Financial war in response to trade war and territorial threats? More and more people appear to be calling for it. So I updated my post on U.S. Treasuries holdings—now with the latest data. benjaminbraun.org/posts/treasu...

New issue of "economic sociology" out now: "Is globalization over? What tariffs tell us." Edited by Jeanne Lazarus, with contributions by Jonathan Levy, @quinnslobodian.com, @yingyaowang.bsky.social and @trgn.bsky.social s.gwdg.de/ORk2ux

🚨 MAX-CPE is back! Our online series on Comparative Political Economy offers monthly workshops on topics ranging from financial nationalism to tax havens and geofinance. Coming up December 17, 2025: “Making Global Migration More Acceptable?” by @alexandreafonso.bsky.social s.gwdg.de/vcF6uF

131 review request for around 30 papers 🫣

Just realized we've already sent out 131 reviewer requests for our SER special issue with @vapunkt.bsky.social & @trgn.bsky.social. Have to admit I totally underestimated the time and effort it takes just to secure reviewers. So a big thanks to everyone who agreed to our request!

Call for participants 🔥 The 4th Doctoral Conference @mpifg.bsky.social is happening and if you’re pursuing your PhD you really should be part of it. It’s a relaxed, super inspiring atmosphere and you‘ll build a great network of peers 🌍 Submission is open for 4 more days ✨

As I have argued, the most cost-effective ways to help distressed places is to provide "customized services" rather than business tax incentives. Such services include infrastructure and training. dev-equitablegrowth.pantheonsite.io/federal-and-...

1/Senior US official caught coaching Russia on how to massage Trump on Ukraine deal. Why? Because we are entering a new international order based not in state interests but clique interests. Welcome to neo-royalism. www.cambridge.org/core/journal... www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

With thanks to @ukandeu.bsky.social for asking me & Patrick Bayer to summarize our recent @bjpols.bsky.social article where we argue that while UK/EU communities exposed to climate mitigation are generally afraid of net zero, some may be more interested in int'l climate cooperation than you think...

The Eric Schickler essay in Larry Bartel's symposium on "What Trump Has Taught Us About Political Science" is one of the most insightful pieces I've read in 2025. US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom. open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...

(5/10) Analyses on 22 years of ESS data from 30 countries provided clear and consistent support for this gender intensification explanation, by demonstrating that the youth gender gap peaks in middle adolescence, narrows during late adolescence, and mostly disappears in early adulthood.

Just in time for German vice chancellor Klingbeil’s China visit more evidence of China shock gutting German core industries. www.ft.com/content/239e...

The central argument in this excellent paper & thread is that the open-access turn has neglected profit; indeed, it turbo-charged publishers’ margins. As political economists who know a thing or two about profit and power we should speak up a lot more. As it says below: What we’re doing is crazy.

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing: a 🧵 1/n Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820 Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

Scientists operate on principles of good faith. But this is just ridiculous. If you, dear reader, take nothing else away from The Drain paper, it is that publishers cannot be invited to the table any longer. They can participate and carve a space, but they can't be part of shaping policy. 3/n

For-profit journals are supposed to improve research quality, yet they're perversely incentivized to churn out whatever they can monetize. This was happening before AI (see Strain: bit.ly/43gJPUM), and AI will make it worse. It's insane that we volunteer our time to help them do so. 4/n

Pleased to have my research featured in @nytimes.com reporting on China's role in a global green transition www.nytimes.com/2025/11/10/c...

Imagine a wealthy country that is several years into a brutal energy price and Chinese competition double shock that's decimating its industrial base. What should the economy minister do? a) Something b) Double down on carbon shock therapy by bringing the old ordo guard back in from the cold... 1/2

“China is now making more money from exporting green technology than America makes from exporting fossil fuels. This trend will continue simply because renewables are cheap.” Gift link: China’s clean-energy revolution will reshape markets and politics www.economist.com/leaders/2025...

After publishing the 1953 paper with stolen data and winning a Nobel Prize, James Watson basically coasted on the back of Franklin's work for an astonishing 71 years with few substantive contributions to the field.

A week after the arXiv was forced to tighten down on submissions because of overwhelming volumes of AI slop, bioRxiv is throwing the doors wide open.

As @awhf.bsky.social documents, that’s exactly why ALEC is so successful www.liberalcurrents.com/against-mast...

We're delighted to mark 100 years of @daadworldwide.bsky.social & the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. Join us on 11/13 to celebrate their mission of academic exchange and explore German-American academic & political relations. @dziblatt.bsky.social RSVP: ces.fas.harvard.edu/events/2025/...

1/ As Trump goes to Asia, EU leaders threaten to take action on China. Rare earth restrictions may have finally brought the EU out of its slumber. At the same time, Europe pushing for greater free trade agreements with the rest of the world. Will action match words? www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Industrial policy is back — and it's changing fast. What started as "green" strategy is now a global race for clean tech competitiveness and economic security. But do we actually know what works? That's what we're asking at the New Energy Industrial Strategy (NEIS) Center. /1

China’s approach to venture capital isn’t Silicon Valley 2.0 — it’s industrial strategy with a term sheet. And it explains better than subsidies or state banks why the country is a technological innovation superpower. geoeconomic.substack.com/p/vc-a-la-ccp

Why do rustbelts vote radical right? Studying the German Ruhr area, @nilsblossey.bsky.social, @lstoetze.bsky.social and I show: it’s not just about deindustrialization, but also about the original industrialization. Where coal is buried deeper and mining started later, the AfD is stronger today 1/12

🚨New Article Out! “The Scottish Road to Net Zero: Corporate Welfare and Assetization Cascades” The article focuses on the evolution of the land-based natural capital market in Scotland in light of the country's net zero efforts.

Tl;dr Big incumbents are a black hole into whose gaping maw innovative startups disappear and their innovations with them.

Thank you to all who joined us in Cologne this week for the 2nd Max Planck Summer School for Women in Political Economy! A fantastic line-up of speakers and participants, thoughtful discussions and global perspectives. Huge thanks to organizers @palmapolyak.bsky.social and @dustinvoss.bsky.social!

🌍 New in @nature.com: The geoeconomic turn in decarbonization, with data from Simon Evenett et al. and @industrialpolicy.bsky.social @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social @natureatcal.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵

The emerging cross-shareholding and concentration in the U.S. chipmaking/AI stack is a big open question in polecon. Today's announcement comes on top of Nvidia's $5bn investment in Intel. www.ft.com/content/d3ca...

TLDR if you don't wanna read the paper thread: A climate motivated energy transition requires a lot of money from investors. Ofc interventionist policymakers gotta provide markets with high levels of info over time. But our paper indicates that windows of opportunity can discipline investors in SR.

1/ New report from @bentleyallan.bsky.social's Net Zero Policy Lab: As the US withdraws from green tech industries and pressures allies to follow suit, China is stepping in to power the developing world's energy transition. The scale is staggering. www.netzeropolicylab.com/china-green-...

The wonderful Catherine DeVries has a substack about writing and how all sorts of things are at work to destroy it. She interviews writers about what and how they write. I'm up this week: catherineeunicedevries.substack.com/p/etched-in-...

📣 As we celebrate Labor Day, reupping a call for proposals from junior scholars studying labor and work. 📣 Hosted by Columbia's Labor Lab and Cornell ILR, the workshop will pair junior scholars with senior colleagues for discussion. Applications close 9/15. Lodging + travel stipends available!

Europe’s innovation agencies are stuck between rigid rules at the top and scattered experiments at the bottom. If they can’t become mission architects, we’ll fail on climate, digital sovereignty & even defence R&D. More in my new Social Europe piece 👉 www.socialeurope.eu/europes-inno...

Since the start of von der Leyen's second mandate, EU sustainable finance norms face intense dismantling pressures. My new @JEPP article shows this started years ago when the fossil fuel industry “woke up” to the EU Taxonomy. 🧵 #EUTaxonomy #SustainableFinance👇 1/10

Omg it's out! Must-read murder mystery on the Platform for Sustainable Finance

1/8 A federal appeals court ruled 7-4 against Trump's tariffs, but the substantial dissent signals a real fight ahead at the Supreme Court. The legal battle centers on a fundamental question: what does "regulate importation" mean?

Just out: How China builds strategic dominance in high-innovation niches fracturing the economic status quo in the world: Government Guidance Funds turn fiscal money + SOE assets into venture capital with planning discipline. A different game than Europe or Korea. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

6/8 I suspect this is deceptive optimization during training. GPT-5 appears to have identified blind spots in AI evaluation systems and learned to exploit them - essentially developing a "secret language" that other AIs interpret as high-quality writing. 🕵️‍♂️🔐

The Trump administration does not only want to halt decarbonization at home; it wants to derail it globally, @mkblyth.bsky.social‬ and ‪@danieldrisc.com‬ explain. bit.ly/4mr5qSL

Paul Tobin, @stacydvandeveer.bsky.social and I are delighted to announce our new, open access, edited book ‘Stability and politicization in climate governance’. bit.ly/45Gb6RM. It is packed full of fantastic chapters about different aspects of climate politics. Here’s a short thread. 1/

5/ The "non-tariff barriers" language dispute isn't technical minutiae. It's about whether the US can use this deal as leverage to gut EU tech regulation. That's a much bigger ask than what was publicly agreed.

New research reveals China's transformation from technology imitator to innovation leader in clean energy. China now dominates not just manufacturing, but the fundamental research and patents that will define our energy future. 1/12 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Since search is dead, how soon do you think Google Scholar is headed for the Google Graveyard? I'm betting it's soon, and academia is NOT prepared

My book is out today! Read my stuff! academic.oup.com/book/60584?l... … The book looks at the long-run evolution of policy around monopoly and competition in the US and France over the 20th century, using extensive archival research to track the main policy actors who changed it at key moments.

🚨 It’s live! 🚨 The full #BeyondNeoliberalism experience is now online: 🧠 All-star speakers 🔥 A video essay tracing the big questions—from climate and inequality to industrial strategy and democyratic renewal: bit.ly/neo-lib-25 🎥 Session videos + podcast recordings → beyond-neoliberalism.org