Karl Whelan

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

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.

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Paschal Donohoe confirms no personal tax changes to be made in budget

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

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...

Minister for Finance says focus will be on tax measures that keep jobs in the country and enhance Ireland’s competitiveness

www.irishtimes.com

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Reposted by: Karl Whelan

Noah Williams

@bellmanequation.bsky.social

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

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Scott Bessent’s chief of staff set to move to IMF

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

"The appointment is expected to be well received internally at the IMF"

Funny.

Joseph Cotterill @jsphctrl.ft.com · 20d

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...

Dan Katz expected to become second to fund chief Kristalina Georgieva

www.ft.com

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Reposted by: Karl Whelan

Joseph Cotterill

@jsphctrl.ft.com

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

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Bank of England urged to slow bond-selling plan to help cut record UK borrowing costs

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

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.

by Karl Whelan — Reposted by: Jonathan Portes, Simon Wren‐Lewis, Jonathan Hopkin

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

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.

Daniela Gabor @danielagabor.bsky.social · 23d

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...

Ex-MPC members say ‘quantitative tightening’ should be scaled back or halted entirely, saving the Treasury up to £10bn a year

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Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

Yep. I'm well aware he was a terrible guy. Deleted the post to stop this kind of nonsense being in my messages.

Bank of England urged to slow bond-selling plan to help cut record UK borrowing costs

by Daniela Gabor — Reposted by: Karl Whelan, Jonathan Hopkin, John Hogan

Daniela Gabor

@danielagabor.bsky.social

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...

Ex-MPC members say ‘quantitative tightening’ should be scaled back or halted entirely, saving the Treasury up to £10bn a year

4 11 37

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

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.

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

Yep. I wasn't a fan.

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

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.

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

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.

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

Ok, but I didn't make the argument about Hitler, did I? Sorry I replied tbh. Too old for this shit.

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

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.

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

Congratulations on the Godwin's law in one step contribution. This guy literally was not Hitler.

View post

On the UK’s Fiscal Black Hole | Karl Whelan

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

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

karlwhelan.com

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Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

When it’s annual black hole season, you’ve gotta do the black hole thing. It’s a modern British cultural tradition.

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Dundrum Town Centre owners appeal council refusal for outdoor food concessions

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

So guys selling donuts & hotdogs outside a shopping centre is "prohibiting the making of a space dedicated to pedestrians and the general public” and stops it acting "as a distinct focal point" Planning-person brain on steroids. No wonder nothing ever gets done

www.irishtimes.com/business/202...

Local residents cited concerns around fire safety as well as ‘serious health, hygiene, and safety risks'

www.irishtimes.com

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett defends Trump's firing of labor statistics head

Reposted by: Karl Whelan, Dani Rodrik, Ben H. Ansell , and 11 more Karl Whelan, Dani Rodrik, Ben H. Ansell, Richard S.J. Tol, Steven N. Durlauf, David Brady, Steve Peers, John McLaren, Daniel W. Drezner, Marius Brülhart, Paolo Crosetto, Tore Ellingsen, Andrew Rudalevige, David Lay Williams

Steven Durlauf

@durlauf.bsky.social

1/Kevin Hassett had long ago discredited himself as a scholar by parroting claims about the economy he knew to be false. Even so, parroting the lie about rigged statistics, is a new low. The academy should ostracize him the same way a fabricator of research should be ostracized.

NBC News @nbcnews.com · Aug 3

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett defends President Trump’s decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as well as the president’s claim that weaker-than-expected jobs reports were “rigged,” but failed to produce any evidence to support Trump’s claim.

In an interview on NBC News' "Meet the Press," Hassett called for a "fresh set of eyes" at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

nbcnews.to

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Reposted by: Karl Whelan, David Brady

NBC News

@nbcnews.com

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett defends President Trump’s decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as well as the president’s claim that weaker-than-expected jobs reports were “rigged,” but failed to produce any evidence to support Trump’s claim.

White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett defends Trump's firing of labor statistics head

In an interview on NBC News' "Meet the Press," Hassett called for a "fresh set of eyes" at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

nbcnews.to

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He may talk rubbish but Trump has an eye for beauty, and that is a breath of fresh air | Simon Jenkins

Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

Jenkins’s relentless commitment to being the worst Guardian columnist of all time gets taken to new levels. Airs of “Sure Adolf might be a bit of a rum bloke but look at the lovely architecture…”

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · Aug 2

In which Simon Jenkins praises that rare aesthetic sensitivity of Donald Trump!
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The US president promotes classical architecture and loathes ‘ugly’ wind turbines. Keir Starmer would dismiss him as a nimby, but on this Trump has a point, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

He may talk rubbish but Trump has an eye for beauty, and that is a breath of fresh air | Simon Jenkins

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Reposted by: Karl Whelan

Sunder Katwala (sundersays)

@sundersays.bsky.social

In which Simon Jenkins praises that rare aesthetic sensitivity of Donald Trump!
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The US president promotes classical architecture and loathes ‘ugly’ wind turbines. Keir Starmer would dismiss him as a nimby, but on this Trump has a point, says Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins

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Karl Whelan

@karlwhelan.bsky.social

And yet this is somehow actually worse. Would it have killed someone from UCD HR to sit in front of a camera for 3 minutes and read a script?