@alphaville.ft.com on what Epstein didn’t do during the GFC. www.ft.com/content/6901... No, Jeffrey Epstein didn’t trigger the 2008 subprime meltdown

Summer 1936 portrait of an unknown Gitano/Roma militiaman with anarchist scarf. One of many remarkable photos of Barcelona in Spanish Civil War by Antoni Campañà. Beautifully colourised by Julius Backman. (Insgrm). Working class power saying no pasarán.

@alexcallinicos.bsky.social for @socialistworker.bsky.social: #Epstein is a symptom of a sick system socialistworker.co.uk/alex-callini...

Yeah I thought we all walked away from that book/movie with the opinion Jay Gatsby was a sucker.

King Charles has said he is ready to help police investigations into his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, if asked, after they said they were assessing information about his financial links to Jeffrey Epstein. ft.trib.al/IQ09cot

Good piece by @pkrugman.bsky.social on the seductions of ruling-class privilege. open.substack.com/pub/paulkrug...

One major feature of the Epstein Files, apart from the heinous predatory and abusive behaviour of powerful men, is their overall disdain for the "lower classes." In one email exchange between film producer Barry Josephson and Epstein, the two

My latest column, on the historical meaning of the Epstein scandal. socialistworker.co.uk/alex-callini...

The standard protocol seems to be “The BBC understands that Mr Mandelson denies [etc]”, which if anything is worse.

Noticed that whenever the BBC mentions Mandelson now it trots out the same formula that he denies doing anything criminal etc? A sign of his continuing grip on the media - also reminiscent of the BBC’s insistence on asking everyone if they condemned 7/10 early on in the genocide.

‘“Over the last few months, the market has clearly shifted from the ‘every tech stock is a winner’ mindset to something far more brutal: a true winners and losers landscape,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Jim Reid in a note to clients this week. Now, it looks rather like tech is “eating itself”.’

Interesting piece

Brendan Greeley is always worth reading, this time on the diversity of currency regimes www.ft.com/content/6b4f... The disappointing randomness of currency hegemony

Good summary of how Epstein was able to turn his ‘relationships [with the rich and famous] into a source of money, information and further relationships, a form of social Ponzi scheme’. But the source of his money remains a mystery even to @financialtimes.com

I know this is only a very partial view but it’s still beautiful

Two excellent recent blogs by Michael Roberts thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2026/02/05/t...

NYT today: "There was very much a class aspect to this. A lot of the young girls came from broken homes and poor backgrounds. Some of them had been abused in their own families."

Great news! www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

“Maga has gone Maoist. It is state capitalism. It is not remotely conservative.”

@alexcallinicos.bsky.social for @socialistworker.bsky.social : How can the protests in #Minnesota win?: socialistworker.co.uk/alex-callini...

My latest column, on the Minnesota movement. socialistworker.co.uk/alex-callini...

So in 2010 Mandelson, then UK First Secretary of State, lobbied against the Volcker Rule restricting US bank speculation on behalf of Epstein & a crony (Jes Staley then of JPMorgan) in meetings with another crony (Larry Summers, then a senior Obama adviser). Beyond satire …

A review of John Bellamy Foster's new book on Epicurus and Marxism. marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/2248...

Judy Cox on Epstein, abuse, empire, and capitalism socialistworker.co.uk/in-depth/jef...

5 Feb 1939, Los Angeles, just two months before end of the Spanish Civil War. "Motion Picture Artists' Committee. Save Spain; Spain is Facing Her Valley Forge. Lift Embargo - Save Spain Rally- Valley Forge" Attempts to link the American Revolutionary War against British with anti-fascist struggle.

@financialtimes.com is doing great anti capitalist work by exposing Epstein’s multifarious corporate connections.

Peter Mandelson has always looked after himself but he’s also been a loyal servant of capital. www.ft.com/content/91e8... Mandelson told Epstein JPMorgan should ‘threaten’ UK government over banker tax

This is just shameful:

This must surely be the end of Mandelson, almost 30 years after the same pattern first became visible. www.ft.com/content/1728... Jeffrey Epstein sent Peter Mandelson $75,000, documents show

One explanation for today’s fall in silver and gold prices - investors needed to cover margin calls on the tech stocks that also dropped. www.ft.com/content/c7e2... Microsoft sheds $430bn in market value as AI spending spooks investors

Dazzling review by Jonathan Ree of two biographies of Alexandre Kojeve. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

That image will go round the world - @repilhan.bsky.social kicking the Nazi's cowards arse....

“For the Cuban regime, the island’s economic crisis is so severe as to be potentially existential.”

This article could be called The Economuc Consequences of Mr Trump. www.ft.com/content/0c3e... The Fed is done cutting until something changes

@repilhan.bsky.social shows how to deal with the far right.

Bruce Springsteen, Streets of Minneapolis youtu.be/wWKSoxG1K7w?...

I'm calling bullshit on the media narrative that Trump is "pivoting" and "deescalating" on his ICE raids. The threshold is this: As long as the military occupations and the treatment of US cities as enemy territory continue, there's no pivot. ICE out. 1/ (New piece) newrepublic.com/article/2057...

Rick Rieder, whom Trump apparently favours as Fed chair because he likes low interest rates, is a senior BlackRock executive. Another step towards world domination after BlackRock CEO Larry Fink ran the WEF in Davos? www.ft.com/content/0d56... Rick Rieder is a massive dove

Furore in Italy over the bizarre appearance of ICE - increasingly known by Italians as squadristi after Mussolini’s blackshirts - at the Winter Olympics in Cortina.

‘Since becoming party chief in 2012, Xi has removed at least 80 senior PLA officers at the rank of lieutenant-general or vice admiral and above … According to an FT count, at least 50 of those removals have happened since 2023.’

Also this is why socialism and the removal of money from politics is the only solution. Under capitalism, profits are made on the lives of people, definitionally.

Pledge to Support the Legal Defence of Usama Ghanem, Egyptian student expelled from @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social for taking part in pro-Palestine protests and threatened with deportation docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Holocaust Memorial Day 2026 and far right governments and movements in several countries are continuing to enact the ideologies of supremacism and hate. Our antiracist and antifascist resistance in its many forms must be strong, courageous and united. www.jewishsocialist.org.uk/news/item/ho...

@alexcallinicos.bsky.social for @socialistworker.bsky.social : Sheriff #Trump opens up a rift in ruling class: socialistworker.co.uk/alex-callini...

My latest column, on Davos and its aftermath. socialistworker.co.uk/alex-callini...

Alan Beattie on the tendency of Trump's geopolitical tariffs to end in TACO. www.ft.com/content/97bf...

Trump has begun to retreat over the ICE occupation of Minneapolis but he needs to pushed much further back.

Epstein Files are killing his support, he is desperate. I get this picture of Trump being a bulldozer driving away from the Epstein Files. Every inch he moves more is build up in front of the bulldozer slowing it down. He will get stuck and Epstein Files floods over him as a tsunami from the back.

‘The legitimate fear is that Trump will rig the US midterm elections this November to stop a widely forecast Republican defeat. But he is robbing himself of the means to get away with it. The meta-tool available to him is public gullibility. Enough people must be willing to believe that ballot … 1/