New Left EViews

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The tube’s flooring looks like it has ggplot’s viridis colour palette and I need to get a life

Made a chart (Re: EU-Mercosur-India trade deals).

Was struck by how small the share of exports with Japan is, but digging deeper, since the 2018 EU-JP Trade Agreement, bilateral total (goods and services) trade soared by 20%, albeit from low baseline. Lends credence to the 'much potential' take?

Made a chart (Re: EU-Mercosur-India trade deals).

Was struck by how small the share of exports with Japan is, but digging deeper, since the 2018 EU-JP Trade Agreement, bilateral total (goods and services) trade soared by 20%, albeit from low baseline. Lends credence to the 'much potential' take?

Cross posted:

Agree with Karthik that weaponising centrality in that domain is self-terminating.

*sigh*

dollar_smile.jpeg

a man in a suit and tie is standing in a room ALT: a man in a suit and tie is standing in a room

Everything else is just dandy

The miserable thing about the dollar system is that developing countries get screwed on the way up (refinancing-, debt servicing- and import costs rise) and on the way down (lower value of their dollar-denominated sovereign debt means higher yields).

Any reason to repost “hurry, carry” <-> Hara Kiri

These USDJPY days must be field days for @rajakorman.bsky.social

I will tag gladly tag along wondering why I’m there!

And do you see your dependence on the fin sector as geopolitically liability. Obvs they feel they can’t actually pull these threads.

So this is famously opaque no? afaik know there isn’t a country-level breakdown or private vs public holding, and even less for entities by region. But my impression is that it’s mostly custodianship. But that wouldn’t change the legal case no? It’s just: are you willing to tank London as a haven

whole heartedly agree about this though. an absolutely necessary first step.

China Came Late to Capitalism but Early to Its Pathologies In China, the number of single-person households has increased along with rates of loneliness. In this respect, China is not unique. It is simply suffering from the same social dislocation affecting a...

Nice dip into the rise of loneliness in China by @newlefteviews.bsky.social
jacobin.com/2026/01/chin...

For non-UK, what's more crucial for sovereignty and geopolitical leverage, especially regarding the holdings of US assets, is the creation of a deep market for joint liabilities for a global euro.

A great recent piece by the mighty @shahinvallee.bsky.social:
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/a-g...

I don't know but I think what's preventing them is quite clear: London's status as a safe haven for finance is key to the UK economies in their view (and true in the short-term).

A lot of this is custody for US assets owned by non-UK entities under UK jurisdiction. It doesn’t mean they cant be leveraged, but the UK would have diminish London’s status as safe haven for this sort of activity. (hahaha_yes_sickos.jpeg).

I’m just curious why they’ve risen so sharply—any ideas?

Great thread on central bank independence by DL. Worth your 2 minutes

Starmer is wrong to opt for suppliance on the basis that the UK has no leverage over the US. British holdings of Treasuries have ballooned and surpassed China's. European holdings overall are major.

The highest of praise, thanks M

China Came Late to Capitalism but Early to Its Pathologies In China, the number of single-person households has increased along with rates of loneliness. In this respect, China is not unique. It is simply suffering from the same social dislocation affecting a...

Is China exceptional or just another case of industrial development?

A striking recent data point implies the answer might be: both. I argue that solo households are both a sign of great success and that China can't escape global 'dual economy' dynamics.

jacobin.com/2026/01/chin...

China Came Late to Capitalism but Early to Its Pathologies In China, the number of single-person households has increased along with rates of loneliness. In this respect, China is not unique. It is simply suffering from the same social dislocation affecting a...

"The more dramatic and speedy the capitalist development, the greater the severity of the social dislocations that generate these dual-economy patterns."

Good synthesis of China's political economic and demographic crises

There’s a wonderful clarity to Dominik’s writing here:

But as I say:

These households are mostly rural old and urban young, and they're concentrated in the richer prefectures too. It's hard to separate that from the declining prospects of young people seen during the downturn amidst sky high housing costs. Seems awfully familiar.

But you see a notable increase of the share of one-person household after the downturn begins in 2020, (even in the data re-benchmarked to the 2020 census).

Most of the growth in solo households is largely due to China's urbanisation, which is arguably the single most dramatic process of material and social transformation of the postwar era. (Note: post 1980, when youths were allowed back, urbanisation rates were lower than India's.)