Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 8hEvery private sector briefing note I’ve read on ‘geoeconomics’ begins with the same obligatory reference to Blackwill & Harris 2016 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 14hThe AI Doom Loop™ft.comNvidia turns to insurers to spread the risk of AI build-outWorld’s largest listed company looks for new ways to draw Wall Street deeper into the financing of the AI boom 011
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Still grappling with the fallout from how much Covid shifted the overton window on politicians’ construction of fiscal space at just the moment when the macro/geopolitical context became less conducive to realising it 030
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Racking up policy commitments conditional on Labour winning the next election won’t survive till 2029 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 29/09/2026My students have never heard of Adam Tooze so it really must be the end of history 110
Reposted by Scott JamesJens van 't Klooster 💸💸💸 @jvtk.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Finally out, with @shahinvallee.bsky.social our ambitious story for European Macro Policy Network (EMPN) on the future of the global euro empn.eu/publication/... 610131
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Looking forward to chairing this discussion on 15 October between the ECB’s Jürgen Schaaf and the FT’s Martin Sandbu on the digital euro and Europe’s monetary sovereignty 020
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Except central banks have significantly raised the bar for financial crashes. Systemic loss of market confidence matters less than sudden collapse in trust that central banks can still backstop the system. We replaced price signals with politico-technocratic ones.theguardian.comAll the signs say another financial crisis is coming. Here’s why we need to prepare for it now | Larry ElliottWar, AI disruption and markets in turmoil: the warnings are all there. But lessons from the 2008 crash could help us, says Guardian columnist Larry Elliott 011
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Links to a nice Jackson Hole paper confirming that stablecoins are likely to reinforce dollar dominance - and that formal models are no substitute for good IPEft.comWill financial innovation dethrone the dollar?The evolution of a truly multi-polar currency market depends on governments’ willingness to embrace technology and fortify markets 020
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 27/08/2026The Long 1986…or 1694 Good illustration of the BOE’s uniquely conflicted role as regulator and champion of the City And why the main political faultline through the City has always been between the Treasury and Bank, not between Conservatives and Labourft.comMinisters tell Bank of England to boost innovation in digital currenciesTreasury gives central bank a new legal objective as part of effort to promote UK as hub for stablecoins 121
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 26/08/2026UK about to overtake China and Japan in holding Treasuries…as hedge funds book their positions through London 111
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Looking forward to chairing the panel on hedge funds and sovereign debt on 10/09, and presenting on stablecoins and privatised dollar dominance on 11/09 🇩🇰 010
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 25/08/2026“I actually believe a new asset class will be buying futures of compute. We just don’t have enough compute power right now.” - Larry Finkchamath.substack.comDeep Dive: The Next Trillion-Dollar Futures MarketAI capex hit $765B in 2026, passing oil and gas for the first time. The resource powering AI is getting its first futures contract. Here is what has to be true for it to work… 110
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 21/08/2026A reminder that Treasury market intervention in an age of Treasury-backed stablecoins, Tether Gold and tokenised MMFs makes 2007 look like a lemonade stand 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 21/08/2026‘Are we the vigilantes?’ft.comBitcoin and gold surge as Bessent’s bond market intervention weighs on dollarWorld’s biggest cryptocurrency on track for best week in more than three years 020
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 10/08/2026Fascinating discussion (from 30 mins) about whether stablecoin issuance under Genius constitutes new money creation and implications for monetary policyopen.substack.comMonetary Forces IV with Noelle & IzabellaStablecoins, money creation, Sony's impact, SWIFT and more 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 09/08/2026‘35% of the S&P 500 is seven companies. Six of them are losing money on AI and the seventh is the one they’re losing the money to.‘ 010
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 07/08/2026Important points here about how weaponised US supply chains and financial networks may be used increasingly to target domestic ‘adversaries’ as they become less effective against foreign onesopen.substack.comWhat the Anthropic fight says about AI regulationFables of the deconstruction of American power 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 26/07/2026‘Tech billionaires have visibly lost contact with reality and with anything that could plausibly be described as classical liberal values…The princely passions described by Hirschman didn’t disappear, but went underground. Commerce and power were fused into a new ideology of entrepreneurial virtù.’open.substack.comThe political economy of billionaire derangementThe passions are devouring the interests 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Without going full Hall & Soskice, unpicking some aspects of Thatcherism (centralisation + privatisation) but not others (financialisation) also risks creating a larger and more fragmented state whilst leaving the fundamental drivers of the UK’s stalled growth model intact 010
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Whatever reversing ‘neoliberalism’ means, a necessary condition must surely be reframing the City of London as a historic contingency amenable to state reform and not as a reified structure to be accommodated 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 21/07/2026If it’s traditional for effective PMs to appoint heavy hitting Chancellors to drive their domestic agenda, then Burnham’s strategy might be to delegate to a heavyweight Foreign Sec to create more space at home. But struggling to think of a precedent: Major & Hurd/Rifkind? 100
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 21/07/2026Burnham’s soft left populism clearly aimed at halting and potentially reversing Reform’s rise through targeted and politically driven redistribution, but it risks providing considerable space for a revived traditional Tory growth & competitiveness agenda 120
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 18/07/2026No, because remember who will write the history books 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 17/07/2026The obvious tensions between devolution and public ownership are as old as Labour itself 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 16/07/2026Imo a curious feature of so much critical IPE is how it’s suffused with an unwritten political realism and philosophical pessimism. The ubiquity of power, inevitability of conflict, limits of reason, etc. Tbh critical IPE without the promise of human progress is a pretty bleak place. 001
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Amidst the noise, this may be Reeves’s most enduring legacy: the UK has gone all in on dollar stablecoinsopen.substack.comThe 10 stablecoin commandmentsA U.S.-UK joint statement on stablecoins. 110
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 09/07/2026Re Tooze & Setser on the profit dollar, stablecoins might be seen as an effort to resolve - or at least delay or deflect - the contradictions: leverage offshore private (rather than official) demand for dollars as a vehicle currency whilst creating a captive market for USTsadamtooze.substack.comChartbook 457: The metamorphoses of the dollarThe general question I find myself preoccupied with right now is how we think - or fail to think - radical economic change. 100
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 09/07/2026Fwiw I’d rather live in a country that forces right populists to compete against a dustbin 020
Reposted by Scott JamesJo Michell @jomichell.bsky.social · 07/07/2026I see that the OBR has published its fiscal risks report. I kinda feel that something might happen that forces a change of course at some point before we get to debt at 1000% of GDP? And this implies that it's not a very meaningful scenario? 4182
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 04/07/2026The City of London was central to the political economy of Thatcher and Blair, but was an afterthought in Starmer’s. If Burnhamism is move beyond pot hole socialism, it needs a theory of finance.lrb.co.ukWilliam Davies · Burnham’s Political EconomyWhatever rash remarks he may have made about the bond markets or spending commitments, Andy Burnham understands... 010
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 02/07/2026With the US Treasury using $ stablecoins to create a captive market for T-Bills, and the BOE providing a gilt backstop to £ stablecoin issuers, we need to talk about the new infrastructural power of crypto 010
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 02/07/2026A recognition that gilt markets and sterling stablecoins are a heady brewopen.substack.comBoE to offer unique liquidity backstop for systemic GBP stablecoinsThe policy, aimed at maintaining gilt-market stability, positions the UK on a very different path to the EU. 010
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 02/07/2026Shot/chaser ‘Some big hedge funds believe they may actually benefit as higher funding costs squeeze smaller rivals out of the market.’ft.comBank of England to push ahead with plan to limit hedge fund leverageMove to make gilt market more resilient has been criticised for potentially raising funding costs 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 25/06/2026Trump’s carbon coalition of blue collar workers and high finance arrives in the UK 🤝 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 22/06/2026A reminder that one of the most immediate and consequential tasks for Burnham and his chancellor will be finding a replacement for Andrew Bailey by March 2028. But that timing probably comes too late in the electoral cycle to seriously rethink the Treasury-BOE relationship. 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 20/06/2026Because obviously Britain has no history of effectual PMs governing in constructive tension with heavyweight Chancellors 021
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 17/06/2026CBI is a regime grounded in a distinct ecosystem of economic interests & epistemic politics. Left and Right opponents have polarised views on monetary policy and represent incompatible constituencies. Lack of consensus on what replaces CBI is a recipe for politicisation without institutionalisation.theguardian.comBritain’s politicians need to worry less about the bond markets – and more about the Bank of England | Daniela GaborA new model of central banking would weaken the power of bond vigilantes – and help progressive politicians pay for transformative change, says academic Daniela Gabor 100
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 13/06/2026We also need better theories of financial repression if this is the most likely and feasible route to fiscal consolidation. Pragmatism over orthodoxy is also prudent, but to what end? Otherwise it risks degenerating into muddling through the polycrisis until something shows upopen.substack.comChartbook 448 Price controls, nationalization, financial repression, fiscal-monetary coordination - embracing the Four Horsemen of HeterodoxyIf the current state of the world economy is marked by stark cognitive dissonance, if what is not sustainable cannot be sustained, then what comes next? 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 13/06/2026Still not sure there’s an internally consistent Toozian account of moral hazard. You’re either relaxed about the crisis-driven ratchet effect expansion of CB balance sheets, and the systemic hazard it generates, or you need a coherent theory of unwinding which isn’t conditional on growth.open.substack.comChartbook 447: The US economy in May 2026 - How much cognitive dissonance can you handle?Open your favorite business paper or news site right now and you will be confronted with a scene of spectacular cognitive dissonance. 000
Scott James @drscottjames.bsky.social · 12/06/2026Well timed Muskologypodcasts.apple.com/538/ Muskism ft. Quinn Slobodian & Ben TarnoffPodcast Episode · Bungacast · 10 March · 1hr 15min 000