James Meadway
@meadwaj
Economist and co-director of Verdant, a think tank for a just and green future. Views here my own.
13.5K Following 40.8K Followers
Clip from my recent interview with James Meadway on the economic consequences of heatwaves:
The UK replacing China as the second-largest holder of US treasuries represented a massive shift in our geopolitical exposure. But it was almost never discussed or debated.
As if our dependence on the US wasn’t already deep enough.
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The massive purchases of USD assets as reserves by the UK over the last 15 years or so - almost exactly as China divested - is another one of those slow burn failures that one day will suddenly turn hot and aggressive.
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The UK bought an absolute lemon. USD and GBP will sink together and Britain’s reserves are mostly in USD. What did they get for this transaction? Not much. An occasional pat on the head; an occasional kicking. 🇺🇸🇬🇧
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Spoke to @poltheoryother yesterday about the rising costs of heatwaves in Europe and the UK, after publication of Verdant’s estimate of a £4.4bn loss in UK output from summer heatwaves so far this year.
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"A regular occurring feature of the European summer..." -@meadwaj on heatwaves and droughts shutting down European nuclear power stations:
I hear the fascists *also* used aeroplanes and tanks during WW2.
It’s true that fascists used price controls but so did Allies during WWII. Price controls were key in Roosevelt’s arsenal of democracy.
Price controls are an economic policy tool. Like taxation or fiscal policy they can be designed in good or bad ways. 🧵
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Mike Davis is my emotional support Marxist. not just in the sense that he is by far my biggest influence but also in that he provides me at most 10% emotional support
A government that works for people not corporations won against big money once more. Congratulations @AngieNixon!!
Nixon had $975,000 going into the primary, her opponent Vindman $16.3m.
The winning formula: Affordability, good jobs & making billionaires pay. It’s unstoppable.
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Three Mike Davis books to help make sense of the today, and the rest of this decade, and beyond:
- Late Victorian Holocausts
- Planet of Slums
- Old Gods, New Enigmas
Well that's all very inconvenient.
Lobbying / comms company being paid to spy on environment charities by water company while also working for the very same environment charities.
James Meadway on why climate adaptation measures should be articulated not just in terms of public safety and economic resilience, but also as ways to potentially enrich people's lives:
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I interviewed @meadwaj about the economic consequences of the UK heatwaves. James explained how productivity was hit across the economy, and how the casualisation of the workforce makes people increasingly vulnerable to severe climate events:
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On Macrodose this week: @meadwaj talks of the war between jellyfish and nuclear power plants, the oncoming insurance crisis ushered by extreme heat, and the rise in government borrowing costs.
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I keep staring at this catastrophic graph, produced by the UK national security establishment for a report blocked by the Starmer government until FoI forced a redacted version
Read this, it good
Publication day! My debut book, The Breaking of the English Working Class, comes out today. If you haven’t already got a copy, visit your local independent bookstore or the Verso site and sort it out ☺️
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Spoke to Alex @poltheoryother about our cost of heatwaves work last week - what do the numbers mean, and what can we expect in the future?
📢📢NEW PTO EXTRA📢📢- @meadwaj on the economic cost of the UK heatwaves. We talked about how productivity was hit across the economy, and how the casualisation of the workforce makes people increasingly vulnerable to the physical and financial damage caused by such events:
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"Ministers are understood to fear that approving two large fossil fuel projects in the middle of a heatwave... would be politically disastrous.
"An alternative approach would be to delay the decision until the heatwave is over."
A CUNNING PLAN
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Scoop: Israel has launched a new effort to sway public opinion in the US by influencing how LLMs paint it in response to chatbot queries. The foreign influence campaign includes a fake think tank set up to feed content to tools like ChatGPT. More below @politico 🧵
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2026 heatwaves have cost UK a staggering £4.4bn
Every UK heatwave comes with a cost, and these costs are growing ever more expensive over time. Climate action now.
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This is the real reason to nationalise water - not to undo the mistake of privatisation, but because as the climate and nature crises worsen, the privatised system is less and less able to cope. (We’ll find the same pattern repeating in other essential supplies.)
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