Fabian Schmidt

Photos: The Scale of China’s Solar-Power Projects As the Trump administration's “big, beautiful bill” eliminates many clean-energy incentives in the U.S., China continues huge investments in wind and solar power, reportedly accounting for 74 percent ...

I assume you saw this, but ICYMI, and for others here:
www.theatlantic.com/photography/...

Brussels might seem chaotic and dirty sometimes but it has so many great urban designs!

🚨 New publication out: “The Anatomy of Chinese Capitalism” (Competition & Change / Köncke, Erlbacher & Schmalz, 2025)

How and to what extent does the party-state govern top Chinese firms?

We unpack this with new data and a sectoral lens.
🔗 doi.org/10.1177/1024...

@sfb294.bsky.social

How is he allowed to already drive a car again after what happened in 2023?!

By re-allocating funds that were previously earmarked for investments in climate, environment and people to an ominous "Competitiveness Fund", the European Commission's proposal for the new budget seems to effectively represent a huge transfer of resources from labour (people) to capital.

Die russische Dreifach­blamage Wie Putins Geheimdienste in fünf Tagen drei Katastrophen erlebten.

Scharfsinniges Update zur politischen Ökonomie des russischen Geheimdienstkartenhauses

www.republik.ch/2025/07/24/d...

Another example of our new era where China is not only supplying us with cheap consumer goods but dominates strategic sectors.

We were really sleepwalking into this across the board from energy to mobility to military technology. And now it comes down all at once.

Rational voting theory is hitting the wall

Is Decarbonization Dead? Podcast-Folge · The Ezra Klein Show · 25.07.2025 · 1 Std. 17 Min.

podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/t...

The fight against climate crisis in @janeaflegal.bsky.social ‘s framing:

A fight between feedback loops, that is, of the climatic feedback loops triggered by our emissions and driving us deeper into crisis

versus

the societal/political feedback loops that we try to unleash to get to net zero.

mostly I want people to think of quantitative data as a specific subset of qualitative data, which it is (qualitative data on the reaction of a measuring device to empirical experience, whether numerical or in other form)

Calories per Gram per Kilometer / Bodyweight for various animals / machines. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24923004

🚲🚲There is nothing more efficient in the world of machines and animals than a human on a bicycle.

The humble bicycle is an amazing machine.

www.jstor.org/stable/24923...

Eher die Variante Ton aus.

Kopfhörer werden ja vom Massen- zum Luxusgut. Entweder man hat gar keine dabei oder große Over-ears bzw. Airpods. Letztere trägt man auch dann noch im Ohr, während man sich mit anderen unterhält. Die Standard 15€-Kopfhörer hingegen scheinen im Verschwinden begriffen.

Ich frage dann meistens einigermaßen höflich nach, ob die Person nicht bitte Kopfhörer verwenden oder den Ton ausschalten könne. In der überwiegenden Zahl der Fälle reagieren die Leute leicht aufgeschreckt, als ob man sie aus einem Traum erweckt hätte, und kommen der Bitte sogleich nach.

Brutal

Street transformed as a people-place

This Vienna street isn’t “closed” because cars have been removed. It’s been opened to everything else, to a diverse and invigorated civic life for people, because cars have been replaced by a multitude of wonderful things.

Language matters.

HT @dmoser.bsky.social for the pic. #OpenStreets

100 percent! Chinese cars now dominate the market almost everywhere but North America. Very clear in my recent travels to East Asia and the Middle East, for example. Easily a 9:1 ratio!

Good point here: as global trade plunges into chaos, it is all the more important to closely align the policy environment steering demand for green tech with the industrial policies that try to expand their production.

1 witz

"[..]Geld spart der Staat dadurch nicht. Denn der Bund kann sich am Anleihemarkt Kapital für unter 3% Zinsen beschaffen. Private Investoren erwarten mindestens das Doppelte[..]. Die zahlen am Ende in jedem Fall die Bürgerinnen und Bürger" /2

Vietnam setting bans on gasoline motorcycles next year, followed by cars Vietnam is taking bold steps to clean up its streets – and quiet them down. Starting next summer, the major...

While German politicians and car manufacturers are busy whining about „the need for technological openness“, Vietnam is advancing electrification in big steps by banning ICE motorcycles, soon cars.

electrek.co/2025/07/20/v...

CumCum-Milliarden: Zeit ist Steuergeld Wusstest Du, dass dem Staat 28,5 Milliarden Euro durch illegale CumCum-Geschäften entzogen wurden? Jetzt bewegt sich Finanzminister Klingbeil endlich, um das Geld zurückzufordern. Aber das Geld ist n...

Schon gewusst, „dass dem Staat 28,5 Milliarden Euro durch illegale CumCum-Geschäften entzogen wurden? Jetzt bewegt sich Finanzminister Klingbeil endlich […]. Aber das Geld ist noch längst nicht zurück: Dafür braucht es den Einsatz von mehr Personal. Jetzt unterzeichnen ✍️ und teilen!“

Bar chart titled “Motivating Issues” showing how different Democratic policy priorities motivate voters to support Democrats in the 2026 elections. Top issues include affordable health insurance (62% very motivated), tax enforcement on wealthy cheats (62%), preventing tax hikes on working families (60%), and lowering prices by stopping price gouging (60%). Bars are color-coded by intensity: very, somewhat, not too, and not at all motivated.

Bar chart showing reasons Biden skippers cited for not voting in 2024. The top reason (16%) was that Kamala Harris lacked a strong plan to lower the cost of living, closely followed (15%) by concerns she didn’t address poverty and inequality. Other reasons include weak leadership, courting Republicans, and stances on Gaza, immigration, guns, and transgender rights. A note highlights that Republicans, Latinas, and middle-aged voters were most likely to cite these concerns.

Fascinating survey data on the missing Biden voters by Lake Research. The voters who sat out in '24 weren't looking for a centrist or turned off by trans rights. They want a genuine economic populist agenda: take on corporate greed, lower costs, and make the wealthy pay their fair share.

Graphic from the Monde article this cites. Would want to show this to all the anti-bike lane politicians out there. Parisians are using bikes as commuting vehicles, avoiding massive amounts of additional cars and metro crowding at peak periods.

Die Bundesregierung sagt, Sie könne den Kommissions-Vorschlag zum neuen EU-Haushalt nicht akzeptieren, weil ein "umfassender Aufwuchs" in Zeiten der Konsolidierung nationaler Haushalte nicht vermittelbar sei.

Ich halte das aus ein paar Gründen für keine kluge deutsche Position:

Inside America’s booming immigration detention industry The enormous US deportation programme is enriching companies as detainees complain of poor treatment

The growing system of detention camps in the USA is really scary. Superb reporting by FT.

ig.ft.com/us-immigrati...

We proudly present: The Fiscal Space

I was explaining to my Ukrainian colleague the phrase ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’. She told me the equivalent in Ukrainian is ‘The only free cheese is in the mousetrap’ - which is so much better