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It's hard to know where to start with this misleading, depressive response to Burnham's speech by Janan Ganesh in the FT today. The PM didn't say he 'doesn't care' about growth. Because he didn't make it the centre of his speech doesn't mean he thinks it's unimportant. www.ft.com/content/3b92...

ft.com

At least Burnham doesn’t pretend to care about growth

Unlike his predecessors, Britain’s prime minister is a fairly honest stagnation-ist

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Worth a listen. The social and political awareness of some contemporary economists contrasts with the physics-envious mathematicians who taught me a few decades ago. Maybe i'm out of touch with academia but it does seem as though things might be improving in some quarters. youtu.be/aNYDMfdD6pg?...

youtu.be

Nobel Economist Warns: AI WILL DESTROY Democracy | Aaron Bastani meets Daron Acemoglu

YouTube video by Novara Media

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Yesterday France moved closer to fascism after the far-right Rassemblement National quadrupled its number of seats in the Senate. This is the former National Front, one of whose founders was in the Waffen SS. Marine's dad was imprisoned for holocaust denial, dismissing it as a 'detail of history'.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Exactly, and the list of guests dining with Xi is why the risk of a US-China conflict is exaggerated. US-China corporatism shares common cause. The 65 wars currently going on are bigger problems. www.npr.org/2026/06/09/n...

npr.org

Conflicts are on the rise globally, at the highest level since WWII, data shows

Global conflicts surged to the highest number tallied by Uppsala Conflict Data Program. Fatalities were the highest on record since 1994, with approximately 244,600 people killed in conflict in 2025.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

The LSE's appointment of Rory Stewart as a Professor in the Dept. of International Relations mainstreams someone who's part of the problem, not the solution. Colonial governor in an illegal war; misunderstanding of basic economics; opposition to fair taxation... substack.com/@dangay/note...

substack.com

Dr Dan Gay (@dangay)

The London School of Economics has appointed Rory Stewart as Professor in Practice in the LSE Department of International Relations. What's disturbing is the mainstreaming and legitimisation of some...

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Another sage warning from UNCTAD on the growing services trade digital divide. Logistics, finance, design and data management are increasingly built into all production. Least developed countries are falling behind. unctad.org/news/digital...

unctad.org

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

A simpler public tender system sounds good but is just the sort of industrial policy that the EU criticises in the likes of China. Surely it could also face challenge via WTO Govt Procurement Agreement (even though GPA only has 49 members and doesn't include China)? www.reuters.com/world/china/...

reuters.com

EU proposes simpler public tender rules, 'Buy European' criteria to cut foreign dependence

The European Commission has proposed new rules for public tenders that would create an EU-wide platform to improve access and slash paperwork for companies, and give ‌EU governments the option to exc...

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Reposted by Dan Gay

Jess Miers 🦝 @jmiers230.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

In recent cases, it's not that AI somehow "escaped containment" or "went rogue." That's anthropomorphizing at best. It's more like if a Boston Dynamics robot dog nudged open an already open door and walked in.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

AI isn't going to result in some godlike super-consciousness that overtakes human intelligence, but machine learning and massive computing power without our understanding and control could unleash enormous damage. Tech leaders call for AI slowdown - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

giftarticle.ft.com

Rivals Altman and Musk rally behind Dario Amodei’s call for an AI slowdown

Warring tech bosses unite behind warnings that humans could lose control of the technology

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Reposted by Dan Gay

Adam Bienkov @adambienkov.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Asked if the Government considers the masked thugs swarming British ports “far right” Andy Burnham’s spokesman replies that “it's an operational matter for the police to set out their response to the protests on the ground. So I will leave them to respond to that.”

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Thank God for those financial market analysts, propping up democracy like they do. Without them how would us poor simpletons understand those trade-offs?🙄

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Smart glasses: “The biggest advance in pervert technology since the trenchcoat.”😂 “We will never have more money than billionaires but we can always be funnier and more interesting,” says an EHE co-founder.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Tell me again we shouldn't use the f-word. “I think we should be doing 30 to 40 targeted assassinations per night,” Ben-Gvir said. “Not just those who pose an immediate threat. There are people there who don’t deserve to live . . . They are not even people.”

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

This is very good: "The hypnotic powers of Trump and Musk are often a phantasm, losing their pull if people decline to be entranced." Does Silicon Valley dream of Philip K Dick? - giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

giftarticle.ft.com

Does Silicon Valley dream of Philip K Dick?

His 1960s science-fiction visions are a guide to our age of erratic billionaires, wild space fantasies and glitchy, invasive technology

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

"For the half of humanity living on under $4,000 per year, development is a chief concern," writes Tim Hirschel-Burns in Jacobin, in a decent attempt to link opposition to the genocide in Gaza with the need dor a wider progressive US foreign policy. jacobin.com/2026/07/left...

jacobin.com

The Left Needs Its Own Foreign Policy

Outrage at US complicity in the war on Gaza has pushed many Americans to think about international politics for the first time. The Left should seize this moment to push its vision of how the global o...

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

China’s economy is growing more slowly, according to a report today. Many economists and China critics will wrongly seize on the news as proof that the Chinese model is failing and that the US and EU are doing better in comparison. It isn't, and they're not. substack.com/@dangay/note...

substack.com

Dr Dan Gay (@dangay)

China’s economy is growing slower than it has in decades, according to a report today. GDP expanded 4.3% in the second quarter on a year earlier, below official targets. Many mainstream economists a...

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Turns out the US economy isn't trouncing Europe's quite as badly as everyone says it is. "the higher growth of productivity in the US tech sector (and so of US GDP per head) is questionable, not because it is wrong, but because this is a matter of judgment." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

How global hegemony fades: "More than half of American ambassadorships were vacant, including high-status posts from Germany to Saudi Arabia... nearly 80 per cent of US embassies [in Africa] do not have an ambassador." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

giftarticle.ft.com

RIP the US state department

America’s diplomats used to have global sway. Now they are besieged by their own president

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

Amrita Saha and I have just published an article in the Development Policy Review on the implications of the polycrisis for trade and development. Among other things the article argues that trade hasn't worked as well as it should for development. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

"Our global health foreign assistance programme is not just aid - it is a strategic mechanism to further our bilateral interests around the world." www.bbc.com/news/article...

bbc.com

US-Africa health deals: Why some nations are turning down Trump's money

The Trump administration sees the aid as more transactional - but some say it is not a fair trade.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Q: What's the definition of an existential threat? A: Camus with a baseball bat.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Bye-bye Greenspan. You helped create the mess we're now in and you realised too late. 1966: the welfare state was "nothing more than a mechanism by which governments confiscate the wealth of the productive members of a society". In 2008 he admitted he'd put too much faith in the free market.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

Trump's pond is like the devil's mirror in Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen - except Trump's version reflects back mud and dirt.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

British politics is so odd. The country will soon be led by the former mayor of an English city whose friend stepped aside so that he could be elected to parliament with a view to becoming prime minister. Most folk get no say in the matter. No wonder they feel like no-one listens to them.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

The richest human ever to have existed - by far - has just increased his wealth to over a trillion dollars. If you add up the annual economic output of the world's bottom 103 countries by total GDP you get to SpaceX’s $2.1 trillion market capitalisation.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 12/06/2026

It's not just Iran drawing these conclusions. Others in the Global South also know multilateralism is failing. “More than ever before, we have concluded that building trust is a meaningless strategy”. “Only strength can serve as a deterrent, not arguments in international forums about our rights."

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

One reason I consider #AI to be machine learning rather than 'intelligence' is that it seems to have no aesthetic sense. Here's another ugly graphic from an economic report I just read.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

The always insightful Sarah O'Connor excels again in a superb piece about how statistical averages don't always tell the whole story about the winners and losers from industrial upheavals. giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

The bullying continues. The US invents worries about 'forced labour' as an excuse for new tariffs. Somehow I never saw Trump as a labour rights enthusiast. www.thedailystar.net/business/new... giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

thedailystar.net

US proposes new tariffs on Bangladesh, 59 others over forced labour concerns

Countries could face additional tariffs of 10% or 12.5% on their exports, depending on their forced labour import bans and reciprocal trade arrangements. These levies are subject to a public review.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

I love how out-of-touch these online celebrities make me feel. I'd never heard of Andrew Tait until he got arrested. These guys are completely new to me as well. "Piker has more than 3 million followers on Twitch and more than 1.5 million on X."👀 www.theguardian.com/media/2026/j...

theguardian.com

Free speech activists condemn UK entry ban for two leftwing US commentators

Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker, who have both been accused of propagating antisemitism, barred from visiting for event

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 26/05/2026

Fuel for Farage: "UK average earnings are set to fall outright as inflation rises over the coming months against a backdrop of very weak hiring." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

giftarticle.ft.com

Real wages start to shrink in developed countries

Strait of Hormuz crisis pushes price growth ahead of pay increases in US, UK and elsewhere

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

A $1.75 trillion SpaceX valuation would be slightly larger than the combined GDP of all the world’s 44 least developed countries.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

At least a third of US voters don't think it was the wrong decision to attack Iran? 😱

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Agree, an excellent idea which is surely the future. 👍

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

As with Trump and other far-right shysters, Farage's party is so corrupt and incompetent that it'll certainly fail. There's no 'there' there. The big unknown is how many years failure will take, and that time risks dragging the UK down so far that by the time folk ditch him, it'll be too late.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

As usual, this self-promoting hype makes no sense. Musk, 2015: “My guess for when we will have full autonomy is approximately three years.” Dec '15: "we will have complete autonomy in approximately two years.” Globally, 4.5% of cars on the road are electric. 3/4 of new cars sold are combustion.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

Anyone who says neoliberalism is dead should read this. “Free-market principles remain the best proven path to lasting prosperity, with better and more permanent results than any of the alternatives,” Walz said. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

From not a lot to even less: How the billions to trillions agenda failed dangay.substack.com/p/from-not-a...

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

The Swiss got him to cut their tariffs by giving him a big clock. Britain did it with a large golden bell engraved with the word Trump. Iran will be getting ideas...

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

I googled UK aid cuts just now and the AI slop machine got the answer wrong. Aid will total an estimated £9.2 billion in 2027. It's not a *reduction* of £9.2 billion. The thing can't even read properly. Artificial intelligence my a*se.

Google's so-called artificial intelligence gets the UK aid cut wrong.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Zambia would be required to give U.S. companies greater access to its huge reserves of lithium, copper and cobalt. This would, by extension, “end what the United States sees as China’s preferential access to Zambian mines”. The agreement would also force negotiations over mining industry regulations

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

"the lost souls in the middle of the road." I like that one.

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Dan Gay @dangay.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

Sorry, what was that again?

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