Angelos Delivorias

Finally starting There is No Place for Us by @brian-goldstone.bsky.social and hoooooooly moly this statistic. I was unaware the average wage for this many people was this low.

DP20105 Geopolitics and global interlinking of fast payment systems This paper, for the first time, analyzes the role of economic, technical, and geopolitical factors in interlinking of payment systems across 117 countries, using new data on fast payment links from 2016 to 2023. We test whether links are governed by standard gravity variables influencing international trade patterns, technical features or by instead—or in addition—geopolitical factors. While we find support for the role of economic factors and technical features, the most striking finding is the strength of geopolitical effects. Our estimates suggests that the reduction in the probability of payment links between geopolitically distant countries is as much as twice stronger than for geographically distant ones. Instrumental variable estimates suggest that the effect is causal. The results are in line with the hypothesis that alignment in country-preferences on sensitive features of contractual agreements along with incentives associated with higher opportunity costs of war emphasized in recent theoretical models play key roles in the establishment of interlinking arrangements.

Our "Geopolitics and global interlinking of fast payment systems" is out on the CEPR website! This is joint work with Massimo Ferrari, Arnaud Mehl and Olga Triay Bagur: cepr.org/publications...

EFTA states stunned by US reciprocal tariffs - Borderlex Other non-EU countries in Europe have been even harder hit by the US tariffs than the UK and EU. This caught governments by surprise.

EFTA states stunned by US #reciprocaltariffs

Switzerland is facing a tariff of 31%, the tiny state of Liechtenstein to be hit by a #tariff of 37%, Norway has been hit by a tariff of 15% and Iceland faces the minimum 10%

🇨🇭🇱🇮🇳🇴🇮🇸

By Chris Horseman and Iana Dreyer
borderlex.net/2025/04/03/e...

Can the President Abolish, Move, or Consolidate USAID? Because Congress established USAID as an independent establishment (defined in 5 U.S.C. 104) within the executive branch, the President does not have the authority to abolish it; congressional authorization would be required to abolish, move, or consolidate USAID. The Secretary of State established USAID as directed by Executive Order 10973, signed on November 3, 1961. The agency was meant to implement components of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA, P.L. 87-195), enacted on September 4, 1961. Section 1413 of the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998, Division G of P.L. 105-277, established USAID as an “independent establishment” outside of the State Department (22 U.S.C. 6563). In that act, Congress provided the President with temporary authority to reorganize the agency (22 U.S.C. 6601). President Clinton retained the status of USAID as an independent entity, and the authority to reorganize expired in 1999. Congress has not granted the President further authority to abolish, move, or consolidate USAID since.

The Congressional Research Service is telling Congress that Trump cannot shut down US AID. Will they - and more specifically Republicans - listen, and act?https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN12500

The symphony of psalms! The first Stravinsky piece I ever heard, it remains special after all these years.