Trade
Trade
Trade

Trade involves the transfer of goods and services from one person or entity to another, often in exchange for money. Economists refer to a system or network that allows trade as a market. .. more

Economics 35%
Political science 21%

One of the things that most annoys me about how history is largely ignored in today's politics. We've been through racists raising the flag not too long ago. Some very brave folk took them on to disdain from right and left alike (why reclaim that?) and won.
August 30, 2025 at 1:05 PM

Time once again to reclaim this version of Englishness and Britishness from the racists and increasingly shrill right-wing politicos and commentariat (from FT profile of new National Theatre Director) www.ft.com/content/61cd...
August 30, 2025 at 1:03 PM

One has to wonder quite how long it will take the US to recover from Trump, with his off-the-scale corruption, disdain for knowledge, and rewriting of every political norm as well as a lot of laws, could it be a quick hiding it under the carpet or a long drawn out decline?
August 30, 2025 at 12:22 PM

Just think this shows the fundamental shallowness of this US administration. Pakistan has completely played Trump and no Indian administration would have been able to accept this. But no other US administration would have been so dumb.
Where is world politics going? Back to great power politics/spheres of influence? Trump-Modi dispute signals something much more transformative ie how international affairs work when personalistic regimes sit at its center. We urgently need new models.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/u...
The Nobel Prize and a Testy Phone Call: How the Trump-Modi Relationship Unraveled
www.nytimes.com
August 30, 2025 at 12:18 PM

Reposted by Trade

Where is world politics going? Back to great power politics/spheres of influence? Trump-Modi dispute signals something much more transformative ie how international affairs work when personalistic regimes sit at its center. We urgently need new models.

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/u...
The Nobel Prize and a Testy Phone Call: How the Trump-Modi Relationship Unraveled
www.nytimes.com
August 30, 2025 at 11:57 AM

The US doesn't in effect have a highest legal body considering points of law so not much point in speculating on the content of the President's powers over tariffs or not, very much depends how slavishly devoted a handful of individuals are feeling towards him.
August 29, 2025 at 9:55 PM

Shrugs in a kind of who knows what this will actually mean way. Yep, that's the official trade policy specialist response. Because this is about Trump's attempts to remove law as it applies to him, everything else is collateral damage.
A federal appeals court has ruled that President Trump’s tariffs exceeded his authority under an emergency powers law.
August 29, 2025 at 9:47 PM
A federal appeals court has ruled that President Trump’s tariffs exceeded his authority under an emergency powers law.
August 29, 2025 at 9:28 PM

Someone very Labour adjacent was telling me a big blame story of the civil service that was undoubtedly because of a Number 10 or Treasury instruction, but obviously scapegoating is easier.
August 29, 2025 at 1:24 PM

Behind the "he would say that wouldn't he" is a more dangerous scapegoating, that his simplistic nonsense would have worked if only the civil service was any good. Which has been transferred to the new administration.
Dominic Cummings’ latest substack goes a bit “needless to say I had the last laugh” here (though is an interesting read)
August 29, 2025 at 1:23 PM

Reposted by Trade

Dominic Cummings’ latest substack goes a bit “needless to say I had the last laugh” here (though is an interesting read)
August 29, 2025 at 12:57 PM

Government needs to be able to communicate hope amidst complexity, this one doesn't really do either
August 29, 2025 at 12:04 PM

The infantilism of UK politics has been off the scale since 2016 and the current government has largely carried on from its predecessors on that
August 29, 2025 at 12:01 PM

Watching folk get radicalised over the other place is quite the depressing sight. But then again, if government isn't prepared to tell a story of complexity, not surprising if many people think there really is a simple solution like leave the ECHR.
August 29, 2025 at 12:00 PM

Different companies have different models.
August 29, 2025 at 11:53 AM

Interesting in general, on China there's a big question as to whether European governments have the ability to achieve this not least when stakeholders insist that every industry must be considered strategic.
For the first time a joint cabinet meeting of the French and German governments were today briefed by economists from each country - they covered 5 points, one of which was "trade with China"

cae-eco.fr/principaux-e...
August 29, 2025 at 11:52 AM
For the first time a joint cabinet meeting of the French and German governments were today briefed by economists from each country - they covered 5 points, one of which was "trade with China"

cae-eco.fr/principaux-e...
August 29, 2025 at 11:05 AM

There is no high or low level of immigration that will stop the stories of "them" coming over here taking from "us". You have to take on the perception directly, tell a different story. As a few previous Prime Ministers knew.
Got chatting to a lady of about 80 yesterday outside the dentist. She told me her NHS dentist had kicked her off the practice list in favour of migrants coming over in boats.
I mean, ffs 🙄
August 29, 2025 at 10:44 AM

Reposted by Trade

Got chatting to a lady of about 80 yesterday outside the dentist. She told me her NHS dentist had kicked her off the practice list in favour of migrants coming over in boats.
I mean, ffs 🙄
August 29, 2025 at 10:39 AM

Reposted by Trade

Well maybe stop sending me emails suggesting I enrol early every fucking week then 🙃
August 29, 2025 at 10:24 AM

Call me the old out of touch elite instead of new listening to the masses elite, but when I venture outside of my bubbles I don't actually find people obsessing constantly about flags or immigration.
August 29, 2025 at 10:28 AM

One bunch of elites think they have a better handle on "what the people think" than another bunch of elites. These groups spend far more time with each other than "the people" they claim to know
August 29, 2025 at 10:24 AM

Reposted by Trade, Will Jennings

Am I right in thinking that unless there are riots across the UK this weekend then various predictions will turn out to have been wrong?
August 29, 2025 at 10:22 AM

I imagine they are using warehouses in different countries and not de minimis.
August 29, 2025 at 10:20 AM

But Amazon does that anyway and de minimis won't affect that trade. So you need a genuine small business exemption.
August 29, 2025 at 9:46 AM

Indeed, so scrapping EU de minimis will miss its main target and just hit small exporters. Genius!
August 29, 2025 at 8:56 AM

My tax digital. But not live yet so not certain.
August 29, 2025 at 8:54 AM

I did some checking and not all MTD providers have their systems ready, but there seemed to be at least one which wouldn't require you to do all your accounting via them but just would act as the interface, basically quarterly tax returns
August 29, 2025 at 8:50 AM

The global trend is not deglobalisation - large multinationals are doing fine thanks - but the systemic squeezing of competition and competitiveness via measures which sometimes but not always inadvertently are hugely raising the costs of doing business.
August 29, 2025 at 8:48 AM

Reposted by Tom Griffin

Good that this is being written about - Making Tax Digital appears to be policy making solely for the Treasury's benefit at the cost of deterring small businesses. In other words, the opposite of what successive governments claim to be seeking.
For @theleaduk.bsky.social I had another look at the impact of the poorly-designed 'Making Tax Digital' policy on the most economically vulnerable workers in the economy.

The added cost for disabled people at the same time as benefit cuts is inexplicable.

national.thelead.uk/p/making-tax...
Making Tax Digital plans will penalise vulnerable and low-paid workers
Many disabled people are already only surviving because of their ability to work and earn alongside their rights to state support.
national.thelead.uk
August 29, 2025 at 8:46 AM