that hasn't even considered before that speech can face violent retributions. It struck me that Coates has always known his speech would come at great cost to him, but not Klein. Second,

lastpositivist.bsky.social @lastpositivist.bsky.social · 8d

I think Ezra Klein's take is that America is on the verge of a major step up in terms of sectarian violence, and he is afraid of that, and thinks very major compromises are worth it to avoid that outcome. Admittedly sometimes he says/suggest otherwise, but it's my overall impression.

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 9d

Did Keynes just invent 'newspaper competitions in which the competitors have to pick out the six prettiest faces.., the prize being awarded to the competitor whose choice most nearly corresponds to the average preferences of the competitors as a whole'? Anybody ever seen an example?

Reposted by David Woodruff

David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 14d

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!

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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 14d

to me, the “column” is less a form than an opportunity (and a challenge). you’re telling me i have as much space as i’d like to make an argument about anything i’d like to an audience inclined to pay close attention? well let’s see if they’ll read 2000 words on democratic legitimacy. (gift link)

Opinion | This Is About So Much More Than Lisa Cook

www.nytimes.com

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 14d

A worthwhile Deptford endeavour, knitting some social fabric. linktr.ee/piehousecoop...

Piehouse Co-Op | Instagram | Linktree

your local worker-run venue

linktr.ee

David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 14d

Two great Soviet films on WWII are The Cranes are Flying and The Ascent. www.youtube.com/watch?v=v21l...

The Ascent | DRAMA | FULL MOVIE

YouTube video by Mosfilm

www.youtube.com

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 14d

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!

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 15d

In case you don’t speak central banker, here’s BoE chief economist Huw Pill saying QT should be a club to force austerity on govt. Nary a reference to a BoE mandate in the speech! www.bankofengland.co.uk/speech/2025/...

At best, slowing QT is a temporary and indirect palliative, likely dominated in terms of effectiveness by other tools. And the danger exists that measures to treat the symptoms simply allow the underlying drivers to continue for longer and in greater force, making the eventual denouement more painful all around.

For me, both structural challenges to public debt management and concerns about core market functioning are better dealt with via other means than QT.

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 18d

This is a poor explanation, to put it mildly. If you're going to skip the APF, why not just do it this way: during QE, the Bank of England created money and lent it to the HMT to buy back its own debt. Call this the Big Loan, nearly £900 bln at its peak. 1/5

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

What is quantitative tightening and how has it affected UK finances?

The Bank of England’s disposal of the bonds it bought after the 2008 financial crisis is being slowed down

www.theguardian.com

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 16d

What a well turned clause and what a perceptive thought!

Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 18d

“To add insult to injury, many metaphorical … phrases (especially used to describe ANNs; see Table 1) — like train, learn, hallucinate, reason — are applied to machines and result in distorting how we perceive these machines: humanising them while dehumanising us”

zenodo.org/records/1706...

14/🧵

Table 1. Below some of the typical terminological disarray is untangled. Importantly, none of these terms are orthogonal nor do they exclusively pick out the types of products we may wish to critique or proscribe.

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 17d

Very powerful. Explore this gift article from The New York Times. You can read it for free without a subscription. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/21/o...

Opinion | I Look at This Country and I See a Stranger

www.nytimes.com

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 18d

The official line from the BoE on this is that the pace at which their portfolio would shrink if all gilts were held to maturity would be too slow. What counts as fast enough has never been specified. So far about 2/3s of QT has been from maturing gilts.

Table £bln % of total QT to date
Payments on matured gilts 193.9 61.2%
Indemnities on matured gilts 15.3 4.8%
Proceeds from gilt auctions 71.8 22.6%
Indemnities on auctioned gilts 36.0 11.4%
Total 316.9

David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 18d

Yes, exactly. Despite all that uproar, they kept long gilt sales basically flat. It doesn't seem to have been an obvious point judging by the coverage.

David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 18d

Understanding things this way would mean much better discussion: Should the HMT have to pay interest on the Big Loan (which interest the BoE gives to banks)? Should the Bank get to set the pace for the Big Loan's repayment? Why doesn't HMT get to decide how repayment of the Big Loan is financed? 5/5

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 18d

interest on the Big Loan (or, lately, requiring top-up payments to cover the interest), and now by forcing part of the financing of repayment of the Big Loan to take the form of selling gilts acquired during QE. It's all way more confusing than it needs to be. bsky.app/profile/dmwo... 4/5

David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · Aug 10

Pounding my drum:

1 For HMT, QT=forced refinancing of flexible rate loan via sales of fixed-rate gilts
2 HMT/DMO should & can have complete autonomy in these sales, which need not include any APF gilts
3 Stop being distracted by 'indemnity' and active v passive QT

Now in exciting parable form!

Lord Threadneedle, Indemnita Fiscus, and the Albion Philately Fund: A QT Parable

One day during the waning years of the 19th century, the actress Indemnita Fiscus paid a call to Lord Threadneedle, a man of means who had…

medium.com

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 18d

Why? Because the BoE never really wanted to admit to others and probably itself that it was creating money to lend to HMT; it accomplished this (self-)deception via obscure rigamarole: holding onto the gilts purchased during QE while refunding to HMT coupon payments on them net of 3/5

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David Woodruff @dmwoodruff.bsky.social · 18d

QT is the process of paying down the Big Loan, on the balance of which the Treasury pays interest at the floating Bank Rate. The BoE determines the pace at which the repayment occurs, and forces the government to finance part of the repayment via selling the gilts it bought during QE. 2/5

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