Economics & Marginalia

Economics and Marginalia is an attempt to keep ahead of the avalanche of content published every week – the writing on economics, politics, development and pop culture that keeps my brain occupied. In it, I pick between 5 and 10 of my favourite pieces of -mainly- popular economics and political commentary every week and briefly summarise what I liked about it, or what it taught me, in an accessible way.

The guiding spirit behind this blog is that the world is complicated but comprehensible, and I look to showcase writing that doesn’t dumb down the complexity, but puts a premium on clarity.

More from the Series

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Economics & Marginalia: November 22, 2024

November 22, 2024
Last week I wrote the links half-asleep and sent round fewer links than usual; this week I’m about six coffees down and we might have the opposite problem: so much nervous energy that the links will be nineteen deep. I spoke at an event last night at the LSE publicising the book Mark Lowcock and I r...
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Economics & Marginalia: November 15, 2024

November 15, 2024
Ok, there’s a slightly more-than-evens chance that I’m going to fall asleep before I finish writing this email. I’ve been up since a little before five am to get up to Oxford and teach a couple of classes while still working a full day for CGD; adrenaline has taken me this far but may fail at any mo...
Blog Post

Economics & Marginalia: November 8, 2024

November 08, 2024
Well, that was a downer. After switching leaders over the summer, and an opening full of promise and dynamism they’ve fallen into the same old patterns, beaten badly and looking ineffectual in the process—dashing my hopes and prompting mildly panicked contingency planning in California. I am, of cou...
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Economics & Marginalia: November 1, 2024

November 01, 2024
I’ve been reading Amartya Sen’s The Idea of Justice recently (and slowly). It’s my wife’s copy, signed by the great man himself. In it, he continually returns to the argument that in choosing arrangements that affect justice and fairness in the world we must take consideration of the views of those ...