Public options for essentials, strategic price interventions, investment in housing and childcare — this is antifascist economics. It tackles the material conditions that make authoritarianism appealing. In making life livable, democracy defends itself.

🧵 about reseach on exactly how price instability in specific sectors like food increases inequality, affecting the those with low incomes far more seriously than the 1%.

Posting this thread and Guardian article hoping you'll read it and take it to heart. We need radical ideas in Austin just as much as NYC, and Kirk Watson won't ever be up to the challenge. bsky.app/profile/isab...

Great piece. "Mamdani’s agenda treats affordability of essentials as democratic obligation, not market efficiency." This approach also underpins the work at @cplusc.bsky.social, from the reimagining of home insurance that I've done, to @sevier.io's vision for public energy. #PeopleOverProfits

Fantastic thread.

Wow👇 #mustread 🧵 by @isabellamweber.bsky.social „This restores democracy’s promise. As fascist movements gain ground globally, his victory provides something desperately needed: the beginning of an antifascist economic program that can win back people who have lost faith in democracy itself.“

If guaranteeing essentials sounds radical, it speaks to how far we have drifted from democracy‘s core promises. Markets will not beat back the far right. An antifascist economics might. Mamdani provides a playbook for democrats around the world. My latest

"People are so fed up with the status quo that they opt for anything but continuity. But Democrats and most democratic parties worldwide have shied away from offering real alternatives. This has pushed voters into the arms of the extreme right, even fascist forces."

“Mamdani’s agenda treats affordability of essentials as democratic obligation, not market efficiency…This is antifascist economics – not opposing any particular party, but addressing the material conditions that make fascism appealing.”

Superb article “Centering his campaign on making life affordable again, Mamdani won because he offered hope”

This is a great piece that deftly gets at the heart of what Mamdani is trying to do.

This piece was great. Provide things people need, make things affordable, allow folks opportunities to live their lives fully, safely and with economic stability. And yes, that means providing public options, subsidies & regulation of markets to keep prices competitive & affordable.

If guaranteeing essentials sounds radical, it speaks to how far we have drifted from democracy‘s core promises. Markets will not beat back the far right. An antifascist economics might. Mamdani provides a playbook for democrats around the world. My latest

Mamdani won campaigning with price controls for essentials. Harris lost shying away from her own price gouging policy for food. Trump won fantasizing about bringing prices of essentials down. Sheinbaum won a landslide controlling prices of essential groceries.

IMPORTANT thread worth reading in full—Professor @isabellamweber.bsky.social is an expert in anti-fascist economics:

This is an excellent thread on the economic underpinnings of our country’s descent into fascism and the antifascist, democratic alternatives that leaders like Mamdani offer us as a way forward.

But windfall profits flow upward: in 2022, half of record fossil-fuel profits went to the richest 1%; only 1% reached the bottom half. Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Essentials like housing, food, energy, & childcare are not ordinary commodities. When their prices surge, they trigger redistribution shocks. Our research identifies these sectors as key drivers of inequality. Link: scholarworks.umass.edu/entities/pub...

If guaranteeing essentials sounds radical in 2025, it speaks to how far we’ve drifted from democracy’s core promise. Markets will not save democracy. My new piece for @theguardian.com: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“Critics dismiss this as pie-in-the-sky socialism. But what they’re really objecting to is more fundamental: the idea that democratic governments should guarantee people’s basic needs, even if it means intervening in markets”

If guaranteeing essentials sounds radical, it speaks to how far we’ve drifted from democracy’s core promises. Markets will not beat back the far right. But an antifascist economics might. Mamdani provides a playbook for democrats around the world. My latest www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

“My friends, the world is changing. It's not a question of whether that change will come. It's a question of who will change it.” @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social People are choosing real alternatives instead of continuity. Mamdani stands for an antifascist economics in the name of the many. 🧵

„Meine Freunde, die Welt verändert sich“, sagte Zohran Mamdani zu seinen Unterstützern vor der Bürgermeisterwahl in New York. Er trifft den Nerv: Die Menschen wählen echte Alternativen statt bloßer Kontinuität. Mamdani steht für Hoffnung – Hoffnung darauf, das Leben wieder bezahlbar zu machen.

Wenn ihr heute von steigenden, springenden oder zulegenden #Öl-Preisen lest, denkt immer an diese Graphik und die in dieser visualisierten krassen Profite, die 2022ff. im Kontext der Energiekrise gemacht wurden. #Profit-Inflation 👇👇👇

I think this is one of the craziest Econ papers I've ever seen, insane depth and great presentation at FMM!

🚨NEW PAPER🚨 We all know the 2022 energy price shock fueled the cost of living crisis. It also caused a profit bonanza for the very rich. We show the US reaped the largest profits ($377bn) of any country. 50% went to the richest 1%, only 1% to the bottom 50%. A🧵 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Wir sind die Töchter: Für ein „anderes“ Stadtbild braucht es auch eine andere Wirtschaftspolitik. Gleicher Lohn für gleiche Arbeit, finanzielle Anerkennung von Sorgearbeit und ein Sozialstaat, der echte Daseinsvorsorge bietet.

Was Isabella und Polanyi sagt.

Diese Zusammenhänge müssen mehr ins Zentrum der Debatte. Danke @isabellamweber.bsky.social für deinen Mut.

Die Politik sei nicht genug darauf ausgerichtet den Menschen weh zu tun — genau diese Haltung macht die Wirtschaftswissenschaft zum Steigbügelhalter der extremen Rechten. Polanyi nannte das den „faschistischen Virus“.

The Sudan Solidarity Collective supports organizations led by Sudanese civilians: including emergency response rooms, mutual aid, labor and farmers’ unions. Please give what you can and/or share.

Cargill and Tyson both settle for $ 87.5 million in price beef price fixing case; litigation still ongoing against JBS and National Beef Packing - this is on top of Tyson paying $85m last week on a pork price-fixing suit. The sector is simply too concentrated. hpj.com/2025/10/09/c...

When inflation rises policy makers administer "harsh medicine" on workers, putting them out of work and curbing their spending by whacking up interest rates. But what if that inflationary spiker solely benefits corporates and the wealthy? bsky.app/profile/greg...

Gives an extra layer of meaning to Distributed Energy Resources

This is a really interesting article by @isabellamweber.bsky.social especially after listening to @iandunt.bsky.social & @dorianlynskey.bsky.social speak today. Can economics change things or do people just want to smash things up? 🤔 #EconSky www.thenation.com/article/econ...

Energy rebound is elusive but key for climate change mitigation. My co-authors & I developed a framework to consistently trace all energetic and economic aspects of rebound & visualize them. Framework: doi.org/10.1177/0195... 
Visualization & car & lamp upgrade examples: doi.org/10.1177/0195...
🔌💡

Important message on effect of record #fossil-fuel profits on #inequality not via cost-of-living but excessively unequal 'redistribution' of profits to shareholders. Thanks @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social and friends at @openuniversity.bsky.social & elsewhere www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Interesting new paper from @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social looks very relevant for 🇨🇦 also. They look at US data but I imagine shareholder impact for Canadian companies has a lot of similarities www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

In a world riven by inequality and devastated by climate + ecological crisis, what would it take for "green industrial policy" to empower the working class in Global North + South, and be truly green? New @cplusc.bsky.social report by me and Isabel Estevez (1/3) t.co/78sQQe4d1g

Who benefitted from energy price shocks - thread

📢 must-read new paper! 👇

"The incremental U.S. fossil-fuel profits in 2022 relative to 2021 were enough to increase the disposable income of the wealthiest Americans by several percent and compensate a substantial part of their purchasing power loss from inflation that year, thereby exacerbating inflation inequality. "

Mad to me that the centrist UK commentariat still insist this never happened and nothing needs to change.

Policy relevance: Excess profit taxes could make fossil fuel profits less volatile in the low-carbon transition. Revenues could finance investments or alleviate inflation impacts: taxing incremental 2022 US profits as excess could've doubled clean energy investments or paid each US household $1,715.

Fossil fuel profits also sharply increase inflation inequality. Incremental 2022 fossil fuel profits over 2021 compensate several percent of 2022 inflation for the richest groups (triangles and squares), dwarfing differences in inflation due to differing consumption baskets (disks). 10/

Record fossil fuel profits reinforce existing racial & ethnic inequalities. Whites (64% of households) benefit disproportionately with claims on 87% of all profits. Blacks (14% of hholds) have a claim on only 3% of all profits, & Hispanics (10% of hholds) a mere 1%, mainly through pensions. 9/

The stock market consequences could not have been starker: The MSCI World Energy Index (ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell etc) doubled in 2021-2022, while the Global Alternative Energy index (Vestas, First Solar, Orsted etc) fell by half in 2021-2024. 4/

Oil & gas profits were much higher than in previous years: $916 billion for listed firms worldwide. That was a huge windfall for shareholders: U.S. beneficiaries held claims to $301bn—one third of the listed total. For comparison, total 2022 U.S. low-carbon energy investment was $266 billion. 3/

Fantastic paper. Data by sector, geography, investor entity & distributional impact (in terms of wealth, race, education). @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social's conclusion below: "taxing incremental 2022 US profits as excess could've doubled clean energy investments or paid each US household $1,715".

If profits shape the energy transition we need to understand the biggest profit event this century: the 2022 oil and gas price spike. Very happy our paper is now out in Energy Research & Social Science. Thread by lead-author @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social 👇