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Clem Fon

@clemfon.bsky.social
2.1K followers 940 following 479 posts

Professor of Political Economy at UcLouvain Central banking & infrastructural finance geek. Also EU & French politics, political economy & social sciences at large. Dr Miette bonus: #recordoftheweek & #tuneoftheweek

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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 19h
Some years ago, the main tool to face speculative attack/downwards valuation on sovereign debt was a powerful central bank. Today, it's solar panels and electrification, you know, the road EU conservatives have blocked because greening is "woke" www.ft.com/content/f894...
ft.com
Oil price and US Treasury yields in tightest relationship since 1990
Bond investors watch Iran conflict and crude price for signs as to where government borrowing costs will go
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
What could go wrong?
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
In other words, AI hyperscalers are creating a global Dutch disease www.ft.com/content/00f9...
ft.com
AI hyperscalers are transforming debt
The sector’s huge capital needs are forcing companies and countries to rethink how they borrow money
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
I understand why top4 consultancy is afraid of chatbots now. They really do similar things
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
In 1986, a nuclear power plant in Chernobyl went rogue. Doesn't make sense? Yes, you're right, and AI tech barron's narratives don't either. Rather, let's start talking about weak regulation and poor internal security systems (as we did with nuclear power plants)
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Climate Defiance @climatedefiance.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
HUGE UPDATE: we halted Amazon's panel at Climate Week. We shut it down so hard that every guest and every speaker had to leave the premises. No one was able to return. Their whole event lasted less time than their warehouse workers' pee break.
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Dr. Serge Zaka @sergezaka.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
24 septembre 2026 : encore 37 °C en France. Si cette température était un épisode isolé, je n'en ferais pas un post. Mais ce n'est justement pas le cas car cela dure depuis le mois de mai.
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Dude, your muse charm talisman bla is basically a tamagotchi. It will die after you forgot to feed it for 2 days. www.ft.com/content/f477...
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Tired: Securitization and derivatives of oligarchs' yachts. Wired: Barons' private equity-backed swimming pool “platforms” Don't underestimate private finance capacity to deliver for (its) people. #democraticyachting #democraticbaronspools
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Pourquoi l inflation alimenterait elle l extreme droite? A la limite, que les gouvernements en place soient punis, comme Trump risque de l etre aux midterms, ok, mais sinon je vois pas les liens causaux
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Robin Wigglesworth @robinwigglesworth.ft.com · 18/09/2026
Damn. @tobyn.bsky.social has produced the most detailed map of Big AI’s incestuous relationships I’ve seen so far. And it’s interactive! www.ft.com/content/8475...
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Irénée Régnauld @ireneer.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
This.
Meme avec di caprio et amodei 
Le premier dit "sell me this pen"
Le second repond "it's going to kill you all"
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Also, many revealing attention biases there: you are a teacher, a care worker, a street cleaner, a nurse, a supermarket clerk? no one cares. But farmers? EU farmers are the best in the world. Voilà
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
When EU policymakers are trying to humanize their discourses, it just reads like a bad romantic novel published at Berlaymont editions
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
C'est même pire que ca en termes d'aneries vagues: "Yet, European pipes lose almost one in every four litres Mostly through leakage. What a waste. So we will put forward a new European Water initiative. Because water is precious. For our industry – and for our food security."
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
As many geeks here cast their votes on birds vs people design for the new € banknotes, let's collectively remember the past experiences of the Frankfurt's € sculpture as unveiled by @quinnslobodian.com in Hayek's Bastards (including 943 cows)
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Benjamin Braun @benbraun.social · 14/09/2026
Frontier AI firms are openly calling for competition-reducing coordination. We shouldn't be surprised: The inter-firm infrastructure for this has long been in the making. People think varieties of capitalism is no longer cool but Silicon Valley has built a ... privately coordinated market economy.
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Aurélien Goutsmedt @aurelien-goutsmedt.com · 11/09/2026
Interesting FT chart: Central banks have leaned hard on 'wage growth leads to inflation' in communication & as policy channel. But data since the 1980s tells a messier story: quarters with hotter wage growth are followed by lower core PCE inflation a year later, not higher www.ft.com/content/a525...
Scatter plot titled 'Warsh was right,' showing ECI wage growth (x-axis, 1% to 9%) plotted against the change in core PCE inflation over the following year (y-axis, -2 to 4 percentage points). Quarterly data since 1981. Points show a negative trend: a downward-sloping line indicates that higher wage growth quarters tend to be followed by lower future inflation change, not higher. Data is scattered widely around the trend line. Source: Haver Analytics, via Financial Times.
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Per Engzell @pengzell.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Sabina Alkire, from the audience: We have seed banks to safeguard against catastrophe. What is the AI equivalent? Will we still have a 'seed bank' of academics who know how to use a library?
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Tooze "Reflecting on the political earthquake in Germany" Criticizes simplistic economic accounts of AfD voting and explains 2 features 1 collapse of a potential progressive majority 2 why huge surge in support by far came from previous non-voters. adamtooze.substack.com/p/chartbook-...
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Julius Kölzer @juliusk.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Saxony-Anhalt went to the polls, with the AfD falling just short of a majority. Here are some takeaways based on the preliminary results across all 218 municipalities and local socioeconomic characteristics. A thread 🧵(1 /n) Full analysis + write-up: juliuskoelzer.de/saxony-anhal...
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Catherine E. de Vries @catherinedevries.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
We’re hiring! Poli Sci & IR department at IE University in Madrid is hiring three tenure-track Assistant Professors, starting 1st of September 2027, in: Comparative Politics: lnkd.in/ePDfwjJB International Relations: lnkd.in/eDu5vGTf Political Economy: lnkd.in/eciDukTA 1/3
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Giulio Mattioli @giuliomattioli.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Germany in 2023: "Enough with this EV obsession, focusing on ICEs that run on e-fuels will usher in a new export success made in Germany" Germany in 2026: "Why are the Chinese selling so many EVs on our market, this is unfair!"
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
@financialtimes.com is the sharpest Marxist-critical financial newspaper out there (and home to the all-time best pop-situationist section, @alphaville.ft.com), yet also a perennial nesting ground for clunky, ideologically fossilized op-eds from liberal zealots think-tank relics.
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
When EU growth is wiped out by this summer’s heatwaves and droughts, and Belgium suffers its worst wildfire in history, let’s remember Pierre Wunsch’s, Belgium’s central banker, wise words from March 2025: ‘Climate change will never cost us more than one large oil shock.’
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Critical Takes on Corporate Power @criticaltakes.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
Well, this is interesting! This informative paper argues that Chinese firms have got ahead in cleantech partly because in the US and Europe, policy is overly influenced by "grey" corporate interests - incumbent companies which produce or use fossil fuels. 1/2
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Or let them find out
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Increasingly radicalising Le Figaro, lead french conservative newspaper, blaming French wildfires and ecological catastrophes on..drumrolls, ecologists and political ecology. Me eyes are still bleeding from one of the worst shit i ve read
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✨[redacted]✨ @britculpsapp.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
christ if that’s not a metaphor for our times
reuters: 

Sunken Nazi warships resurface as water levels drop
Scuttled German WW2 warships have reemerged from the Danube in drought-hit Europe.
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Benjamin Braun @benbraun.social · 24/07/2026
I was just there, on a day trip after the SASE conference in Bordeaux. Where thousands of academics had gathered (in unbearably hot university buildings). Many (most?) had travelled there by plane. Still thinking that if we keep doing conferences at all, we need much stricter air travel rules.
theguardian.com
France orders total evacuation of Cap Ferret peninsula as wildfire spreads
‘Intense and highly unpredictable’ blaze forces more than 40,000 people to flee popular holiday spot
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
RT @blimpjuice.bsky.social "Here is @triofrancos.bsky.social explaining the failure of the IRA in three paragraphs better than anyone has explained it, and debunking the entire new wave of "don't talk about climate" left punching bullshit in the process" THEA RIOFRANCOS, THE NEW WORLD CLIMATE ORDER
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Bowling alone in the peloton; domestics as the grocery tenants
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
When you hear/read "populism party/vote bla", you should translate into far-right most of the time
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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
This might be the most blatant example in existence of "rich guy who created a problem attempting to place the blame for that problem on immigrants"
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Émilien Houard-Vial @ehouardvial.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
Être journaliste, c'est aussi s'intéresser à la recherche. Et celle-ci a établi depuis longtemps l'inanité de la thèse du gaucho-lepénisme. Le basculement de certaines terres de gauche au RN est avant tout dû au ralliement des électeurs de droite et au renouvellement générationnel.
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Lauren Leek @laurenleek.eu · 02/07/2026
NEW! Combining my two obsessions of cycling and political economy data into a new Substack: Tour de Data. Daily posts for every stage of the Tour de France, digging into what the race tells us about money, place, and power. Not just who's in yellow;) 🚴📊 tourdedata.substack.com
tourdedata.substack.com
Tour de data | Lauren Leek | Substack
Everyone watches the racing. I'm watching the data on riders, money, towns, and what the Tour is really about. Click to read Tour de data, by Lauren Leek, a Substack publication. Launched 18 hours ago...
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Dave Vetter @davidrvetter.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
So when people criticize Beijing for propping up the car industry, what they're really complaining about is the fact that Beijing implemented strategic financial and industrial policies, and the West failed to do so. 4/4
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
All tram service suspended in Leipzig, Germany due to the extreme heat, the bitumen grouts on the rails are melting. Please tell me how heat is a problem that can be fixed with ACs www.yahoo.com/news/weather... bsky.app/profile/70sb...
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
In 2026, 11 years after the Paris Agreement, the flurry of net zero pledges peak oil discourses and even in the midst of the IA boom/bubble, the best way to increase your wealth on the markets is still to put your money on fossil fuel compagnies.
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Daniela Gabor @danielagabor.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
In 2022, we warned about the dangers of Housing as an Asset Class in a report for the European Parliament. Lots of wise heads nodded. But here we are again, and we cannot even blame China for this political failure
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
In Europe, we suffocate in thermal ovens. Lack of proper rentals' regulation and private equity gobbling up housing markets organise one of the largest wealth transfers from the poorest to the richest. EU wants to solve this housing crisis. Guess how?👇
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Benjamin Braun @benbraun.social · 29/06/2026
Who are the crypto bros? The amazing Izaura Solipa crunched the data. Short answer: Crypto bros share the same privileged traits, educational credentials, and institutional access that characterize elites in 'traditional' Wall Street segments. Just out in SER: academic.oup.com/ser/advance-...
Title and Abstract of the linked paper: 

New finance, old structures: cryptocurrencies and the reproduction of financial elites in the USA

Crypto research highlights the anarcho-libertarian feature of the crypto movement, characterizing the industry as a radical departure from governmental and corporate influence. This study investigates the characteristics of the US crypto elite, highlighting how the demographic structure and the institutional connections of the industry resemble those of the established financial elite. Drawing on original data from board members of top US crypto and financial firms, Fortune 1000 companies, and major policy-planning organizations, it develops three comparisons. Results show that crypto elites share similar socio-educational traits with traditional finance leaders and engage with powerful corporate and political affiliations, despite being more peripheral in corporate networks—likely due to the sector’s recent emergence. Notably, the White House appears in the career paths of both groups, suggesting a shared pattern of revolving door integration into state structures. Rather than a structural transformation, crypto appears to align with the broader elite configuration of the US political economy.
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
That whole thread
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Imagine if hundreds of people died in an extreme hurricane or floods smashing through Europe Heatwaves have already killed that many people. They are an extraordinary silent killer in that they dont generate outrage or fear.
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Francois Jobard @francoisjobard.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Les presque 30 °C (29.5 °C) de T° minimale à la station Meteo-France de #Paris Lariboisiere la nuit dernière sont possiblement un record mondial à une latitude aussi nord (48°51') , venant souligner le caractère absolument hors norme et dangereux de la chaleur nocturne dans les rues de Paris...
Carte infoclimat des minimales de la nuit de jeudi à vendredi à Paris. 26.3 à Montsouris et 29.5 à Lariboisiere représentatif milieu urbain donc de ce que vivent les gens
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Daniela Gabor @danielagabor.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Tightening against an energy price shock is a crude response, that only works if it chokes the economy, and green investment with it. It shouldn't be so controversial for the ECB to accept it.
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Everyone: laughing at this out of touch dude. Central bankers: oh, who would have thought that core inflation metrics were used in forecasting at Fox, just like us!
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
UvdL 2.0 in a nutshell
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Clem Fon @clemfon.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Ahlalala, il etait vraiment temps d'aider les entreprises europeennes à retrouver leur competitivite. Mais, mais ca veut dire quoi competitivite? La capacite a maximiser ses marges de profits en empoisonnant ses clients et le poison sera europeen, pas chinois, voilà ma bonne dame
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