Our new analysis by @jordischroeder.bsky.social shows:
Wind & solar cut EU electricity prices by 24.2% (2023-2025).

As fossil fuel tensions rise again, this matters more than ever. 🧵👇

Want to know capitalism’s endgame? Just look at private equity – it has captured our everyday lives | Hettie O'Brien These companies now own everything from nurseries to care homes, squeezing vital services for profit while we foot the bill, says Hettie O’Brien, author of The Asset Class: How Private Equity Turned C...

"in an unequal and stagnant economy, capitalism starts to look less like a gradually increasing pie and more like a zero-sum game where, in order for you to win, someone else has to lose."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

EU fiscal models degrade strong case for clean energy Every euro spent by national governments is treated by commission as generating just €0.60 of economic activity no matter where it goes. Grid investment, education, tax cuts for the wealthy: all are l...

Absolutely emblematic of the failed EU macroeconomic technocracy.

While you hear Commission's @teresaribera.ec.europa.eu rightly championing the energy transition, the Commission's economic staff quietly penalizes members states spending public money for it.

You can't make this stuff up! 🤦‍♂️

Feeling quite emotional after doing my first ever github commit tonight 🫠

I've been thinking a lot about this kind of issues lately as well, but hadn't yet heard of battery-equipped induction stoves 🤯 Makes total sense from grid flexibility perspective!

In 2022-23 many countries managed to reduced energy demand by around 15%. We could certainly do even better today.

The EU's Housing Problem Isn't Supply. It's Finance | The Good Lobby The EU’s emerging strategy for housing affordability centres on boosting new supply, attracting private capital, and cutting red tape.

🏠 🇪🇺 Two weeks ago the European Parliament adopted a report on the housing affordability crisis.

In this article, I demonstrate how ignoring the financialisation dynamics will result in a failure to address the root cause of of the problem.

thegoodlobby.eu/the-eus-hous...

"The green transition is not a luxury. It is Europe’s only credible long-term energy strategy. Energy security, competitiveness and climate policy now point in the same direction: clean energy, electrification, and energy efficiency."

"When we discuss the transmission channels of geopolitical shocks, we must also recognise a structural vulnerability in Europe: our continued reliance on imported fossil fuels. This affects both our resilience to shocks & our competitiveness"
Good speech by @ollirehn.suomenpankki.fi

#ECBwatchers

Nice to be back in Frankfurt for the ECB watchers conference tomorrow.

#ECBoftheday

Exactly as expected...

The most infuriating thing is that all lobby groups and crony politicians who undermined the Green deal / energy transition will never be held accountable for the loss of geopolitical and economic power which they are largely responsible for.

www.ft.com/content/6bf1...

Yes, it does. Next question.

And by the way, this was part of the first recommendation in the 2023's euro area recommendations, adopted by the EU Council under proposal of the Commission:

How (not) to help with high energy prices Heed the lessons from 2022

An excellent piece by Martin Sandbu on how to respond to higher energy prices:
🔹Adopt very targeted transfers for households, or even better tiered-pricing policies
🔹Link subsidies to incentives for shifting consumption away from (gas-powered) peak hours
🔹Don't raise interest rates
🔹Windfall taxes

This exactly supports @martinsandbu.ft.com's latest point on energy subsidies:

To me this strongly suggest a tiered pricing system would be more optimal. Beyond a minimal consumption level per household member, the Kw/h price should grow proportionally according to income and usage level.

(the article only argues in favor of "price caps" which I guess is a fist step)

Evidence from Finland’s shows that during energy price shock :

🔹High-income households largely adapt by cutting energy use
🔹Low-income households spend more of their budget on energy but have the least scope to reduce consumption.

cepr.org/voxeu/column...

Avec la guerre au Moyen-Orient, le détricotage du Pacte vert européen paraît encore plus absurde Réunis en sommet jeudi 19 et vendredi 20 mars, les Vingt-Sept échangeront sur les moyens de faire face à la flambée des prix du pétrole et du gaz. L’absence de souveraineté énergétique du continent s…

Les Vingt-Sept s’apprêtent à échanger sur les moyens de faire face à la flambée des prix du pétrole et du gaz. L’absence de souveraineté énergétique du continent se fait cruellement sentir, alors que les autorités européennes ralentissent les efforts en la matière. www.mediapart.fr/journal/inte...

An excellent piece!

"Ultimately, the macroeconomic significance of CBDC is shaped by policy choices, and political economy determines whether CBDC becomes a significant factor."

cepr.org/voxeu/column...

Hélène Rey appointed as Economic Adviser and Head of Monetary and Economic Department Hélène Rey, Professor of Economics at London Business School, appointed as Economic Adviser and Head of the Monetary and Economic Department of the BIS. Ms Rey is appointed for a five-year term, effec...

This is very exciting, was hoping for this.

Congratulations @helene-rey.bsky.social , can't think of anyone better

www.bis.org/press/p26031...

What do China’s new green targets really mean? Beijing keeps room for manoeuvre a key part of clean energy push

“What’s driving China’s decarbonisation at this juncture is less environmental considerations than the desire to develop the economy and upgrade the manufacturing industry” www.ft.com/content/721c...

The Iran oil crisis has proved Ed Miliband right on green energy. But households still need more help | Mathew Lawrence Britain’s whole energy economy needs to be reformed – decarbonising the grid is only part of the mix, says director of Common Wealth, Mathew Lawrence

This piece is still very relevant for the EU as well!

In the transition process, citizens are held hostage by a combinaison of energy experts, macro economists and fiscal ausierity devouts.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

This is a core problem of the neoliberal democracy regime we're in, where politics is basically relegated to a market of ideas & influence. You frame a problem, and then leave it to the most powerful constituencies to determine how to solve it (or not). We need mission-oriented politics instead.

Europe’s impotence extends to energy The political momentum behind decarbonising the continent’s energy system has dissipated

"The obvious conclusion is that decarbonising Europe’s energy system is both more necessary and more achievable than previously thought. Instead, leaders seem tempted to pull back from that task"

Boris Vujčić just secured a solid 87.1% majority from the European Parliament for his ECB Vice-Presidency. 🗳️

Compared to the rocky paths of recent nominees, this appointment has noticeably reasonably consensual.

Good luck to him! #ECB

Swiss vote places right to use cash in country’s constitution Switzerland joins Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia as European countries looking to make it a right to hold cold, hard cash.

🇨🇭Last weekend the Swiss voted:
73% in favour of right to use physical cash in the Constitution
62% to reject proposed reduction in public media budgets

I love the Swiss democratic system

www.politico.eu/article/swit...

www.bbc.com/news/article...

When finance drives house prices: a policy agenda for affordable housing in Europe The draft report of the Special Committee on the Housing Crisis of the European Parliament posits that high house prices are caused by the imbalance between housing demand and supply, and cautions ...

Martijn Jeroen Van Der Linden has an excellent short paper summarizing how the Parliament's focus on housing supply ignores academic evidence on the financialisation of housing, and offers several policy alternatives. www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

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The report misses @jryancollins.bsky.social's key insight: bank credit is highly elastic (limitless), while land is inherently inelastic (scarce). When unlimited bank money meets a fixed supply of land, prices inevitably explode. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

🚨 The European Parliament is about to miss a critical chance to solve the housing crisis as it prepares to vote on the HOUS committee report. The report misdiagnoses the problem and pushes for deregulation. 🏗️🏘️

As Italy approves a decree to reimburse gas plants for carbon costs and gas prices jump 80%, it’s worth recalling that in 2018 both Italian and Spanish power prices were tightly linked to gas. Since then, Spain has largely decoupled, mainly thanks to renewables. Italy hasn’t.

French politicians recommend that ECB looks at green dual interest rates The French national assembly has adopted several recommendations on how the EU can green its monetary policies, including researching dual interest rates.

A report by the French National Assembly has proposes to reinforce further the role of the ECB on climate change.

greencentralbanking.com/2026/03/03/f...