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williamneal.bsky.social
A self-taught Software engineer ( my next job was in fact cyber 🩰 ) l recently relocated to Brussels 🇬🇧🇪🇺and between changing nappies, not learning french, being woken up at strange hours, l spend time learning about heterodox economics
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My hot take is Peter Mandelson (the British ambassador to the US) is not going off-piste but is doing his job: provoking outrage and a stream of social media stories which perma online Trump and co will absorb by osmosis.

submitted 13 hours ago • 0 comments

Lest you think he has a conscience

submitted 13 hours ago • 0 comments

This thread has provided myself with light relief from doomscrolling about nuclear war - recommended!

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

🇪🇺

submitted 3 days ago • 3 comments

Da geht einiges durcheinander (auch durch Merz' unklares Statement): Es geht der Union nicht um eine Reform der Schuldenbremse mit altem Parlament, sondern nur um ein Sondervermögen Verteidigung/Sicherheit. Das erklärt auch das Interview von Thorsten Frei im Deutschlandfunk. Quelle: Parteiführung.

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

While everyone is focused on rise of the AfD in German elections the party that could now have influence over the German defence budget is the leftist Die Linke. @rikefranke.bsky.social in a welcome return to Comment is Freed explains why. (Free to read) samf.substack.com/p/die-linke-...

submitted 6 days ago • 4 comments

“Eh bien oui, le président Charles de Gaulle a posé la question il y a 60 ans. ll était aussi en avance de 60 ans sur le risque de l’atlantisme…”

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Interesting Dominik Leusder piece on problems with the global dominance of the US dollar, and why a weaker dollar might be good both for developing countries and US workers (although hard to pull off against Wall Street opposition). jacobin.com/2025/02/doll...

submitted 23 days ago • 4 comments

The role of the photo caption editor in civil society is often overlooked

submitted 23 days ago • 5 comments

The UK is the rare case of a country that runs a trade deficit with the US. Read today’s Chartbook for more: tinyurl.com/8rmvpdzu.

submitted 25 days ago • 0 comments

The Netherlands is no longer Germany's 17th federal state in economic terms. New Commission research shows that once strong NL-DE correlations in macro variables (GDP, investment) have become insignificant. A couple of observations on the stunning divergence between the frugal bulwarks. 1/

submitted 25 days ago • 6 comments

Nerd trivia for the day: Captain Janeways first major TV role was playing the unseen character Mrs Columbo, in a spin-off where Peter Falk never appeared.

submitted 30 days ago • 1 comment

"Why are tariffs on Canada and Mexico different than (some) other tariffs? Consider this graph courtesy of Bloomberg via Torsten Slok" (but actually from me & @AlfredCObregon) https://buff.ly/42xOkvp

submitted 30 days ago • 7 comments

Belgium will become the latest European country where the largest member of the governing coalition sits in a far-right EU grouping. But despite holding an official Flemish secessionist position, N-VA is considered center right domestically in Belgium. Here's why:

submitted 30 days ago • 3 comments

This is a huge blunder by the government IMV:

submitted 31 days ago • 13 comments

This Odd Lots series on the Eurodollar market is unbelievably good. You need to read a lot to make sense of it, and Josh and Lev have read it all. At the climactic 1974 Herstatt moment, they give a shout-out to our RIPE paper. What did we find in the Bank for International Settlements archive? 1/5

submitted 31 days ago • 3 comments