hugolxln.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Remarkable assessment by an incoming German chancellor. “for me it is an absolute priority to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible, so that we achieve independence from the US, step by step.” www.dw.com/en/german-el...

submitted 2 hours ago • 38 comments

Merz just said on German TV that the primary priority of his government will be to ensure that Europe can achieve full strategic independence from the United States in the defence against Russia. Merz was once a die hard Atlanicist. Now, after Trump he is a Gaullist. Extraordinary.

submitted 3 hours ago • 212 comments

BESPOKE: “On a 12-month average basis, .. Housing Starts have completely rolled over from their peak .. “.. Recessions have always followed a rollover in Housing Starts, and the only question is timing.” 🇺🇸

submitted 9 hours ago • 32 comments

"During the meeting, Ukraine was told it faced imminent shutoff of the Starlink service if it did not reach a deal on critical minerals, said the source, who requested anonymity to discuss closed negotiations." Astonishing betrayal of an ally. www.reuters.com/business/us-...

submitted 1 day ago • 151 comments

#NATO's Article 5 was only invoked once, by 🇺🇸 asking for defence after 9/11 As a result, 1,105 European and Canadian soldiers died in the 20-year Afghanistan war - 1/3 of all coalition casualties I don't recall the Europeans demanding America surrender its mineral wealth in exchange for their help

submitted 2 days ago • 18 comments

Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has warned that Europe should be ready for Donald Trump to no longer uphold NATO’s mutual defense commitment unconditionally. Asked whether Germany should seek protection under France’s nuclear umbrella, he had this to say 👇 ow.ly/HeOJ50V4ooe

submitted 2 days ago • 57 comments

Okay, so I’m finally putting a thread together: what is the deep-blue Delaware legislature proposing to do and why is it the most evil thing not directly involving Donald Trump happening in America today? legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail/1...

submitted 3 days ago • 22 comments

Gangster capitalism. www.wsj.com/business/med...

submitted 3 days ago • 40 comments

We know that European unity is our strength because all our enemies are afraid of it

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

"The United States of Europe will prevent you being crushed" Poster from the 1960s

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Once again I am leaving the Munich Security Conference in a low mood. Amongst all the noise, the US signalled their plans for Europe, so things are becoming clearer. But things are clearly not good. This is what we now know, and what we have to do about it:🧵1/17

submitted 8 days ago • 198 comments

ABC: “.. Multiple current and former employees described the situation as ‘a national security crisis.’” @abcnewsgo.bsky.social abcnews.go.com/Politics/liv...

submitted 9 days ago • 628 comments

B of A: “.. Washington D.C. recession beginning (see spike in D.C. initial jobless claims.)” [Hartnett]

submitted 9 days ago • 15 comments

The political will (aka getting act together on revenue sources, spending & procurement) is the crunch-point really. 3 trillion below is a 10 year number and 300 billion $ a year is 1.5% of GDP (EU 2024 y/e about 20 trillion $) in an area with an aggregate debt/gdp of 89% (2024).

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

Trump just signed an order on reciprocal tariffs that, by my read, appears far more expansive than expected The White House is not just matching other countries' tariff rates. They're planning customized, country-specific tariffs based on other countries' tariff rates PLUS four other criteria

submitted 10 days ago • 5 comments

Call me old fashioned but it seems bad that money isn’t secure in US banks www.nydailynews.com/2025/02/12/t...

submitted 11 days ago • 7 comments

"We wanted to the chainsaw the western world into pieces, but [Trump] decided to cut through it himself."

submitted 10 days ago • 12 comments

By the way, do you gentlebeings know how we almost destroyed the ozone layer by accident? How we have the early environmental protesters, a well-funded and competent U.S. federal scientific apparatus, and the 1973 energy crisis to thank that we even learned of the problem before it was too late?

submitted 11 days ago • 3 comments

thinking about roads not taken a lot

submitted 15 days ago • 94 comments

I am uncharacteristically going to disagree with @bencarlson007.bsky.social here -- yes, most of the time the right strategy is to "not freak out", but there is a good reason you earn the equity risk premium: sometimes you have to freak out or you'll be zero-ed and you need to know when that is

submitted 14 days ago • 4 comments

It’s incredible that Elon Musk could get a 60 year old government agency with a $50 billion budget shutdown overnight. The entire website is now just a farewell message. There I was thinking no one would ever match the value Elon destroyed almost overnight by buying Twitter. He proved me wrong.

submitted 16 days ago • 7 comments

What’s happening to USAID is a tragedy, however to provide some perspective, I’ve seen comments along the lines of “it’s by far the world’s largest donor organisation” and that’s not true. Its annual budget is USD 10bn; EU foreign aid* is €80bn (2021-2027), add EU member states & it’s much more. 1/2

submitted 17 days ago • 13 comments

someone pointed out to me at a banker conference years ago that "legacy" in the context of systems, just means "tried and tested". If something is doing a job, the person who programmed it retired, and nobody's needed to learn the language it's written in for decades, that's probably a good system!

submitted 19 days ago • 5 comments

Donald Trump and Elon Musk have arrogated congressional power to themselves, Jonathan Chait writes: “The true urgent cause is to return that power to the legislature before the damage becomes irreversible.”

submitted 19 days ago • 38 comments

The Treasury Department right now. People are turning out against Musk and DOGE staging a takeover of the Treasury’s payment system. This crowd is big. The whole block is packed. “Lock him up,” everyone yells.

submitted 19 days ago • 942 comments

If I were a ratings agency, and I heard someone in authority make the argument that the USG — with a debt stock at 100% of GDP & federal spending of 23% GDP — could be funded largely on tariff revenues of 3% of GDP (20% tariffs on imports of 15% GDP), I would cut USTs to junk for sheer innumeracy.

submitted 19 days ago • 7 comments

Obama was the first African-American president. Musk is the first African president.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Since the sourcing of this fantastic 1979 IBM training slide is buried in various Twitter threads (and linking to Twitter sucks now because logged out users can't navigate conversations) I put together some notes on its origin: simonwillison.net/2025/Feb/3/a...

submitted 20 days ago • 9 comments

Finland joins Denmark and abandons the Frugal Club. Prime Minister Petteri Orpo says he's "ready to discuss" the possible issuance of joint debt to finance the EU's defence needs. "We are ready, we are open. I think we have many possibilities," Orpo says. "Russia is a real threat." #EUCO

submitted 20 days ago • 2 comments

Oligarchic control and subservient justice & security systems are lessons Russia has for Americans, & another is the neutering of the Russian Duma, which abdicated most of its powers to Putin and soon had the rest taken away. The GOP looks ready to become Trump's United Russia.

submitted 20 days ago • 9 comments

The new acting Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy — State’s top public diplomacy official: 1) not only denies the Uyghur genocide but appears to applaud it 2) says the US should sell out Taiwan to China for concessions in Antarctica (???)

submitted 20 days ago • 230 comments

What’s happening with Musk and the US Treasury payment system reminds me a lot of the dismantling of South Africa’s revenue service during the country’s state capture years. Similar patterns of bullying and pushing out experienced people, almost for the sake of wrecking. on.ft.com/40Ifa15

submitted 21 days ago • 7 comments

Tag urself i'm a radical centrist (do all of it)

submitted 21 days ago • 6 comments

Looking to divest from US online services? Here's the European alternatives. european-alternatives.eu

submitted 21 days ago • 16 comments

we wont really know because as soon as the data inflects negatively trump will stop the numbers being reported

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

At the heart of Canadian national memory is the awareness that Canadians twice came to the UK's aid in world wars years before the Americans showed up. It will not be forgottem if the Brits now hide in a corner and say nothing when Canada faces existential threats.

submitted 21 days ago • 107 comments

is it good or bad that a billionaire oligarch with close ties to foreign dictators is currently downloading the most sensitive information the us federal government has about its citizens to his own private servers?

submitted 21 days ago • 1096 comments

US corporate sector is much more international than aggregate US economy. Exports c. 11% of GDP; Imports c. 15%, but RoW revenues are 35-40% of S&P, US overseas FDI stock is c. 6.5 trillion, RoW FDI stock in US is c. 5.5 trillion & sustained tariffs may hit valuations on both.

submitted 21 days ago • 2 comments

only one in five LEAVE voters think that Brexit has been more of a success than a failure, that is nuts

submitted 24 days ago • 83 comments

This is nuts www.reuters.com/world/americ...

submitted 23 days ago • 1 comment

by freezing all federal grants, trump is fundamentally transforming the relationship between the executive and congress. he is asserting dictatorial authority over federal spending, transforming congress's lawmaking powers into advisory authority. it is a constitutional crisis

submitted 26 days ago • 226 comments

This photo of Musk speaking at the AfD rally has an interesting composition. I'm sure the AFP photographer had fun.

submitted 29 days ago • 6 comments

Trump is planning to make foreign nationals (and dual citizens) to pay higher tax rates in the US. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

submitted 30 days ago • 45 comments