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

Gulfsands Petroleum ready to get back into Syria, to see what's up with its upstream assets there after 14 years of being unable to access them www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-...

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

Baltic states have shut down last links to Russian electricity grid • Move highlights deep, structural impact of war in Ukraine on Europe's energy supplies and infrastructure • Baltic states will connect to EU grid and Russian enclave of Kaliningrad will need to generate own power supplies

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

While not winning gigafactory or new vehicle final assembly plants, Louisiana has been a different type of winner from BIL/IRA. Its petrochemical sector, port and river access, and proximity to Southeast gigafactory projects have made it a magnet for the midstream. 🔌💡 electrek.co/2025/02/17/5...

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

Just a shocking shocking statistic (courtesy of Draghi’s op-ed in the FT): Forget the US, Europe has successfully put barriers on itself “The IMF estimates that Europe’s internal barriers are equivalent to a tariff of 45 %for manufacturing and 110 % for services” giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

submitted 7 days ago • 4 comments

🏜️ Arizona utilities announce effort to add more nuclear energy in the state 🪨 They are eyeing multiple coal plants that could be replaced Both large and small reactors will be evaluated 🔌💡 www.powermag.com/arizona-util...

submitted 18 days ago • 2 comments

Reuters: The U.S. Provided Ukraine with Only Half of the Promised Aid in 2024. Additionally, the publication sources stated that by early December 2024, Ukraine had received only 30% of the promised armored vehicles. www.reuters.com/investigatio...

submitted 20 days ago • 8 comments

Big shift in where greenfield FDI is going away from China and toward new Asia growth engines and friend-shoring.

submitted 28 days ago • 1 comment

A critical chart for understanding the world, from my new paper with Brad Setser. German and Chinese net auto exports before and after the Covid-19 pandemic. As Brad put it nicely: "Germany never recovered. China never looked back." The chart also shows.... 1/x

submitted 30 days ago • 2 comments

Commercial flights between Turkey and Syria resumed Thursday after 13 years.

submitted 31 days ago • 0 comments

China is hard for the US to beat in Latin America. To advance strategic interests, China happily cuts deals with left- and right-wing leaders alike. That pragmatism means ideological warnings from Washington don’t work well. Deals and FDI are what counts. My column www.economist.com/internationa...

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

“Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, is to expand its investments in lithium production in the race to build a supply chain for the metal vital for batteries to power electric cars.” 🔌💡🚗 www.ft.com/content/d349...

submitted 39 days ago • 0 comments

"China is expanding its footprint in Antarctica with its fifth research station on the continent. Recent satellite imagery shows construction progressing quickly at Qinling Station, located on Inexpressible Island near the Ross Sea." www.csis.org/analysis/chi...

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

Inventory to sales still very high in the building materials complex according to the US Census data. I think a lot of the deflationary impulse in building materials has run its course, but broad reflation will also be pretty tough too given current LBM inventories.

submitted 48 days ago • 0 comments

European reliance on Chinese imports has increased markedly vs 2017

submitted 54 days ago • 1 comment

Russian gas flows through Ukraine are set to stop on Wednesday when a transit deal between the two countries expires in the wake of Moscow’s full-scale invasion. on.ft.com/4a1HwaQ via @financialtimes.com

submitted 54 days ago • 6 comments

“By January 2024, agents working at the behest of India’s intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), began quietly discussing with Maldivian opposition leaders the possibility of removing [Maldives president] Muizzu” www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

submitted 55 days ago • 1 comment

Improved efficiency is enabling record U.S. crude oil production from fewer rigs www.eia.gov/todayinenerg...

submitted 57 days ago • 7 comments

Ukraine receives first US gas shipments via Greece https://www.ft.com/content/a769f6a0-00af-4e20-8b6d-16177ee72c96

submitted 58 days ago • 4 comments

SCMP: "Chinese companies are increasingly looking to set up factories in central and eastern Europe to circumvent tariffs and business disruption amid heightening geopolitical tensions, according to a European industrial real estate developer." www.scmp.com/business/art...

submitted 60 days ago • 3 comments

The biggest obstacles to US decarbonization, according to outgoing Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm: 1. It’s too hard to connect new renewables to the grid due to lack of transmission 2. Not enough investment in 24/7 clean “baseload” power, like nuclear & geothermal heatmap.news/podcast/shif...

submitted 62 days ago • 29 comments

German industry is still struggling to meet the supply needs of the war in Ukraine & domestic rearmament—despite increasing production, backlogs of unfilled weapon & ammo orders have risen to the highest levels on record

submitted 62 days ago • 5 comments

Energy spending as a % of total consumer spending is getting close to Covid lows. Not a misprint:

submitted 65 days ago • 7 comments

America's housing stock is the oldest it's ever been and just keeps getting older. We don't have enough homes in this country and too much of what we have is dated and decaying.

submitted 67 days ago • 65 comments

Consumer prices in the UK have increased by over 34% since the 2016 Brexit vote - more than in any other Western European country.

submitted 67 days ago • 1 comment

The fall of the Assad regime overturned the most profitable drug empire in the Middle East, exposing the former regime’s role in manufacturing and trafficking captagon pills that fueled war and social crises, and helped Syria evade sanctions. My story: www.wsj.com/articles/syr...

submitted 68 days ago • 0 comments

A classic deleveraging dynamic in China where there are no signs of borrowing picking up despite the pretty aggressive monetary easing that has occurred.

submitted 70 days ago • 1 comment

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he told the Ukrainian government to set up supply mechanisms to deliver food to Syria after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad reut.rs/3ZRFzdP

submitted 71 days ago • 62 comments

I really wish there was more interest in benchmarking AI models on real tasks. The fact that there are not 30 different benchmarks from different organizations in medicine, in law, in advice quality, etc. is a big shame. People are using systems for these things anyway & we don’t know implications.

submitted 71 days ago • 19 comments

This doesn't get discussed enough. Current labor market is unique and may be harder to analyze using traditional metrics

submitted 71 days ago • 4 comments

“Just under half of Britain’s very highest paying jobs were located in London 30 years ago. Today that figure is almost 75 per cent.” Remarkable stat from @jburnmurdoch.bsky.social in this excellent column on our unbalanced economy. www.ft.com/content/eb02...

submitted 71 days ago • 19 comments

Good roundup of the public backlash over Iran's failed Syria policy: "The debate is happening at all levels of society, not just in the media but in daily interactions. People are asking: Why did we spend so much money? What did we achieve?" www.nytimes.com/2024/12/13/w...

submitted 72 days ago • 0 comments

Most of the new EV & battery factories - many spurred by Biden/Manchin’s Inflation Reduction Act - are in House districts held by Republicans. Trump can’t nix the $7500 tax credit without almost all of these lawmakers voting to do so. Will they? Map! #EVThreads https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti…

submitted 73 days ago • 6 comments

Staggering post-Brexit divergence between (strong) services and (very very weak) goods trade continues

submitted 75 days ago • 9 comments

If Beijing does truly put its weight back on the fiscal stimmy pedal—TBD—Chinese oil demand would almost surely shift from its second annual average contraction in 30+ years in 2024 (a rare net drag in global consumption) back to its normal perch at the top of the demand growth leaderboard.

submitted 75 days ago • 3 comments

Tuesday good news #2 - more power will be generated by renewables than fossil fuels in the UK this year, according to Ember

submitted 75 days ago • 0 comments

Google said its quantum computer needed less than five minutes to perform a mathematical calculation that one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers could not complete in 10 septillion years, a length of time that exceeds the age of the known universe. nyti.ms/3DaZFH5

submitted 76 days ago • 126 comments

The Chinese Politburo readout reaffirmed the desire to support the economy, but gave limited concrete policy. "More proactive" fiscal policy will only drive economic improvement if spending actually comes with it. There are no signs rhetoric is translating to reality. Thread.

submitted 76 days ago • 2 comments

Russian media is reporting that Assad is in Moscow, which means that Russia has accepted its first Syrian refugee english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-...

submitted 77 days ago • 5 comments

In 2021 Massachusetts enacted the MBTA Communities Act requiring more multifamily housing near transit hubs. Numerous cities in the Boston area have made meaningful changes to comply--and we're beginning to see the benefits in greater supply.

submitted 77 days ago • 1 comment

I think WMATA is going to manage to close out this year with more bus ridership than it had 2019—they'd be the first major US transit agency to do so. Just an incredible turnaround.

submitted 79 days ago • 7 comments

“al-Assad's regime may now be the world's biggest narco state—specialising in the production of an amphetamine known as captagon. The drug trade is run by Syria's elite 4th Division (commanded by al-Assad's brother, Maher)” en.majalla.com/node/323357/...

submitted 78 days ago • 6 comments