Branko Milanovic @BrankoMilan Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

@LSE_RGS

@blondebonce

@Carpyevfx

@6su_gg2

@ontologymachine

@agencia_amazon

@greenisginger

@miko___summer

@hi_its_annaleah

@Smilou7

@TomGreer8

@ells_sx

@aiu

@SukritiMishra12

@JackermanDev

@hisu220

@hegeahlquist

@MidWorstt

@borderborder_

@StevenHuggins58

@PuebloSouthCN

@PokemonNewsUK

@erginaslan

@ric_sastre

@DavaGg4

@SilvieDahl

@baronetcie

@Mrleeebeee

@HistoryLies1984

@aesp4kiss

@CNumutoni

@ChasingRed__

@urudinachij

@AnaVivancosVHIO

@LaurelWall41091

@WoodbridgeElem

Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

China, by not attacking anyone since 1979, unlike the US and Russia which conducted a number of unjustified wars, is increasingly looking like the most rational major world actor.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

10 months

Europe back to its normal. France in revolution, Russia in oppression, Balkans in mutual fighting, Britain in aloofness.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

6 months

There is not much to think there. Milei is not far-right. Milei is far-away from reason.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

Why is nobody discussing truly staggering differences in death rates between Eastern and Western Europe? In the @FT graphs none of EE countries is even included. The gap is just striking. (Worldometer, 22 April).

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

Watching Europeans govt's argue in favor of price controls while their own representatives have spent half-a-century voting for IMF programs that would abolish price controls anywhere else is...well, a spectacle.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

1 month

An incredible excerpt, incl. in the body language of the BBC guy who at first never looks straight at Guyana's president (he would never interview like this a prez of a big country) and then gets totally lost & falls silent.

Ranga.🇿🇼

@RangaMberi

1 month

“Let me stop you right there…” Caribbean nation Guyana is booming after discovering oil. BBC’s Stephen Sackur puts it to President @presidentaligy ; lobbyists say oil is bad for the climate. Dude wasn’t having it. Mans was ready!

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

1 year

How to explain that Finland, Iceland and Denmark are the top three happiest countries in the world, but are also No. 10, No. 1 and No. 9 in per capita consumption of anti-depressants? Do you take an anti-depressant before you answer the question on happiness?

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

Lenin 1916: "Neither Russia, nor Germany, nor any other Great Power has the right to claim that it is waging a “war of defence”; all the Great Powers are waging an imperialist, capitalist war, a predatory war, a war for the oppression of small and foreign nations,

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

5 years

Many policies that 20y ago were thought great (and the World Bank promoted them all) are now seen as failures: 1. Complex financial instruments 2. Student loans 3. Private pensions 4. Fast privatization 5. Privatization of infrastructure & water 6. Cutting basic food subsidies

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

Nationalism in Eastern Europe is the worst possible disease. It was subdued under communism. It was used as a tool to undo communist regimes. It might now blow up the entire world into pieces.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

People have died for many reasons: nations, religions and ideologies. But it is indeed a new thing to die for Dow Jones. It is fully post-modern. To die for rich people's *perceptions* about the future summarized in one abstract number.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

Biden's reaction so far, walking a super fine line between reacting to the invasion of an independent country, and saving the world from a nuclear holocaust, was, I think, absolutely perfect. I am afraid that many people are unable to see how hard this is to do.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

The reason why Maradona is so loved by millions of people in the world is because he showed that to be truly great it is not sufficient to be a phenomenal athlete; nor is it desirable to be a creature of the media and companies. You have to be a great person.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

The Super League is not a joke. A sport that was always a sport of the working class, open to everybody, fought against the discrimination, made many people's weekends happy, is now being hijacked by a group of kleptocrats who do not care about its history or social function.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

5 years

Some stunning results for Spain, based on the just-published @lisdata harmonized survey data. Ten years after the crisis, real median income is the same as in 2007, bottom 40% lost in real terms, income of the top 1% went up by 21%.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

Eventually, the Cuban regime will fall, whether this year or another year. Yet, the US policy towards the people in Cuba will remain in the annals of history as one of the meanest policies ever pursued by a great power towards a small neighboring country that was never a threat.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

The New World Order 1990-2022

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

(Long thread--but worth reading) I received lots of pushback (including some pretty nasty comments) on my tweets re. the most recent “Nobel Prize” in economics.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

Viktor Orban, the only foreign leader who came to Gorbachev's funeral.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

Very honored to receive Republic Day greetings from His Excellency Prime Minister @narendramodi at the occasion of the 75th anniversary of India's independence.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

I know that it is a rant. But I just cannot understand that a country with a GDP of $20 trillion and health expenditures of 17% of GDP, by far the highest per capita in the world, has 1/3 of all covid-19 deaths in the world and... this is something considered almost normal.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

High-speed rail is faster than driving, more convenient than flying, and (socially) cheaper than either one.

Cato Institute

@CatoInstitute

3 years

High‐speed rail is slower than flying, less convenient than driving, and more expensive than either one. #CatoTransit

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.” Lenin.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

6 years

It is simply inconsistent to be against taxation of inheritance and to be in favor of equality of opportunity. You have to decide if you want one or the other.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

Superficiality of Obama strikes again. Lula rose up from poverty, union leadership and jail (not a year as a "community organizer") to lead the country that under him reduced poverty by millions. In the meantime Obama hired Wall Street bosses to clean up the mess they created.

Benjamin Fogel

@BenjaminFogel

3 years

Obama describes Lula in his new memoir as "having the scruples of a Tammany Hall boss."

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

Almost no one in the media mentions that NATO continues its expansion. In 2017 it added Montenegro (without a popular referendum which NATO knew they would lose) and in 2020 North Macedonia. These events are almost not covered in the Western media at all.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

It is a bit strange that neither Panama papers (if I remember well) nor Pandora papers have any US politicians involved. Makes you wonder who produces these papers.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

If you start questioning the historical origin of any European country's border, you are going to end up in a permanent war of all against all.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

5 years

My core economics view is very simple. 1) Economics is a social science. 2) Its role is to help us understand history (Smith, Marx) and increase welfare (Marshall). 3) The central part of economics is economics of growth and economics of inequality (Ricardo; Kuznets).

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

Russian frozen assets (state and private) are probably over $1/2 trillion, and possibly ~$600-700 billion. Now, a fair guess is that money will never be seen by Russia again, no more than Iranian money was seen. It represents a coerced transfer of wealth of unheard of proportions

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

7 months

A Nobel Laureate Offers a Biting Critique of Economics Angus Deaton says Larry Summers and other great minds in the profession have lost sight of its most important mission: Improving people’s lives.

A Nobel Laureate Offers a Biting Critique of Economics

Angus Deaton says Larry Summers and other great minds in the profession have lost sight of its most important mission: Improving people’s lives.

www.bloomberg.com

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

A thing I find puzzling (it is alluded to in @Noahpinion piece on SF) is how 30y of tech business & thousands of millionaires have not been able to leave much of a visible imprint on SF: no new universities, theaters, libraries, cathedrals, museums, pedestrian areas, fancy parks.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

7 years

Probably less than 1% of people in the world own shares, but 2/3 of Nobel Prize winners in econ are about stock market behavior.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

There are totally absurd claims (repeated by Putin today) about "conservative values" that ostensibly exist in Russia. Even the most cursory look at numbers shows it is a total nonsense. Compared to (eg) France, divorce, suicide, murder, abortion are 2-3 times greater in Russia.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

The rich people in the US never thought that a broken health care system will ever matter to them. Now it does.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

Global income distribution has radically changed in the past 30 years. It now looks almost like a distribution of a single country which is normally bell-shaped (with income in logs on the x-axis). Leaving these niceties aside, it is clear that a global median class has emerged.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

11 days

As the joke goes, "we have free speech. We just do not have freedom after speech."

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

In the "nerding out" part: the end of the elephant. Between 2008 and 2018, incomes of the globally poor have increased in percentage terms much more than the incomes of the globally rich. The global Gini has gone down.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

5 years

I do not think that one should read books that are directly addressing current events. They are mostly written in haste w/the objective to make money. Nobody will remember them. There cannot be a serious analysis of something that is ongoing. For that one is better off w/Twitter.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

5 years

Neoliberals and the center-right have now for a decade agreed that s'thing has to be done to reduce inequality of wealth & income. But whenever there is *any* proposal, they are against it. I conclude they are in favor of inequality reduction by magic.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

I remember when 1 The war in Yugoslavia started in 1991 2 The NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999 3 The US attack on Iraq in 2003 4 The Russian attack now every time --as when you face a mortal disease-- you hope some miracle will happen & the war will stop. But it never does.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

5 years

In non-communist countries, the soccer club split was/is always working class vs. bourgeoisie (Roma/Lazio, Boca/River, Besiktas/Galatasay, Atletico/Real); under communism the split was Army/police (Partizan/Red Star, CSKA/Dinamo, Steaua/Dinamo) etc

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

The ideological influence of neolib is so strong ppl who have never heard that the capitalist state in the 60s controlled banking, set interest rates, kept currency non-convertible, had high tariff rates, imposed wage scales, set prices, would not believe it was...capitalism too.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

The key contradiction is the idea that you combat something with extremely high externality (*infectious* disease) by letting people make free decisions based on the estimate of their own welfare only. It cannot work. And it is not working.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

Twitter has really gone nuts. I wanted to retweet my piece from China Daily. Three times it stops me from retweeting by telling me it is from a "state-affiliated media". Of course, not all"state-affiliated" media get the same treatment. Let alone "billionaire-affiliated media".

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

The problem is not the names of ppl who got the "Nobel" (have never heard of them), the problem is what's econ. Is it a social science whose aim is to help understand the evolution of societies & improve human living conditions or is it a subsection of financial manipulation?

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

6 years

It is interesting to watch West European teams whose backbone is composed of first or second generation migrants winning while the anti-migrant feeling in these same countries is at its peak.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

Of course, ppl disagree. My point is that, had Maradona been the player that he was & perhaps even better (if he had not squandered some of very good years), he would be less epic. To be epic you have to have flaws and not to be perfect. This is greatness. It requires tragedy.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

How to become much quoted and successful economic commentator on China. Follow these simple rules and you too can become a China pundit.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

Most extraordinary change in only 30 years, probably the greatest over such a short period ever. The shape of the global income distribution has totally changed: notice the new thickness in the middle, btw $PPP3k and $PPP10k where in 1988 there were very few people.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

Just a few simple things to do: 1. Fix the health system 2. Improve public education 3. Tax private university endowments 4. Invest in infrastructure 5. Reduce carbon emissions 6. Increase taxes on the top one-third of tax payers 7. Increase inheritance tax

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

Adam Smith for anti-mask libertarians: "But these exertions of natural liberty of a few individuals which might endanger the security of the whole society are, and ought to be, restrained by laws of all govts, of the most free as well as of the most despotic". WoN, Bk 2, Ch 2.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

There were 10 (ten) months to prepare the distribution of the vaccines. It is not like people realized yesterday that they needed to design a system for the distribution.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

US went to a 20-year war that changed the Middle East forever because of 3,000 dead. Now, 3,000 people die every day and it barely makes it into the news.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

Palestinians' situation is truly tragic. Western press never reported on them because Israel is an ally. Russian press does not report because Russia is now allied w/ Israel. Arab press does not report from fear of inflaming local population. So no one reports.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

If US intelligence was so wrong regarding the staying power of the current Afghan govt (with whom they were involved for 20 years--so they should know s'thing about it), one wonders how wrong they may be about things where the evidence is not as immediate and clear-cut as here.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

Except that it does not label like this BBC or VoA. So how does this work?

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

The apparent inevitable victory of the Taliban in Afghanistan is a total disaster. But rather than just complain, people should ask the Q: US has been occupying A. for 20 years; its best political scientists have worked on A's constitution and advised against corruption;

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

6 days

I think the best way to define German Greens is to say that they are "European supremacists". That sums it all.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 months

When in my recent talk in Edinburgh I claimed that Adam Smith could be seen as "a man of the left" (these terms btw are not used in the Visions of Inequality) this was based on the following:

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

5 years

In the new 2013/4 global income distribution data (just completed): the bottom 5% in Chile are at the same income level as the bottom 5% in Mongolia and Moldova; meanwhile, the top 2% in Chile (probably underestimated) have the same income as the top 2% in Germany.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

7 months

The world has taken a wrong turn. It is hard to tell exactly when. But it is unmistakable by now.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

5 years

Chile beats Russia, in the combined wealth of its billionaires as a share of GDP. (Forbes 2014 data). (Chile is actually the most unequal country in the world by this measure).

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

We have this crazy paradoxical situation that the rich people who are by far the greatest CO2 emitters are engaged into virtue-signaling by token actions and giving lessons to the developing world that they should not grow and become rich themselves.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

In international relations, political realists bring peace; political idealists bring war. Discuss.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

It seems like the Taliban did not pay much attention to Stanford's Law School Project on Constitutionalism in Afghanistan, and this despite numerous conferences held in Palo Alto.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

5 years

Chile is such an extravagant case of inequality that even back-of-the-envelope calculations suffice. Current measures proposed by the govt to diffuse social tensions are estimated to cost 0.4% of GDP. Chilean billionaires wealth is 25% of GDP.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

Covid is a great equalizer. For some of my Italian friends who have never experienced pure discrimination based on nationality it's a shocker. For others (like me) who have experienced a mild discrimination it's not a surprise For many who experience it daily, it's life as usual

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

High-speed rail is faster than driving, more convenient than flying, and (socially) cheaper than both.

Cato Institute

@CatoInstitute

3 years

High‐speed rail is slower than flying, less convenient than driving, and more expensive than either one. #CatoTransit

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

its best economists have designed A's economy; its best military have trained the Afghani forces. And all of that crumbles in four weeks. So, what kind of state-building project is this when it falls apart so quickly & nobody wants to fight for it?

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

Now, nothing stands between Democrats and the New New Deal--except their donors and their lack of will.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

It is strange to read a discussion of developing world vaccination that entirely ignores the fact that China has exported (given or sold) vaccines to some 90 countries, India (before the current outbreak) and Russia to some 70 countries. As if that does not exist.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

People who do not realize the seriousness of today's situation should read a bit of history. Conflicts never start out of the blue. They are preceded by months or years of verbal insults, demonization of the foe, economic sanctions, and then the breakdown in communication.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

Elephant no more. Global top 1% growth has significantly slowed down after the financial crisis, its share in global income has declined, overall global ineq continued on its downward path. Conclusions hold even when adjusted for top income underestimation. Forthcoming paper.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

The real persons of the year are health care workers and the people who have developed the vaccines in 9 months, not politicians who did nothing.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

And now for another set of neighbors: USA vs Mexico. Here we are in a different world. The gap is large throughout the distribution, but it almost disappears at the top (Mexican top 1% is also among the global top). The lower you go, the larger the differential.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

1 year

It is hard to understand how people cannot (genuinely) understand China's reaction when it is clear that the the West wants to: stop China's rise break up the country and overthrow the current government. What would you do?

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

US is a bizarre democracy. You always learn there are obscure acts that suspend all rights. Now there the Insurrection Act 213 years old. A couple of years ago, it was the 1917 Espionage Act. Then there are anti-union acts...

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

The mainstream of the party of the ostensible left thinks: 1) free education is like "chocolate milk for all" (Hillary) 2) loves Bush and thinks he was a great guy (from Obama to Nancy Pelosi) 3) believes Bolivia's coup is the return of freedom (Biden). Wow!

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

5 years

The world we live in: Prez of the World Bank resigns to join an investment bank Prez of the European Commission joins Goldman Prez of the USA does hotel and tower deals Prez of Russia hides money in Panama

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

The news almost never mentions that the billions that the oligarchs had stolen has, in many cases, the origin in Yeltsin's sale of state assets at ridiculous prices, at the time when these oligarchs & Yeltsin were supported by the West.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

The fact is that for the rich it makes much more sense to engage in lobbying to reduce taxes than to bother with trying to grow their countries. The gains are much greater and immediate if they do the former. And obviously they do it.

Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

Why the rich may be indifferent to income growth of their own countries? (my paper here)

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

The bottom line is: Many things that were believed in the 1990s turned out to be wrong: from transition economics, to deregulation of the financial sector, to privatization of pensions, to "trade leading to peace". Hard to think of a decade that was so wrong.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

The arrogance of this article is just unbelievable. Can you imagine if a Chinese ambassador were to discuss modalities how to do "regime change" in the US? Should we bribe the VP to overthrow the President, or foment an army coup?

Opinion: Regime change in China is not only possible, it is imperative

China’s constitution puts the Communist Party above the law, and recognizes no limits to its authority, writes Roger Garside

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

China drives economists up the wall. Liberals who ridicule leftists speaking of the IMF loans' nefarious influence, merrily write about China's "debt trap" lending.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

A divine intervention.

Sahil Kapur

@sahilkapur

2 years

Former President George W. Bush: “The decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean of Ukraine.”

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

If the ratio of deaths between China and the US were the reverse, how many articles, papers, books would be written about the advantages of free speech, transparency and democracy? 50 per day, 500 per day?

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

Titoism was really bad.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

6 months

Villepin defines with precision two main problems of Western foreign policies. Occidentalism: A difficulty to accept that others may have legitimate views when you have run the world more or less as you wished for 500 years.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

My next book looks at how inequality was seen by key economists between mid-18th and mid-20th century. It covers Quesnay Adam Smith Ricardo Marx Pareto Kuznets. I am currently at Marx (after having done the first drafts of Quesnay and Smith). Pareto will be next.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

(Long thread) The reasons why and how Balkan countries enter NATO are never discussed in the Western press. Even their membership is not mentioned. Here are the reasons. Montenegro has been run for 35y by the same (let's be polite) autocrat.He was first a Serbian nationalist but

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 months

[correcting typos] A strong recommendation. Am about to finish Vladislav Zubok's "Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union". Leads me to several observations & I will have many more. It is by far the best book on the history of the fall of the USSR.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

6 days

The German Greens transformation is one of the most extraordinary. From being pro-Third World, they are now against it (European supremacism is their mot d'ordre). From saluting successes of poorer countries, they are now attacking them ferociously (China & India).

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

2 years

The incredible waste of USSR resources continues thirty years after its fall. First, millions of people work for low wages to build an industrial base. Then, a bunch of Yeltsin oligarchs steal all these assets. Then, Putin chases them out of Russia, and brings his own oligarchs.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

We have to think again. How is that Sweden, one of the richest countries in the world, cannot "survive" economic lockdown, but Uganda and Ethiopia can? How is it that Iran & Bangladesh can host million+ refugees, and the EU almost falls apart when Germany receives a million?

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 months

I had to stop at the last chapter of V Zubok's "Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union" and give myself a day off. The book is emotionally draining for somebody who has witnessed closely the dissolution & disasters of the break-up of the USSR and Yugoslavia.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

7 months

The ideological attacks on China can be only understood if you realize that 1 China is a capitalist economy where 2 capitalists do not have political power. The attack is not motivated by 1, but by 2. As Adam Smith warned against, capitalists should *not* be given political power

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

3 years

Baltic countries are most interesting. They invaded Afghanistan as part of the Soviet Union; and then invaded again as part of NATO. So, in some ways, they have been at war with Afghanistan since 1979.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

8 months

This is shameful, but not surprising. For several decades (or perhaps even from the end of WW2), the West has regarded Waffen SS and other Nazi units in the East as de facto allies in the struggle against communism. Thus SS in the West is bad, but SS in the East is good.

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Branko Milanovic

@BrankoMilan

4 years

"Populist" must be the most biased recent political term. It is used to tar whomever you dislike as either RW or LW populist. The only "responsible", "non-populists" are the people whose parties are responsible for the crisis, often corruption, and who currently may poll 15-20%.

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