Tim Hirschel-Burns

Anyone can be a cheetah. Only they had the audacity to be the squirrels

BENIN IS ONE GAME AWAY FROM THE WORLD CUP

Allez les écureuils ! (Maintenant les guépards mais toujours les écureuils dans mon cœur)

This week has confirmed my suspicion that Biden’s Middle East policies will look worse, and will be even more embarrassing for Democrats, with the passage of time.

Many thanks to @marinazucker.bsky.social l for co-authoring and to @rishirbhandary.bsky.social for his past research on IMF gold sales

With the IMF/WB Annual Meetings coming up next week, it's time to act with a sense of urgency.

Gold prices are at record highs, so the IMF might never get more bang for the bullion that it would right now.

Nor would this jeopardize the IMF's financial stability.

It has already exceeded its reserves target of around $35 billion (which doesn't count its gold) and any sale would only extend to a small share of the IMF's gold

This is EXACTLY what the US and other developed countries say they want.

They want to spread international funding burdens to a wider range of sources, and for international institutions to use existing resources more efficiently.

Sitting on a pile of gold is very inefficient!

The IMF has sold gold before, executing a careful strategy that successfully prevented a slide in prices.

It could do it again, using the proceeds to fund existing IMF trusts that support developing countries. Using an endowment account would provide sustainable longterm funding

The IMF has 90.5 million ounces of gold. It's a relic of the gold standard, they don't really do anything with it, and it is registered on the IMF's balance sheet at a price last seen in the 1970s.

Meanwhile, the price of gold is through the roof: over $4,000/ounce, a record

At a time when developed countries are slashing funding and developing countries are struggling, there is a real-life pot of gold that could be tapped AT NO COST TO GOVERNMENTS.

Selling 10% of the IMF's gold would generate funds exceeding the scale of ALL foreign aid cuts this year

The Case for IMF Gold Sales Tim Hirschel-Burns & Marina Zucker-Marques argue that selling a small share of the Fund’s vast holdings would offset this year’s foreign-aid cuts.

It is hard to imagine a more cost-effective solution to foreign-aid cuts than the IMF selling a small share of its gold at no risk to its financial health and at no cost to its donors, write @timhirschelburns.bsky.social and @marinazucker.bsky.social.
bit.ly/48nTRaS

River or sankey diagram showing the allocation of profits from global oil and gas companies to quantiles of the US wealth size distribution via financial system intermediaries, such as asset managers, and categories of ultimate beneficiaries, such as business owners, pension funds and shareholders in listed companies. The scale is hundreds of billions of US dollars, and ultimately 50.4% of profits reaching the US personal wealth distribution go to the richest 1% of households.

🚨NEW PAPER🚨
We all know the 2022 energy price shock fueled the cost of living crisis. It also caused a profit bonanza for the very rich. We show the US reaped the largest profits ($377bn) of any country. 50% went to the richest 1%, only 1% to the bottom 50%. A🧵 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

So good to talk with a policy expert in DC who really values organizing around the country. @timhirschelburns.bsky.social understands the critical importance of people power when it comes to changing U.S. military and global economic policy. Check out his work!

Do these people open articles and then promptly read them like serial killers or what?

How to organize for global justice An interview with Isaac Evans-Frantz of Action Corps

New on the Substack: How to organize on global justice.

Politicians say voters don't care abt foreign policy. Wonks just focus on their policy papers.

@iefrantz.bsky.social + Action Corps organize ordinary ppl for just foreign policy. I interviewed him
timhirschelburns.substack.com/p/how-to-org...

And after unleashing all the death and suffering that less than 1% of the budget used to keep in check, the deficit will still go up thanks to tax cuts for rich people

The elimination of USAID is a moral atrocity and all involved made a choice to enable, and then lie about, ending the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world.

I feel like this photo of masked, armed men pepper spraying a pastor protecting his community is going to be a defining picture of this moment in America for a long, long time.

For the first time in about 70 years, net immigration to America could be zero. Beneath the noise of tariff and budget fights, migration may well be the biggest economic story of 2025.

My latest for @economist.com: Welcome to Zero Migration America

Link: www.economist.com/finance-and...

🧵 below

Soybean Farmer: So now I've got a tariff war that's killing my market. I don't have any money from grain we're sending to other countries for USAID. I mean, I've got a compound problem. I don't know how you plan for next year because we don't know where we're at.

Selling a small share of the IMF's gold offers a win-win solution.

Developed countries have been looking to shift international financing burdens to other sources.

Developing countries are struggling with major debt burdens and the need to fill gaps left by aid cuts.

“I know that there are some people in this room who don’t believe that my marriage should have been legal … and that’s ok. Because we’re all Americans who want lower taxes.”

I kind of can’t believe this Bari Weiss quote is even real, and yet www.nytimes.com/2025/10/06/b...

In the 50s and 60s the president sent in the National Guard against states' will to ensure black kids could attend school.

In 2025 the president is sending in the National Guard against states' will to...make sure unidentified masked men have free rein to kidnap DoorDash drivers?

Tbh I think too much of the bashing of the Argentina bailout is echoing zero-sum nativism.

The problem isn’t that the US is supporting another country. It’s that Trump tells the rest of the world to go fuck themselves except when it’s his right-wing buddy who’s about to lose an election

But if they were happy to do the voluntary measures, then how do you explain them ditching them?

As Trump & co have set a different level than they volunteered, they snapped into place. Seems like the state's stick can lead when it wants to - why follow private sector's lead in setting the level?

Nor was it the result of some inescapable business logic.

They were profit-seeking actors in a market shaped by the state

Banking industry’s net zero alliance shuts down amid faltering climate commitments NZBA had nearly 150 members but banks began leaving when Trump was re-elected on promise to ‘drill, baby, drill’

One lesson we should take from the death of ESG is that corporations will bend to the state's will.

Voluntary initiatives lacked staying power bc they weren't based on any sincere commitment to sustainability. They just followed the political winds
www.theguardian.com/business/202...

An essay with so much to say on the Democratic Party and political strategy more broadly

Absolutely true that China has played that role, but that is shifting, both at home and (as shown below) abroad

Trump Administration Is Said to Plan to Cut Refugee Admissions to a Record Low

Sigh. There’s no right way to come to the US as a refugee.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/03/u...