Ed Conway
@EdConwaySky
Did I mention I wrote a book?
🧵MATERIAL WORLD THREAD COLLECTION🧵 Writing #MaterialWorld was the most fascinating thing I've ever done. It completely changed how I look at the world. For a sniff of what I'm on about, here's some threads about it. Starting with: 1: Why I wrote the book
That’s me in the hard hat, in front of the bucket of a terrifyingly enormous digger. What you can’t really tell from the picture is that my head was spinning. I’d just had one of those moments that change your life forever. It would set me off on a journey around the world…🧵
The Houthis of Yemen have blown up their 2nd ship in four days. The dry bulk carrier 'Eternity C' sunk today in the Red Sea, according to a top diplomat of the Philippines (most of the crew members are national of the Asian nation) Details here: x.com/pnagovph/statu…
The Houthis of Yemen have released a **propaganda** video of their attack (and sinking) of the bulk carrier ship 'Magic Seas’ on Sunday in the Red Sea. It's both very concerning and rather spectacular (they attached multiple explosives to her hull) #Houthis
Interesting chart from @ConsensusEcon👇 This time last year economists reckoned the UK would grow at more or less the same rate as most other G7 members this year (save for the US, which is nearly always fastest.) Now? Most G7 nations downgraded - but not the UK
Anyone interested in the machinery ASML produces I highly recommend @EdConwaySky MATERIAL WORLD - the chapter The Longest Journey is breathtaking! In fact, the whole book is a masterpiece! So, here a snapshot of what ASML produces ... sounds like SciFi !!
Good chart 👇
In the year to June 2025, the UK Consumer Prices Index rose by 3.6%—0.2 percentage points higher than the previous month. The UK now has the highest inflation rate in the G7.
Inflation up more than expected (3.6% in June - economists expected to stay at 3.4%)
The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 3.6% in the 12 months to June 2025, up from 3.4% in the 12 months to May. Read the full article ➡️ ons.gov.uk/economy/inflat…
My @TheJobsFndn report on energy-intensive industries is out! The EII sector had a 2023 revenue of £170 billion, a gross value added of £36 billion, and employed over 400,000 people. 🧵 thejobsfoundation.com/jobs-and-energ…
📽️Is the cost of living crisis REALLY over? Inflation is close to "normal". So why does everything still feel so... expensive? Partly because those headline figs don't paint the full picture. In this mammoth primer I dug deeper with the help of a bunch of @resfoundation data. 🤓
UK economy shrinks by 0.1% in May. Economists had expected it to grow by 0.1%
GDP fell 0.1% in May 2025 but grew 0.5% in the three months to May. Services grew (+0.1%) in May but production (-0.9%) and construction (-0.6%) both fell. Read more ➡️ ons.gov.uk/economy/grossd…
Another fabulous explainer from Ed. Well worth watching. Most striking is that our annual deficit, while much lower than covid and much lower than the US, still scores very poorly vs rest of world, which is a major cause for our elevated borrowing costs.
📽️ Why is Britain's national debt soaring? In short: everything from govt splurging to the pensions triple lock to net zero and more besides. 👇Here's my 7 min primer on the terrors lurking beneath the UK public finances. Warning: the final chart is genuinely quite scary...
For anyone curious about why copper matters so much - and why there's a race afoot to secure new supplies - I wrote something for @WorksInProgMag about it not long ago👇 Oh and also three chapters of a book I used to bang on about a lot worksinprogress.co/issue/the-disc…
BREAKING: U.S. President Donald Trump said he planned to implement a 50% tariff on copper (a.k.a another massive tax on the American economy)
📽️ Why is Britain's national debt soaring? In short: everything from govt splurging to the pensions triple lock to net zero and more besides. 👇Here's my 7 min primer on the terrors lurking beneath the UK public finances. Warning: the final chart is genuinely quite scary...
To be clear, if anything this OBR chart is just as much, if not more, a reflection of Tory govt policy, since it's based on every fiscal event since 2010.
IFS pooh-poohs wealth taxes: - difficult to make the case that an annual tax on wealth would be a sensible part of the tax system even in principle. - strong reasons to radically reform how we tax sources & uses of wealth, inc reforming capital income taxes
🤓Possibly my favourite ever @OBR_UK chart👇 The green line is what the Government tells us is going to happen to the national debt at each Budget (up a bit then down). The yellow line is what actually happens (up, up, up)
✍️ Double page spread all about critical minerals and the Material World in today's @DailyMail!
🚨NEW UK set to miss the original deadline to close its steel/aluminium trade deal with the US. Insiders say still some way from a breakthrough. But they are hopeful Donald Trump won't raise UK tariffs from 25% to 50% for the time being, despite having promised to on July 9