we are doomed to fight old battles (of rapid property appreciation)

Amazon unpacked The online giant is creating thousands of UK jobs, so why are some employees less than happy?

Fantastic. You can whet their appetite with this Sarah O'Connor classic www.ft.com/content/ed6a...

My scorching hot take on this (at least in the uk) is that a bunch of more public-sector-ish jobs: teaching, universities, media, civil servant had been relatively downwards mobile in this time and it’s actually falling inequality that is making people mad.

One of the best jobs in UK social science, research & policy.

I feel it is my issue rather than yours! Thank you

Obviously I have no idea what this is saying, but I am excited to be visiting Berlin later this month

Tag der Progressiven Wirtschaftspolitik 2026 Kongress in Berlin | 22. April 2026 | #tpw26 Mitdiskutieren live in Berlin oder online

Am Vorabend verleihen wir den Hans-Matthöfer-Preis für wegweisende Ideen zu Wirtschaft, Gesellschaft & Demokratie – dieses Jahr an Clara E. Mattei und Exploring Economics.
🗓️ 21.4. | ab 18.30 Uhr im #Liveblog 💻#ProgressiveWirtschaft 2/5
👉 www.fes.de/tag-der-prog...

In Zeiten des Umbruchs: Wie können wir unsere Wirtschaft mutig, solidarisch und zukunftsgerichtet gestalten?
Diskutiert mit uns beim Tag der Progressiven Wirtschaftspolitik! #ProgressiveWirtschaft
🗓️ 22.4. | 9-17 Uhr in Berlin & im Livestream! #tpw26 1/5
👉 www.fes.de/tag-der-prog...

(My personal view: the poverty is the problem, the wealth is the unusual feature here, and the mixing which shows up as local inequality is a good thing)

BBC Radio 4 - The Shadow of the Cutteslowe Walls, Episode 1 The former council estate which sat behind two eight-foot walls for 25 years.

Cannot wait to disapprove of this programme about my local area
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

📣 New job at Oxford's Centre for Advanced Social Science Methods (CASSM)! 📣

The Departments of Politics & IR (DPIR) and Social Policy and Intervention (DSPI) are hiring an Associate Professor of Causal and Experimental Methods.

Come work with me and amazing Oxford peeps! Deadline NOON April 27th.

('Now' being 2023)

Regional inequality in GVA (ITL1) is lower now than it was in 2014

At some point, we need to deal with the fact that London is a prosperous but stagnant economy at the moment.

A global superstar city is a rarity and a massive strength. We should feel lucky and not take the city for granted.

Thanks and yes - hopefully over drinks in an Italian palazzo!

We actually have a funding proposal to try and do just this - build out pothole data as a(nother) measure of local decline

The Chancellor's roadmap for fiscal devo is genuinely exciting - done right, it should improve growth + public services across England

But the Government needs to act fast - decisions on some new local gov maps are imminent, and we may miss a historic opportunity to get it right

Still, Boris Johnson successfully achieved a form of Levelling Up (by dragging down London). Well done there

Is London richer, of course

Is London booming relative to everywhere else, no

Interesting today programme piece on regional inequality - but I worry we are still fighting old battles

Spatial inequality basically flatlining, the problem is growth - still talking about London as some sort of high growth city makes us complacent

City Investment Funds are a good idea widely used elsewhere with great success - devil will be in the detail of how they are applied

💪giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/rede...

Delighted to be part of the IEP group here

CIFAR announces research program decisions for 2025-2026 - CIFAR Six programs renewed as CIFAR sharpens its global research portfolio

cifar.ca/cifarnews/20...

Cut off from Asia except for Chinese carriers?

Chris asks why Labour don't have a theory of capitalism. A bit unfair - here's my effort to make sense of it (abetted by @neillee.bsky.social).

That said, an underrated factor is the shift away from grand theorising in economics: we don't have an equivalent of endogenous growth theory today.

Looks great - I do wonder if inequality is the best way of framing the problem, now, rather than stagnation across the board

A sickening society is clear in these statistics

So why is it not in the news?

Powerful wake-up call from @chakrabortty.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The Doncaster fraudster who posed as a millionaire professor to swindle victims This is the crooked Doncaster businessman who swindled his victims out of hundreds of thousands of pounds, conning them into believe him he was a millionaire university professor with degrees from bot...

Surely "Millionaire professor" was what gave him away www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/courts/...

Remember we had him speak at the, er, Tory party conference once? Not sure how that happened