David Woodruff
@dmwoodruff.bsky.social
Associate Professor of Comparative Politics, LSE. CPE, central banks, monetary history, intellectual history of social science, Karl Polanyi, Soviet economic history, complaining about neoliberalism, etc. He/him.
This aphorism is by me, not Karl Polanyi, but I think it's a fair rendering of the lessons one might draw from his account of the interwar period.
The task is not to make anti-fascism consistent with the financial system, but to make the financial system consistent with anti-fascism.
Bloomberg taking a shot across the bow of @zackpolanski.bsky.social — but should we listen to an economist (and Times columnist btw) whose main concern regarding Reform is its fiscal policy? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
December 3, 2025 at 12:23 PM
This aphorism is by me, not Karl Polanyi, but I think it's a fair rendering of the lessons one might draw from his account of the interwar period.
BoE line about interest on reserves is that reducing is a fiscal decision for the government to make. But payments were never legislated—it was a BoE decision, which apparently sought an ok from the Treasury, in 2006 when this was an issue of millions rather than billions. But look now:
Over the last 11 financial years, the UK Treasury has spent more on paying interest to the banking sector on their reserves than it has taken in from them in corporate and sector-specific taxes. In 2024-25, it paid over 3 times as much for interest on reserves as it received from taxes on banks.
December 3, 2025 at 11:12 AM
BoE line about interest on reserves is that reducing is a fiscal decision for the government to make. But payments were never legislated—it was a BoE decision, which apparently sought an ok from the Treasury, in 2006 when this was an issue of millions rather than billions. But look now:
If you took this clip as the whole story you got played. @zackpolanski.bsky.social also mentioned James Meadway @meadwaj.bsky.social which changes the picture, but the clip truncated his answer.
Pinched this video from @cjsnowdon.bsky.social on Twitter because Bluesky has to see it.
Nothing can prepare you for the punchline here.
Nothing can prepare you for the punchline here.
December 3, 2025 at 9:43 AM
If you took this clip as the whole story you got played. @zackpolanski.bsky.social also mentioned James Meadway @meadwaj.bsky.social which changes the picture, but the clip truncated his answer.
The correct single- sentence essence of economics is ‘your leverage is my business’. Or possibly: ‘Don’t model economics on physics’. www.ft.com/content/e196...
The essence of economics
Why write about markets at all?
www.ft.com
December 1, 2025 at 5:26 PM
The correct single- sentence essence of economics is ‘your leverage is my business’. Or possibly: ‘Don’t model economics on physics’. www.ft.com/content/e196...
Reposted by David Woodruff
“The chancellor’s failure to levy a windfall tax on the banking sector in the budget is a damning indictment of the stronghold the sector continues to have over our politics.”
Our comments in this great piece about how banks swerved tax rises last week.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Our comments in this great piece about how banks swerved tax rises last week.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
‘The City can’t be taken for granted’: how banks won over Rachel Reeves
JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs to expand UK presence after sector was spared from higher taxes in budget
www.theguardian.com
December 1, 2025 at 10:41 AM
“The chancellor’s failure to levy a windfall tax on the banking sector in the budget is a damning indictment of the stronghold the sector continues to have over our politics.”
Our comments in this great piece about how banks swerved tax rises last week.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Our comments in this great piece about how banks swerved tax rises last week.
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
Piehouse Workers Co-op - Emergency Fundraiser! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/piehouse-w...
Piehouse Workers Co-op - Emergency Fundraiser!
Help our DIY grassroots music and arts venue recover from a flood that destroyed equipment, and cost us thousands due to having to close.
www.crowdfunder.co.uk
November 30, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Piehouse Workers Co-op - Emergency Fundraiser! www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/piehouse-w...
Reposted by David Woodruff
The task is not to make anti-fascism consistent with the financial system, but to make the financial system consistent with anti-fascism.
Bloomberg taking a shot across the bow of @zackpolanski.bsky.social — but should we listen to an economist (and Times columnist btw) whose main concern regarding Reform is its fiscal policy? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
November 25, 2025 at 7:43 AM
The task is not to make anti-fascism consistent with the financial system, but to make the financial system consistent with anti-fascism.
Effectiveness of this change will be limited by the fact that under present QT policy, the BOE and APF will keep selling unreasonably long-maturity debt. However, a simple reform--allowing the DMO to bid on auctions of APF gilts--would bring all gilt issue policy under Treasury control.
November 28, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Effectiveness of this change will be limited by the fact that under present QT policy, the BOE and APF will keep selling unreasonably long-maturity debt. However, a simple reform--allowing the DMO to bid on auctions of APF gilts--would bring all gilt issue policy under Treasury control.
Reposted by David Woodruff
Even after the mansion tax is applied, the owner of a £5m home in Westminster will pay proportionately less in property tax than the owner of a £210k Band B property in Sunderland.
November 27, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Even after the mansion tax is applied, the owner of a £5m home in Westminster will pay proportionately less in property tax than the owner of a £210k Band B property in Sunderland.
OBR assumptions on QT look significantly more realistic than in the past. They've chosen to assume a constant level of active sales from here forward, which is certainly better than what they were doing before. Not that this is the way the process should be organised, but that's a different issue.
November 27, 2025 at 12:31 PM
OBR assumptions on QT look significantly more realistic than in the past. They've chosen to assume a constant level of active sales from here forward, which is certainly better than what they were doing before. Not that this is the way the process should be organised, but that's a different issue.
Reposted by David Woodruff
"[I]f history were to repeat itself and we were to return to the so-called "normalcy" of the 1920's—then it is certain that even though we shall have conquered our enemies on the battlefields abroad, we shall have yielded to the spirit of Fascism here at home."
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944
November 25, 2025 at 10:59 AM
"[I]f history were to repeat itself and we were to return to the so-called "normalcy" of the 1920's—then it is certain that even though we shall have conquered our enemies on the battlefields abroad, we shall have yielded to the spirit of Fascism here at home."
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944
Reposted by David Woodruff
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
November 25, 2025 at 9:26 AM
I wish I didn’t have to share this. But the BBC has decided to censor my first Reith Lecture.
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
They deleted the line in which I describe Donald Trump as “the most openly corrupt president in American history.” /1
If Karl Polanyi were around today he would sound not like Blue Labour but like this.
The task is not to make anti-fascism consistent with the financial system, but to make the financial system consistent with anti-fascism.
Bloomberg taking a shot across the bow of @zackpolanski.bsky.social — but should we listen to an economist (and Times columnist btw) whose main concern regarding Reform is its fiscal policy? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
November 25, 2025 at 9:35 AM
If Karl Polanyi were around today he would sound not like Blue Labour but like this.
The task is not to make anti-fascism consistent with the financial system, but to make the financial system consistent with anti-fascism.
Bloomberg taking a shot across the bow of @zackpolanski.bsky.social — but should we listen to an economist (and Times columnist btw) whose main concern regarding Reform is its fiscal policy? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
November 25, 2025 at 7:43 AM
The task is not to make anti-fascism consistent with the financial system, but to make the financial system consistent with anti-fascism.
Bloomberg taking a shot across the bow of @zackpolanski.bsky.social — but should we listen to an economist (and Times columnist btw) whose main concern regarding Reform is its fiscal policy? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
November 25, 2025 at 6:10 AM
Bloomberg taking a shot across the bow of @zackpolanski.bsky.social — but should we listen to an economist (and Times columnist btw) whose main concern regarding Reform is its fiscal policy? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Despite planning to continue paying the banks 3 x more in interest on reserves than they pay in corporate and related taxes, Reeves is reduced to begging the banks for PR help to sell her budget. on.ft.com/4iDbqqB
November 24, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Despite planning to continue paying the banks 3 x more in interest on reserves than they pay in corporate and related taxes, Reeves is reduced to begging the banks for PR help to sell her budget. on.ft.com/4iDbqqB
My department has just announced a tenure track position for a scholar in any field of political science except for political theory (and IR, which is in a different department at LSE). For details, please see here: jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
Assistant Professor in Political Science
Assistant Professor in Political Science,
,
<p style="text-align: center;"><em><span>LSE is committed to building a diverse, equitable and truly inclusive university</span></em></p>
<p style="text-ali...
jobs.lse.ac.uk
November 24, 2025 at 9:09 PM
My department has just announced a tenure track position for a scholar in any field of political science except for political theory (and IR, which is in a different department at LSE). For details, please see here: jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...
In case you were wondering, the bond market consists of 11 white men and 1 Asian woman.
www.ft.com/content/e01f...
www.ft.com/content/e01f...
What big bond investors want from the UK Budget
Gilt market players call on government to cut spending and steer clear of inflationary tax rises
www.ft.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:19 PM
In case you were wondering, the bond market consists of 11 white men and 1 Asian woman.
www.ft.com/content/e01f...
www.ft.com/content/e01f...
It's staggering to me that apparently there's no significant constituency within Labour to address bank taxation; on the left, only @zackpolanski.bsky.social has been making noise about this.
Over the last 11 financial years, the UK Treasury has spent more on paying interest to the banking sector on their reserves than it has taken in from them in corporate and sector-specific taxes. In 2024-25, it paid over 3 times as much for interest on reserves as it received from taxes on banks.
November 23, 2025 at 10:12 AM
It's staggering to me that apparently there's no significant constituency within Labour to address bank taxation; on the left, only @zackpolanski.bsky.social has been making noise about this.
An LLM trained on chapter 12 of Keynes’ General Theory could write most of the markets commentary you’ll ever encounter. {\very mild hyperbole}. For instance: on.ft.com/44pGR1k
The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes
www.marxists.org
November 22, 2025 at 6:45 AM
An LLM trained on chapter 12 of Keynes’ General Theory could write most of the markets commentary you’ll ever encounter. {\very mild hyperbole}. For instance: on.ft.com/44pGR1k
I was wrong. It’s not just tabloids that with ‘tax raid’ incessantly affirm the presumptive legitimacy of current wealth, income, and tax. The FT’s AI got me 11 recent uses and concluded the phrase was becoming ‘established FT terminology’.
The British phrase ’tax raid’ condenses a whole indoctrination into a tabloid headline:
an instruction not to seek extortion/theft in low wages or high prices but in tax, to understand wealth & income as the innocent, inviolable fruit of diligence, to sanctify the market’s ‘mute compulsion’. Grim!
an instruction not to seek extortion/theft in low wages or high prices but in tax, to understand wealth & income as the innocent, inviolable fruit of diligence, to sanctify the market’s ‘mute compulsion’. Grim!
November 22, 2025 at 6:37 AM
I was wrong. It’s not just tabloids that with ‘tax raid’ incessantly affirm the presumptive legitimacy of current wealth, income, and tax. The FT’s AI got me 11 recent uses and concluded the phrase was becoming ‘established FT terminology’.
Reposted by David Woodruff
Today on #TransDayOfRemembrance we remember our trans siblings who have lost their lives to transphobia, hatred & violence…🧵
Today, on Transgender Day of Remembrance, we remember the transgender lives lost to violence.
The Green Party stands shoulder to shoulder with transgender people in the face of increasing transphobic rhetoric in our society and politics.
The Green Party stands shoulder to shoulder with transgender people in the face of increasing transphobic rhetoric in our society and politics.
November 20, 2025 at 9:45 AM
Today on #TransDayOfRemembrance we remember our trans siblings who have lost their lives to transphobia, hatred & violence…🧵
Reposted by David Woodruff
I don't use the word lightly, but this is really just evil isn't it. "Your identity makes us uncomfortable so be gone from public spaces." Fuck off.
I mean come on: we'll ask but reserve right to exclude you on the basis of how you look. Oh, and if you try to use your birth sex specific facilities we'll kick you out of those as well.
Get fucked.
Get fucked.
November 20, 2025 at 12:08 AM
I don't use the word lightly, but this is really just evil isn't it. "Your identity makes us uncomfortable so be gone from public spaces." Fuck off.
Reposted by David Woodruff
At least it's honest, right? Intrusive questioning of women who don't conform to norms about how they should look, and women then being banned if they tell their inquisitor to mind his own sodding business, has always been the logical end point for the patriarchal project that is TERFdom.
November 20, 2025 at 6:43 AM
At least it's honest, right? Intrusive questioning of women who don't conform to norms about how they should look, and women then being banned if they tell their inquisitor to mind his own sodding business, has always been the logical end point for the patriarchal project that is TERFdom.
Reposted by David Woodruff
Ok Harvard, your turn
Breaking News: Larry Summers will step down from OpenAI’s board, he said, after the release of emails indicating a close relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Larry Summers Resigns From OpenAI’s Board
Mr. Summers’ departure from the artificial intelligence company’s board followed revelations of his communications with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
nyti.ms
November 19, 2025 at 1:52 PM
Ok Harvard, your turn