This amazingly punchy piece by @adam_tooze blew my mind. He eloquently translates the technical details of my paper into the bigger (politics & policy) picture, which I neither could do in an academic paper nor would've been able to. A few personal favorite lines & thoughts 1/9 https://twitter.com/adam_tooze/status/1264888952475058176

He highlights the role of €-zone authorities: "bond markets did...act as enforcers, but...less freebooting market vigilantes than...paramilitary hit-squads operating with the connivance of the authorities"->maybe I should've used this rather than vigilantes in the title! 2/9

"The dysfunction resulted from...tendency to substitute
‘market discipline’ for politics in [EMU]... Relying on markets...to avoid...collective decisions"->reminds of Hayek's vision to substitute market- for political mechanisms to achieve federation 3/9

"these [bond] markets are actually made up of a discrete group of more or less important actors, linked through particular networks of information and exchange." ->YES 4/9

"Information...ultimate recipients of bond coupon payments is held by private firms such as Clearstream, not public debt-management agencies."->I talked to the GER DMO. They pointed out that Cearstream's data on ownership would lead you straight to...Eurex, yes! More soon! 5/9

This hits home: "we should demand transparency. Who holds what? Who is buying sovereign debt? Who is selling? Which firms? Names and addresses please. And we need to know who exercises control and who are the real beneficiaries." but is this possible given financialization? 6/9

"This network involves complicated legal and technical arrangements. [...] Debts are legally coded; they can
be uncoded and recoded."->I'm eagerly waiting for @KPatricio1's work on the this. Keep your Twitter-eyes open! 7/9

I take it as a personal academic achievement reached if this line indicates that even my footnotes (#5) are read: "If you deal in sovereign debt you are not trading in any old IOUs: you are dealing in the ‘IOUs’ of sovereign states."->gov.bonds are NOT just another security 8/9

Last but not least just a big thanks to @adam_tooze for so kindly drawing on the work of a young scholar but more importantly for making a strong and bold case on how we should handle sovereign debt going forward. 9/9