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Duncan Weldon

@duncanweldon.bsky.social
26K followers 1.7K following 9.5K posts

Economics writer. Author. Expect history, economics, finance and other stuff. Some cricket. Wrote Two Hundred Years of Muddling Through. Blood and Treasure, on the economics of war, out now.

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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 9h
What even is the point of doing a perfect tricky bit of parallel parking if the only person in the car with you is a child who can’t drive and won’t praise it?
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 11h
The problem is that these vary from really quite minor to outrageous. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricke...
bbc.co.uk
Test cricket's biggest scandals: Rank BBC Sport's top 10
As memories of sandpapergate are rekindled by Australia's upcoming tour of South Africa, rank the biggest scandals in Test cricket's history.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 11h
The actually refreshing bit about the Burnham speech is that he seems up for an argument, making a case and trying to convince people of something. Even acknowledged that trade-offs are a thing.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 14h
Drop the triple lock/create a national care service is a proper policy offer. But I am slightly confused about setting out a manifesto for 2028/29 in late 2026 with years of governing still to go.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 15h
That’s about one third of the UK vehicle stock.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 16h
Thinking back to the post-Venezuela, Greenland sabre-rattling when we were told about the Donroe doctrine and how the US would now concentrate on the Western hemisphere. Feels a very long time ago. Given that whole seven months and counting war in the Middle East thing.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 17h
Glad I decided to try and find out if El Niño would make for a colder or a warmer British winter.
The so-called Big Freeze of winter 2009/2010 was, at the time, the coldest in three decades - and this coincided with an El Niño.
However, 2006/2007 was also an El Niño winter and that was unseasonably warm.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 17h
I’m actually not against commissions/reviews as a tool of policy. But they work much better as a way of building consensus around difficult issues than they do at actually finding novel solutions.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 19h
If you are going to end the triple lock, you’re better off just ending it. Talking about a process of maybe ending it in the next Parliament, following some sort of review, feels like a way of minimising the fiscal saving while maximising the political pain.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 21h
Maybe I’m a Luddite on these things. But I’m always quite cautious about any financing structure that involves multiple hard to read circular flow charts. www.ft.com/content/d6a9... Nvidia turns to insurers to spread the risk of AI build-out
ft.com
Nvidia turns to insurers to spread the risk of AI build-out
World’s largest listed company looks for new ways to draw Wall Street deeper into the financing of the AI boom
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Lee Savage @leesavage.bsky.social · 21h
AI is a complementary technology. It's going to take a few years for employers to fully grasp this as they try to replace workers with LLMs, but they'll get there eventually
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Could be a diesel export ban. Could be renaming another lake. You never know.
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David Bent @davidbent.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
"As an...economic historian...I know that “anything that can be mass-produced will fall in price dramatically when it is mass produced”....And yet I forgot it." @timleunig.bsky.social on battery prices & path to Net Zero. So. Many. People. Make. This. Mistake. timleunig.substack.com/p/i-was-wrong
timleunig.substack.com
I was wrong
And what I learned from it.
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 28/09/2026
really nice FT Big Read today on the biggest shake-up in financial markets that not enough people know about: 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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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Superb and fascinating chart.
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Stephen Bush @stephenkb.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This one raises a fascinating philosophical question: if you list your flat for £200k more than it is worth, have you really listed it, or are you just posting pictures of your home's interior online?
Georgia Dean and her husband recently took their property off the market.

He bought the two-bedroom flat in Haggerston, east London, for £470,000 in 2014. But the mortgage rate was due to rise from 1.6 per cent to 4.8 per cent: renting the flat out no longer made financial sense.

They listed it in June for £650,000, a below-inflation increase. An estate agent told them “no one would sniff around if the price stayed above £600,000”, said Dean, who works in product at a tech start-up.

In the two months before the couple pulled the listing, it attracted only two viewings.
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Giles Wilkes @gilesyb.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
'Where a typical industrial product might have a few dozen suppliers, an ASML EUV has more than 100,000 parts provided by 200 principal suppliers and 2,000 companies overall." giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/... Industrial strategy so much harder than monetary policy, Exhibit LXIB
giftarticle.ft.com
ASML chief: ‘There is only one company making those machines’
Christophe Fouquet has built Europe’s biggest business through a total monopoly over the most advanced chipmaking equipment
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Left Outside @leftoutside.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Last decade has also seen a lot of oppression-biased technological change.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
In the happy place.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Ah. The unexpected uber/over running engineering works stage of getting to the cricket on a Sunday. Love the train system.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Good. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Andy Burnham announces new homes scheme for first-time buyers
Exclusive: Policy initiative for England will help more young people on to property ladder, prime minister tells Guardian
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Another datapoint in my continuing campaign: people should have hobbies.
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Daniel Knowles @dlknowles.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Some unintended consequences I suspect the rise of AI agents will create: 1. Restaurants that only take reservations by hand written letter, or more likely, don't take them at all. 2. Gigs where you can only buy tickets in person. 3. Businesses that operate without websites.
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 26/09/2026
This shitshow in bonds is the perfect environment for an accident. Fun! Me, 300 free clicks Bond ructions point to new danger zone in markets - as.ft.com/r/95199679-b...
as.ft.com
Bond ructions point to new danger zone in markets
Sell-offs of this scale and speed have the potential to light fires in other parts of the financial system
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Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Wow I’ve never seen this photo before. The two figures from American Gothic (who turn out to be the family dentist and the artist’s sister!) www.ft.com/content/6015...
The artist's sister Nan Wood Graham and dentist Dr Byron Henry pose with the painting in 1942 © Image courtesy of the Figge Art Museum, City of Davenport Art Collection, Grant Wood Archive, Friends of Art Acquisition Fund, SB-4
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Once again, I am reminding people that I did not write the list. And also noting that it is ok for people to like different things. And watching very little TV is fine. And watching a lot of TV is also fine. It’s all fine.
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Isaiah Bishop @isaiahbishop.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I would treat this as credible. but remember all the detail issues this ran into last time
aljazeera.com
Iran pitches seven-day roadmap to end conflict with US
Tehran seeks rapid implementation failed ceasefire deal, offering to open Hormuz if regional conflicts halted.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Boston Legal should be on the list.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Please do not be angry with me about the list. I did not write the list.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I’ve seen 64 of the NYT’s best 100 TV shows of the 21st century. And don’t really disagree with the inclusion of any of those. That’s a good hit rate.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Lots of good pieces on the ONS productivity stuff over the last week. But I think the really big takeaway is that we should all (including me) be more questioning of the quality of the data when a country is a huge global outlier and there is no obvious reason why it should be.
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Rhymer Rigby @rhymerrigby.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
I recorded an audiobook last week. It was quite an interesting experience - basically like reading the longest bedtime story ever. Here are 7 seven things I learned. rhymerrigby.substack.com/p/seven-thin...
rhymerrigby.substack.com
Seven things I learned recording an audiobook
For those of you who don’t know, I have a book coming out on the 29th of October. This is called The TV MBA and is about the business and career lessons to be found in pop culture - if you've ever won...
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Is it 1990s nostalgia if I’m fed up with a using a trackpad and browsing mouse options?
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Andy Bruce (Reuters) @bruceandy.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
UK consumer confidence has hit a more than two-year high, according to GfK, symbolised below by the purchase of mangoes. Another bit of generally positive sentiment data. YouGov/Cebr and LSEG/Ipsos surveys have also shown rising consumer morale this month. www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-...
reuters.com
UK consumer confidence hits more than two-year high in September, GfK says
British consumer confidence unexpectedly struck a more than two-year high this month as households ​grew more optimistic about their personal finances, ‌according to a survey on Friday that added to r...
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Can’t believe no one has ever thought of the idea of selling us hot food. I, for one, am both excited and, if I’m honest, a little apprehensive about the idea of warm food. www.ft.com/content/bdb6... Subway rival bets hot sandwiches will sell in UK’s ‘cold and rain’
US sandwich maker Jersey Mike’s is launching an ambitious expansion plan in the UK, with its billionaire founder betting that “the cold and the rain” in Britain will push consumers to embrace the brand’s hot subs.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
In hindsight, the English chase today was quite similar to Australia’s chase against South Africa. Exceptionally good starts before falling away. 15 overs in and both looked to be cruising home.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This isn’t a bad one chart history of almost a decade and a half of macroeconomic expectations. The short version: Things will be back to normal soon. Oh, maybe they won’t. Rates are never going back to the old normal. Oh, maybe they are.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Absolutely spoiled with the cricket today. Really competitive England Sri Lanka ODI, excellent looking South Africa Australia match and a load of great county championship games (including a century for Gay for Durham).
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
That looks like a big total for South Africa against a very strong Australian bowling attack.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Mark Wood is a great commentator. And it’s nice to have an Ashington accent on the radio.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
- Honestly my dear grandchildren, you’ll never believe how low rates were in the 2010s. - at least you built a load of infrastructure when borrowing costs were so low grandad? Right? Right?
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I think this would be a real mistake. It’s essentially a hope that something will turn up and make things easier in the months ahead. And maybe it will. But there’s a larger chance it doesn’t and then we have months of confidence sapping speculation ahead of the Spring Statement.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I’m not necessarily against 30 day payment terms when it involves a 3% dollar move in my favour.
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Duncan Lamont @duncanlamont2.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
What a chart. Emerging market bond yields have decoupled and fallen as developed market yields have soared I bet there are more than a few in EM feeling a sense of schadenfreude right now!
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
‘This is playing into his hands’/‘this will allow him to play the martyr card’/‘this will help with his fundraising’ are all really bad takes. Criminals should be arrested and charged with crimes.
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Emma Yeomans @yeomans.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Hampshire police say man was arrested on suspicion of destroying ships or endangering their safety under the Aviation & Maritime Security Act 1990, criminal damage, criminal damage with intent to endanger life, & conduct endangering ships, structures or individuals under Merchant Shipping Act 1995
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
The reoccurring theme of recent news is ‘company/individual commits a crime. There is no obvious consequence’. Doesn’t feel ideal.
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Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
🚨Is Big Tech bond issuance to blame for higher US Treasury yields? www.ft.com/content/6354...
ft.com
Are Big Tech bonds crowding out the US Treasury?
Probably not
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I love Will Jacks. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricke...
bbc.co.uk
England vs Sri Lanka: Will Jacks explains the "scary" detail behind emergency appendix surgery
Will Jacks' career-best 50-over figures on Tuesday came shortly after the England all-rounder was rushed into hospital for emergency surgery while on a weekend away.
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Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I seem to be removing ever larger spiders from my house each evening.
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