@alphaville.ft.com for the win on memes of the AI bubble.

I feel seen.

Quick thread on the BBC and the political and societal significance of recent developments: One of the main reasons the UK has historically been so much less polarised than the US, is that Britain has a shared source of information, consumed and trusted by most people regardless of their politics.

New role playing game by Microsoft — Microsoft! — warns that ‘any similarities to real-world dystopian corporate branded hellscapes are purely coincidental.’

Profound political economy insight from the Daily Show: observe behavior rather than cheap talk.

The Nuffield PPRF is an amazing postdoc - a brilliant community, lovely college, and yes, great food. And, usually, also with a family of ducks.

The Onion has trouble staying ahead of reality these days.

Should local officials in a democracy be allowed to sign NDAs?

"Sovereignty entails the ability to set one’s own rules in one’s own jurisdiction, and that is not something US cloud providers can offer Europe"

You laugh, but this is how the exododus went extinct

Excellent piece by @martinsandbu.ft.com today. Democracy and markets depend on regulation. The indiscriminate bonfire of ‘red tape’ is not the answer. Some of that tape may be holding functioning democracies together.

Is it possible that President Trump is testing, purely for political science reasons, how much brazen corruption is required to render the issue electorally salient?

"Parking is such sweet sorrow"

That list is the fraudster equivalent of Mos Eisley: you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Jabba the Hutt would like his chances of getting off after a conviction for fixing pod races.

For the second day running, FT investigative journalism does its job of speaking truth to power. Today looks at how well Trump donors have been doing post-donation.

The newest get rich quick scheme: be president. Excellent investigation by FT into Trump family’ sudden and startling crypto wealth.

Monopoly capitalists, even those with black turtlenecks and slick marketing, are still corrosive of democracy (typed on an iPhone).

it's also a private market story. openai and anthropic are private companies, they have a lot of investors- including indirect retail investors, who invest through funding vehicles- but they don't have to make disclosures and if the bubble bursts, those investors will have a lot more trouble suing

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

Who’d have thunk that DOGE wouldn’t save any money? (From the Wall Street Journal)

🤔

Daring reportage from the hellscape

Excellent thread by @abenewman.bsky.social . This particular point shows the dark side of Keck and Sikkink’s boomerang theory: transnational networks of democratic subversion. Coming soon to a polarized democracy near you!

Scholars of American Political Economy should be writing up the whole dark economy that is emerging around coercion and corruption.

And I thought I was losing my mind…

This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important

On the morning of Keir Starmer's conference speech here's a new post on an odd psychopathology in British politics - our main parties don't like the people who vote for them - the dreaded Professional Managerial Class. And so they are acting out like a divorced dad seeking cooler voters. 1/n

Great to see the Blavatnik School’s new neighbour, the Schwarzmann Centre for the Humanities, just about ready for the new academic year. Welcome!

What could possibly go wrong?

‘Renowned roboticist Rodney Brooks has a wake-up call for investors funneling billions into humanoid robot startups: you’re wasting your money.’ techcrunch.com/2025/09/26/f...

I’m starting to notice a trend in the polling data… —Top Public Worry: Corruption —Biggest problem in Fed Gov: Corruption —Top fear: Corruption —What one word would you use to describe American government?: “Corrupt” It’s almost like voters are trying to tell us something.

Ezra Klein-haters, hold your fire. This great interview with Corey Robin on the red scare and today is worth your time. Ht to @jacobedenhofer.bsky.social for spotting it.

A big challenge for all of us who rely on web surveys.

This post reminds us that big corporations like Disney will stand up for at least one principle: more money better.

@adambonica.bsky.social has a great piece today arguing that the right way forward is creating a new axis around corruption and the rigged system. The fine picture he leads with is in chapter 1 of my forthcoming book with Taeku Lee. Truth lies at the confluence of independent streams of evidence!

Change to “EU’s de facto data protection regulator” and you begin to see the scope of the problem here.

Want to understand the long term drivers of why big business is so unpopular now? (And it’s not just in the US—we trace this phenomenon around the world). Check out our new book coming in January. Too late for Xmas, but what everyone is secretly hoping they get for Valentine’s Day 2026.

*bloody* hell, this entire story www.ft.com/content/0e24...

Houston, we have a problem. @niemanlab.org’s Sophie Culpepper on the challenges that even well funded local news nonprofits face. A sobering deep dive. “We tried to be too much, too fast, for too many people.”

“We need to politicise technology. Not in the partisan sense, but in the democratic one.” @marietjeschaake.bsky.social in the FT.

As per this morning, I'd put it just a little differently. The reason @abenewman.bsky.social and I wanted our hegemonic enshittification piece in Wired is that its model fits the journalism we need right now - how our politics is shaped by the power politics of technically complex systems.

Excited to announce the #OxfordLLMs tuition-free AI workshop for social scientists! Join us for 5 days of lectures, coding tutorials, and collaborative research, to learn hot to use LLMs for social science🙂 Dates: 22-26 September Venue: @nuffieldcollege.bsky.social llmsforsocialscience.net

‘England’s higher education system risks long-term decline unless ministers overhaul their “confused, if not incoherent” approach to universities’ FT interview with outgoing @britishacademy.bsky.social President Julia Black where she pulls no punches! www.ft.com/content/3162...

Super thoughtful piece by @davidautor.bsky.social and @gordonhanson.bsky.social on the next China shock and strategies to confront it. As simple as possible, but no simpler, when it comes to a solution.

Yeah, it's quite the paradox that the people who understand AI aren't impressed by it. A real head scratcher.

Whatever you think of NewsGuard’s approach or the usefulness of its labels, the decision speaks to how the internet, political landscape, and notions of collective truth have polarized beyond recognition since 2018. www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/lang...

Yay! @madselk.bsky.social, @benansell.bsky.social, @mhaslberger.bsky.social, @aslicansunar.bsky.social, Laure Bokobza, and my piece on 𝙬𝙝𝙮 𝙞𝙨 𝙞𝙩 𝙨𝙤 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩 𝙬𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙝 𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 is out in @worldpolitics.bsky.social! Find it here: muse.jhu.edu/article/964464

I think Elon Musk gets away with a lot of illegal stuff. Even with that as a backdrop, I’m reasonably confident he won’t get away with breaking Duverger’s law.

Interesting and important take on how to think about the consequences of all that ICE money in the recent bill.

Financial regulation in 2010, otoh, was very popular.