Using regional employment data, the map shows which parts of Europe are most exposed to the rise in Chinese import competition across manufacturing industries. The results highlight the industrial core of Germany and the manufacturing belt of CEE.
German Chancellor Merz spent the past two weeks travelling first to Beijing and Hangzhou, then heading to Washington a few days later to meet Trump. Merz’s itinerary functions as a crude but accurate map of Germany’s external exposure.
open.substack.com/pub/outsampl...
📣 Publication day! The first paper from my project on Europe’s EV battery roll-out is finally out
I unpack how the EU’s EV battery boom is entangled with sacrifice zones—investment in Serbia & Hungary de-risked through autocracy.
www.cogitatiopress.com/politicsandg...
Here we go - EU industry chief Stephane Sejourne presents the long-awaited Industrial Accelerator Act
"What I'm talking to you about isn't just a change in our modus operandi - it's actually a change in doctrine. This is something that was unthinkable even just a few months ago"
A report by the French National Assembly has proposes to reinforce further the role of the ECB on climate change.
greencentralbanking.com/2026/03/03/f...
In @equatormag.bsky.social, Melinda Cooper discusses how the billionaire patriarchs of the American far-right want to rule an economy of masters and servants.
I have a new review paper out in @environmentalpol.bsky.social! ✨
What would it actually take for states to pursue green transformations? I identify 5 capacities — planning, disciplinary, strategic, legitimation and adaptive — and their respective policy elements, capabilities and institutions
Now that tariffs are officially illegal, will corporations bring prices back down or keep them once more where they are despite falling costs? That's the affordability question of the moment.
Fascinating report on Europe's chokepoints
- Without EU market access, 7 US big tech firms could lose 30% of market value
- 80% of low-enriched uranium used in US comes from EU
- if Siemens + co prioritised putting their turbines in EU data centres, a €50bn hit to US tech firms
Van wie is de uitspraak “Sommige ouders geven het kindergeld uit aan drank en gokmachines”? A. De Wever. B. Bouchez. C. Rousseau. Twijfel? Snap ik, want er is geen enkel verschil meer tussen N-VA, MR of Vooruit in de manier waarop over kwetsbare mensen wordt gepraat. www.demorgen.be/meningen/in-...
Brutal chart from @noahbarkin.bsky.social and Gregor Williams. German exports to China grew for nearly two decades - and are now in free fall.
Front page of the report, available here: https://reportondemocracyatwork.org/en/the-report/
Picture of Yolanda Diaz and the expert committee members at the report's launch in Madrid, 2 Feb 2026.
Spain's constitution promises democracy at work. Last year, @yolandadiaz.bsky.social convened an expert group to study how to make good on that promise.
Lead by @isabelleferreras.bsky.social, we have delivered what is, we think, the highest-level 400-page report on economic democracy out there. 1/2
This paper raises critical questions about (over)using public-debt-to-GDP as a measure of debt sustainability. Debt/GDP is at historic highs, but interest/GDP and debt/equity show flat or falling patterns. Better theory, smarter metrics and less focus on debt/GDP needed.
We are happy to release the Paths to Power Dashboard. It is the perfect tool for politics nerds!
You can find it here: ptp.isv.sv.uio.no/ptp/
It allows you to explore governments from 1966-2021 using the PtP and WhoGov datasets. See examples below.
The app has been programmed by Stuart Bramwell.
Tribute to Michel Aglietta in @newleftreview.bsky.social: "a tireless thinker, committed to the proposition that we should aim to comprehend our changing historical times in their totality, which meant grasping the inter-relationships of their many moving parts." newleftreview.org/issues/ii156...
📢 Very timely new paper by @paulahaufe.bsky.social - give it a read!
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Trump wil de FED onder zijn controle. Onafhankelijkheid van centrale banken staat onder druk. Maar is depolitisering wel democratisch? @mattvermeir.bsky.social (UGent) pleit voor debat over democratisering van monetair beleid.
www.denktankminerva.be/opinie/trump...
Migratie kost miljarden?
📉 Niet volgens NBB, OESO en IMF.
📈 Migratie zorgt voor groei, jobs en een sterkere welvaartsstaat.
Analyse van @hielkevd.bsky.social (Denktank Minerva) & @flordidden.bsky.social (@11.be) op @sampolmaandblad.bsky.social en hier 👇
🔗 www.denktankminerva.be/opinie/de-op...
A chart with year-by-year data on interest paid to banks on reserves created by QE, banking sector profits as implied by tax receipts, and taxes on banking sector including corporate tax, bank levy, and bank surcharge. Total taxes banks paid over period: £100.1 bln. Total interest paid to banks: £109.3 bln Sources: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/paye-and-corporate-tax-receipts-from-the-banking-sector-2025 Interest calculated from BoE database series RPWZ4TM and Bank Rate
Over the last 11 financial years, the UK Treasury has spent more on paying interest to the banking sector on their reserves than it has taken in from them in corporate and sector-specific taxes. In 2024-25, it paid over 3 times as much for interest on reserves as it received from taxes on banks.
In the past 20 yrs, China extended >$800 billion in loans to emerging market and developing country economies to finance infrastructure, energy etc. China’s loan portfolio surpassed those of the World Bank, the IMF, and all 22 Paris Club creditor governments combined.
Impossible to repost or discuss this chart too many times. A tale of two crises & two policy responses. One of them we still inexplicably talk about as a success, & one we still inexplicably talk about as a failure. 1.5 years of modestly high inflation did a number on us.
Could there be a clearer sign that the RN believes France enjoys more effective monetary sovereignty inside the € than outside it (as I have long argued)? www.tumblr.com/rajakorman/6...
IMF: "only about half of fiscal consolidations achieve their fiscal targets, including debt reduction. A broad range of econometric methods, based on well-established methods in the empirical literature, confirm that fiscal consolidations do not reduce debt ratios, on average."
🚨New publication with Kristijan Kotarski:
Enduring Structural Power? Assessing the Dominance of the Anglosphere in Global Finance Before the Trump Turn
Includes novel visualizations of global finance (banking, portfolio inv & FDI) showing persistent US centrality
hrcak.srce.hr/clanak/487488
A reminder that the U.S. is defacto the most sovereign sovereign in the world. Which in turn means that any attempt to reduce the asymmetry U.S. enjoys in terms of “sovereign intrusions” will likely be construed as an intrusion on US sovereignty. open.substack.com/pub/sankaran...
Thanks, Ben!
Love this forensic analysis of the ECB's discourse around rate hikes during the 2021-23 inflation shock. A brief sellers inflation – aka Another-World-Is-Possible – moment (blue), before the empire (green) strikes back with overwhelming force.
+1,5 miljoen werkenden tussen 1996 & 2023
Maar werkgeversbijdragen aan sociale zekerheid: 50% → <40%
Gevolg: overheid vult het gat met hogere belastingen of schulden.
Geen economische wet, maar politieke keuze.
Tijd voor eerlijk debat: wie draagt bij, wie profiteert?
📢 New paper out in New Political Economy: "Depoliticising monetary tightening: how the European Central Bank managed the 2021–2023 inflation shock" Thread here below 👇
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Our research highlights how a macroeconomic model—the NKPC—becomes a "storytelling device" to present a political choice as a technical necessity. Critical questions remain about the ECB’s self-representation as a neutral player. Read the full article: doi.org/10.1080/1356...
