UndergroundSky

My quick explainer of the Biden-Xi meeting is up at Good Authority. Highly likely to be the only one out there that links to scholarship by Chen & Evers; Pearson, Rithmire, & Tsai, and Farrell & Newman. goodauthority.org/news/biden-x...

A few more SDN designations related to price cap enforcement. 3 UAE based entities associated with shipping Russian oil added to list for violations. US is definitely stepping up enforcement (tho no fines yet). Will EU follow in long-awaited 12th pkg? content.govdelivery.com/accounts/UST...

The rise in nearshoring is most prominent in two regions: Europe and Southeast Asia 2022: companies improved resilience through increased inventory buffers and dual-sourcing 2023: 64% of companies are currently regionalizing their supply chains, up from 44% last year www.mckinsey.com/capabilities...

The White House Council of Economic Advisers is hiring for multiple roles. GREAT GREAT opportunities for U.S. citizens interested in economic policy. Can't recommend them strongly enough. 📉📈 - Staff economists, PhD students on leave from PhD for a year... www.whitehouse.gov/cea/work-for...

The @washingtonpost.com has a really nice review of Underground Empire -https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/10/22/sanctions-economic-war-books/ - "Farrell and Newman write fluidly and grippingly."

New polisci paper alert: Commercial Casualties: Political Boycotts and International Disputes What would you do with 100 million Chinese vehicle registration records? Here's our answer. www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Following 🇺🇲 updated export controls on 🇨🇳, Beijing has imposed its own export control licenses on graphite, a material used in EV batteries. 🇨🇳 is by far the biggest processor of natural graphite and generated almost 70% of the world’s synthetic graphite last year. www.ft.com/content/8af8...

This week, we released our World Economic Outlook. With growth of 3.0% in 2023 and 2.9% in 2024, the resilience to the shocks of the past few years has been remarkable. Yet growth is slow and uneven, with growing divergences. The global economy is limping along, not sprinting. bit.ly/3PPpm2H

So excited that @emfgrasmeder.bsky.social is here!! Polisky conflictsky intsec

Another transatlantic trade imbroglio: not just the deal on steel in jeopardy but one on minerals too. And the von der Leyen/Biden summit is tomorrow. www.ft.com/content/cafe...

An interview with Kelly Greenhill, author of Weapons of Mass Migration, on how migration can be a tool of war. @goodauth.bsky.social Polisky goodauthority.org/news/how-sho...

It's interesting to think about how all this might have gone if the US had: 1. Lifted the steel & aluminum TRQs at the outset as a sign of good faith 2. Supported a non-discriminatory tax/regulation to address carbon emissions 3. Proposed filing WTO complaints against China's non-market practices

Russia has been suspended from the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Update: The US and EU have failed to conclude deals on both steel and critical minerals ahead of today’s summit with Biden, per draft statement seen by Bloomberg - and will keep negotiating www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Not entirely unexpected, as per previous, there is a fundamental long-standing dispute between US and EU, both agree they should jointly set world trade rules, disagree on whose rules should be the basis for the global norm...

Days after the US tightened its chips export controls, China now adds graphite to its export control list which will require exporters to get a permit (as do germanium and gallium exporters) www.ft.com/content/8af8...

I'll discuss with Chris Miller, the author of "Chip War" (for the second time), and Emily Benson, Director of economic security team of CSIS, on November 6th in New York. japansociety.org/events/navig...

This week’s MFN looks at the slight technical hurdles in the way of the UK joining any future EU-US transatlantic steel/aluminium cartel. Also highlights research by @monapaulsen.bsky.social and others. mostfavourednation.substack.com/p/most-favou...

This new piece by @himself.bsky.social @abenewman.bsky.social has some interesting proposals for how the US should develop its economic security bureaucracy. - Keep an open mind to learning from Japan and the EU - Devise an economic security strategy ... /1

Biden’s climate law contained more than $100 billion in grants meant to protect nature and speed up the energy transition. The admin is racing to get it out the door ASAP. We’ve got the first look at where—and how—that money is getting spent. A @heatmap.news exclusive: heatmap.news/economy/infl...

Here's a link to the graphite controls. Looks like increasing the probability of a ban more than imposing one; time will tell. Stumbling into ever-expanding use of coercive economic policy is explicitly what @himself.bsky.social and @abenewman.bsky.social argue against. DC (& others) should listen.

Yesterday, @goodauth.bsky.social reupped a newsletter I wrote for the TMC in June arguing that the deterioration of US-China relations seemed to have paused. I added a mention of the new semiconductor restrictions the US just imposed, and now China has retaliated with controls of graphite. Sigh.

Whats Undersky? A cool kid, please explain.