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

"'What is in this for me?' has become our mantra, our motto. When the answer does not sate us, we blame our perceived ills on people outside our country who face a starkness most Americans cannot even imagine." time.com/7258248/us-f...

submitted 17 hours ago • 0 comments

My tweet featured in this Newsweek article: "Not sure people working on multilateral cooperation realize how big an impact the US shift on NATO could have. Many hoping Europe will step up to fill US funding gaps, but the US just told Europe to spend $644bn more on defense...

submitted 23 hours ago • 1 comment

Read the story of Samkelo who, after the US shut off aid, was left w/ just 2 months of antiretrovirals. He knew death would come soon after—and yet, he gave half his drugs to a friend who had just 2 days left. Ppl w/ so much generosity when our government has so little www.ft.com/content/533b...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

In his speech today South Africa President Ramaphosa praised the Africa Leaders Debt Relief Initiative. Great to hear the G20 president reaffirm the importance of debt relief! dirco.gov.za/address-by-p...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Over the weekend I wrote about why the US NATO U-turn and the likely increases in European defense spending were bad news for aid and other international financing. I did not expect to be proven right so quickly... www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

This would be a single developed country getting together—in a matter of weeks—as much as all developed countries provided in development aid last yr. It has both always been a lie that they don’t have money for int’l climate + development funds and (given existing priorities) bad news for them

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

3 lessons here: 1/ fossil asset owners will keep these assets as long as gov'ts will let them. 2/ oil and gas net zero pledges are an elaborate distraction -- both for ESG optimists and consumers 3/ liberals take note: the market won't supply decarbonization. www.theguardian.com/business/202...

submitted 4 days ago • 14 comments

Awesome new paper from Chiara Mariotti @rishirbhandary.bsky.social @kevinpgallagher.bsky.social Richard Kozul-Wright. The blended finance agenda has focused on derisking int'l private capital, but multilateral development banks could work far more with another partner: national development banks

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Not sure people working on multilateral cooperation realize how big an impact the US shift on NATO could have. Many hoping Europe will step up to fill US funding gaps, but the US just told Europe to spend $644bn more on defense + that it's on its own if Russia comes storming in

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

The best thing I’ve read to understand—at a human level—what recent deportations look like

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

A big loss. I think about this one a lot

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

NEW SUBSTACK: What Ukraine + NATO mean for the Global South The US U-turn on European security in the last wk is bad news for anyone hoping Europe will step up international funding. Spending 5% of GDP on defense = $644bn more for European NATO members timhirschelburns.substack.com/p/what-ukrai...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

It is both true that the US delivers bad standards of living relative to its wealth and that stats like this totally ignore inequality between countries. This list both only includes the world's richest countries and defines poverty based on the country's median income (not a standardized line)

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

I missed that University of Maryland did super comprehensive polling on foreign aid two wks ago. Backs up the general evidence: Americans feel reasonable positively towards foreign aid but know so little that they're activated by whatever they heard last. I mean, look at this!

submitted 8 days ago • 1 comment

Just insanely cruel

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

The real threat to Europe (and the US) is NOT having millions more migrants. We don't have enough young people! Do you want your parents in a nursing home, buzzing for help and no one answering? Do you want food rotting in fields and never getting to stores? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Haven't seen coverage of this: in multiple cases Farallon Capital Management has fought to avoid debt relief + ensure they never bear losses. Who founded this firm that's draining the resources countries need to invest in climate action? Outspoken climate advocate Tom Steyer

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

Part of the challenge is that civil servants aren’t predisposed to organize politically. But proximity + space and well-established as sources of power for nonviolent resistance. And there are more and more angry people w/ a lot of time on their hands very close to the center of governmental power…

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Hello fellow doomscrollers. I was on a mini-vacation for a few days and decided not to look at the news. I am now back. It seems many things happened but also kind of nothing happened. Do with that what you will.

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Secretary Rubio: The waivers still aren’t working and the death toll is mounting. www.devex.com/news/the-mes...

submitted 12 days ago • 1 comment

I think people should be very careful to read much into this, especially as it appears the underlying survey hasn’t been released. It’s inconsistent with even recent polling—suggesting that the question just primed respondents to think about corruption

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment

If you're trying to keep up with the flurry of USAID lawsuit news, there are now three. Here's an overview from my Substack post yesterday timhirschelburns.substack.com/p/foreign-ai...

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

The military expenditure drive bodes very ill for development finance. Hegseth today issued a press briefing that the US would cease to be Europe’s primary security guarantor (later slightly softened). He also re-emphasised that NATO countries must increase mil spend to 5% of GDP (UK now 2.33%).

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

NEW SUBSTACK: Foreign aid is surprisingly popular There's a line of argument going around that Trump and Musk went after USAID first because they wanted an easy target and foreign aid is unpopular. I have a new post on how that's not really true timhirschelburns.substack.com/p/foreign-ai...

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

One week since I started my Substack! Thanks to everyone who has read and engaged so far. I'll have a new post out soon - subscribe here timhirschelburns.substack.com

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Moody's is pretty sanguine that MDBs will survive Trump's review of US support for international organizations. The argument is that the US would never do something that reduced its geopolitical influence... Reuters writeup here: www.reuters.com/business/fin...

submitted 17 days ago • 1 comment

Update: there is now a THIRD lawsuit on USAID. This one also challenges the funding freeze and stop-work order on behalf of USAID-funded organizations that have experienced devastating impacts to their work bsky.app/profile/zoet...

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments