Really important, impressive paper from my colleague Yuci Chen. #EconSky

There’s a word to describe this phenomenon: financialization. “Instead of fostering long-term investment, productive work, and better goods and services that can provide all of us with better lives, a financialized economy rewards extraction, speculation, and short-term gains.”

𝘋𝘦𝘣𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳𝘴 is officially out with @brisunipress.bsky.social!

📚 With less than 2 weeks to go before the UK launch and just over 1 month before it reaches North America, I'm delighted to share the latest endorsements for 𝘿𝙚𝙗𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙧𝙨 from Costas Lapavitsas (SOAS), Hannah Appel (UCLA), and Mark SetterfielD (New School)

The richest 0.1 percent of the global population are hiding nearly $3 trillion in offshore accounts to evade taxes — more than the wealth held by the entire bottom half of humanity. It would take about $93 billion per year to eradicate extreme hunger by 2030. Taxing the rich is a global necessity.

Take a moment to read our thread about the upcoming May Day. 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇

Since 1994, immigrants have paid more in taxes than they receive in benefits every year. Do not believe the lies you hear about immigrants. They are good for society and the economy.

📚 Book Launch: Debt and the Future of Workers – Financialisation as Exploitation in the 21st Century 📅27 March 2026 | 16:30–18:00 (GMT) 📍 AG01, College Building Join us for this discussion on #Debt, #Labour and #Financialisation in the 21st century. https://ow.ly/FqJa50YsJvn

After working with the U.S. military in Afghanistan, Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal died in the country he spent years of his life helping. The cruelty is endless.

Wall Street Journal, y'all

The first draft of my effort to theorize the political/coalitional characteristics of student debt is out for review. It's really the first step in an effort to think through how to design a free college program with durable long-term coalitions

Correct. This is valuable time that researchers could be investing into changing the formatting styles of their citations between resubmissions.

Part of the problem is that we use the same word, "housing," to refer both to the flow of services and to the asset that produces those services. As if the word "ketchup" meant both the stuff we spread on burgers, and the factories that produce it.

You can also join us over on LinkedIn here: www.linkedin.com/in/british-journal-of-industrial-relations

📣Hello Bluesky! 👋 Me (Holly Smith, new Social Media Editor), @ryanlamare.bsky.social (Editor-In-Chief), & the rest of the #BJIR board are delighted to launch our new socials today! Join us here for all things #industrialrelations - related (is that a hashtag?)

When political figures threaten lawsuits against comedians, it’s not just about individual grievances. It’s about power. Our research shows how a deregulated, profit-driven media system is especially vulnerable to legal and political intimidation. Read here: https://bit.ly/4rtcRLa

So as I struggled with miscarriage after miscarriage before having my 🌈 baby, Reform would seriously think I should pay more tax during that agony. This policy isn’t just a slippery slope to a handmaids tale dystopian future - it’s a deliberate step towards it www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

In this episode of the @freefreeforum.bsky.social podcast, Clara Mattei discusses with @graceblakeley.substack.com how economic planning happens under capitalism and what democratic economic planning could look like. www.indep.network/podcast-epis...

Our January newsletter is out! ❄ technologypolicy.substack.com/p/the-tip-ne... We're particularly excited to invite you to our upcoming event with @ceciliarikap.bsky.social on 25 Feb 3pm GMT, where she will present her findings on the Cloud ☁️ in the age of AI 👉 www.tickettailor.com/events/techn...

The rich get richer, while others ...

New: Pordoceo Education Corporation — the financial corporation that runs several shady, predatory for-profit colleges — is behind a "ghost student" scheme. They're knowingly allowing AI students to enroll so they can get federal government cash and boost shareholder value.

The private equity investment strategy of USS should be subjected to scrutiny. How USS became main shareholder in debt-laden zombie firms like Thames Water and G.Network is a scandal. Trustees should read research by USS members instead of advice from asset managers www.ft.com/content/2ca2...

Concentrated ownership and weakened public-interest institutions threaten democratic information systems, making reform a structural imperative. In December, we explored concentrated power in our media industry and its impacts #RI2025 https://bit.ly/4oTUrBz

Julia Hartley-Brewer: Why is colonialism bad? Me: “When Britain arrived in 1700s, India had 27% of global GDP. After 200 years of theft and millions starved to death, by 1947 India had 3% of global GDP, 90% living below the poverty line, a literacy rate of 17% and life expectancy of 27”

Extremely grateful to @thomaspiketty.bsky.social for his very generous endorsement of my forthcoming book, 𝘿𝙚𝙗𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙪𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙠𝙚𝙧𝙨. 🔜The book is out from @brisunipress.bsky.social on 𝗔𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗹 𝟮𝟯𝗿𝗱 in the UK & 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟮𝟲𝘁𝗵 in the US (link in the comments below)

The new debtors' prison: Conceptualising the relationship between prisoner debt, prison violence and prisoner crisis journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

America's richest 10% now hold 60% of the nation's wealth. The bottom half of America? It holds just 6%. Wealth inequality is eating this country alive.

I’m hiring a postdoc! Flexible in terms of details, but I’m looking for someone to collaborate with on research about labor market inequality. I’ll review applications as they come in and the posting just went up here: apply.interfolio.com/178873

US-style student debt bondage coming soon to a UK campus near you...

Almost a third of your water bill pays for dividends for shareholders, and for private water companies to pay off their debt, according to research by @cmmonwealth.bsky.social Will Rachel Reeves end the rip-off and bring down water bills in this Budget? #Budget

"academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it... The dominant four collectively generated... $12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024."

Seems like evidence for the neo-liberal university label - when the market triumphs over principle (academic freedom) - except that we are opposed. The reactions will be revealing China intimidated UK university to ditch human rights research, documents show www.bbc.com/news/article...

Happy to share the first empirical chapter of my PhD thesis accepted for publication - now in the proofs stage at the International Labour Review, the International Labour Organization’s flagship journal!

SNAP isn't about "people who don't work." It's about people who don't get paid enough to live. Of the 40 or so million people who rely on food stamps: * Two-thirds are children, seniors, or disabled * Most working-age adults who receive SNAP are employed—but in jobs that pay poverty wages

Will be at @redemmas.org with Ho-fung Hung this Wednesday. In Baltimore? Come on down!

🚨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...

What would it really take to build a green, democratic future? @sarahljaffe.bsky.social interviews the authors of “Radical Abundance: How to Win a Green Democratic Future,” who lay out a roadmap for transitioning out of capitalism through public-common partnerships and collective power.

Out now in Competition & Change @compchange.bsky.social “Dependent development in digital capitalism: The politics of startup policies in the new periphery” @journals.sagepub.com #polisky journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... 1/n

If you're wondering whether academics have written on 'asylum hotels', I can point you in the direction of Martina Tazzioli's work on refugee carcerality & value extraction in the UK, Greece & Italy. See esp. section on financialised asylum accommodation in the UK. dx.doi.org/10.1177/0263...

📕My new book 'Debt and the Future of Workers' (@brisunipress.bsky.social) is now up for pre-order! If you are interested to learn why organizing around #debt is as crucial as organizing at #work, see more details below: 📰 25% off via BUP newsletter #Debt #Work #Financialization #Booksky

📕My new book 'Debt and the Future of Workers' (@brisunipress.bsky.social) is now up for pre-order! If you are interested to learn why organizing around #debt is as crucial as organizing at #work, see more details below: 📰 25% off via BUP newsletter #Debt #Work #Financialization #Booksky

support independent leftist music journalism by signing up for my antifascist heavy metal newsletter, Salvo (pretty please) salvo.ghost.io

Spoke with Matt Myers for Jacobin about his new book The Halted March of the European Left, asking why the left’s surge stalled and what lessons it offers for today jacobin.com/2025/08/euro...

We need to draw attention to a new, exploding type of household debt that only recently emerged: it's called rent debt—or "back rent debt," and it didn't really exist before COVID at all. It's getting little attention in housing discourse and media coverage. We'll explain it.

How do federal and state governments drive innovation in the US? My new paper @cjres.bsky.social shows how the 'Polycentric Innovation State' with multi-level, place-based policies is reshaping regional growth in places like Michigan and Maine academic.oup.com/cjres/advanc...

Official release date for Debt's Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy, from University of California Press!! In it, @boblawless.bsky.social, Deborah Thorne, and I draw on 11 years of court records and surveys from bankruptcy filers to describe what it means to live in financial precarity in the US.

🔶Issue 32 of Futures of Work is out now! This issue explores how continuity and change shape caring relationships, revealing a gap between the ideal of consistent care and the often fragmented realities faced by care providers and recipients.

Discussed the new Left party led by Corbyn and Sultana. 230,000 people signed up in 24hrs. Millions want to tax the rich, end the wars, redistribute wealth, and build a country that serves people, not billionaires. They can smear, they can panic, but they can’t stop a movement whose time has come:

I adore the politicians out there that trying to fight the right. But I can’t imagine ever actually winning without the formation of new multi-racial deliberative and participatory working-class institutions in and outside of the state. Processes are as important as policies.

Our Transnational Socioeconomic Protest Database is now available open access:   Erne R and Nowak J (2024). Transnational Socioeconomic Protest Database. ERC Project ‘European Unions’, UCD, Dublin. Version March 2024. hdl.handle.net/10197/26247