ICYMI: my first book, WHEN COMPANIES RULE, will be out in November. It's a gripping 400-year history of super-powerful corporations, and a guide to challenging corporate power today. cup.columbia.edu/book/when-co...

How I feel when I try to explain to speakers of other (lesser) Englishes the supreme usefulness of the Indian English "prepone."

As Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations turns 250 we are supporting this conference in Glasgow in June reappraising the book and considering what it means for the world today www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/briti...

Corporate power today is scary, but not new. In WHEN COMPANIES RULE, I recount its 400-year history from the East India Company to Amazon, what motivates the oligarchs who would be kings, and what we can do about them. Out in November, pre-order now: cup.columbia.edu/book/when-co...

Corporate power today is scary, but not new. In WHEN COMPANIES RULE, I recount its 400-year history from the East India Company to Amazon, what motivates the oligarchs who would be kings, and what we can do about them. Out in November, pre-order now: cup.columbia.edu/book/when-co...

At a event at my school other parents kept saying to one dad, "hey Bill play us a song" and he kept demurring. Later he goes up to my dad and introduces himself: "Hi I'm Billy." "Hi I'm Vik." It was Billy Joel.

arguably I wish they were smoking something

Truly not a day has passed in a political science department in the UK for the last two years where we are not all turning to each other in the hallways and going "WTAF are they smoking." We are not a discipline with a lot of consensus research findings, but there is absolute consensus on this.

I do not understand why the Scottish Greens haven't brought some kind of legal challenge about this, but this might be my very American-brained "sue somebody before lunch or the day is a waste" tendency at work.

Interesting to compare this to the WTO ministerial conference in Cameroon just a few weeks back, where hosts caved to similar pressure in treatment of the Taiwan delegation. RightsCon showing more mettle than the WTO here.

That's the west coast mainline for you

James Talarico: We are living in an era of corruption. I don’t just mean illegal activity. I mean corruption in the deeper sense — the rotting of something from the inside. This is, at its root, a spiritual crisis. And it will require a spiritual solution.

15 years ago, this was the cause of my South Asian extended family finding out @chrisapplegate.bsky.social and I were dating. (He came to see me in NYC to escape London wedding derangement, and the fact that we were posting through the Bin Laden raid from the same sofa ended up in press coverage.)

For real. One of my favorite folk history theories is that the European Enlightenment kicked off bc the introduction and popularity of tea (and coffee and chocolate) meant people were caffeinated instead of drunk for the first time ever.

I miss when the internet was mostly fun stuff like this.

I wrote a version of the "critical race theory is mainstream political economy" essay in 2021: eprints.gla.ac.uk/253124/1/253...

Businessmen have been writing manifestos that were actually investment pitches for hundreds of years: www.penguin.co.uk/books/34188/...

'I did not have cognitive relations with that vetting process'

I too married someone with different politics, but to the extent we debate politics at our dinner table, it is "comparing left vs. liberal strategies for burning MAGA to the ground and salting the earth."

I have started singing "tax me, Rachel" to the tune of "Stand down, Margaret." It's not funny. Political economists only do this when we are very distressed.

This is an astonishing, horrific investigation from CNN that I'm coming to late. Trigger warnings for sexual assault and domestic abuse, but it is important and vital reporting. edition.cnn.com/interactive/...

JUST IN: John Eastman, the conservative attorney who helped devise President Trump's last ditch strategy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, has officially been disbarred, per the California Supreme Court:

Attention #twitterstorians: anybody have access to this database and willing to run a search for me/one of my graduate students? britishonlinearchives.com/collections/...

It's not just that Orbán losing inspires hope in other competitive-autocratic countries ruled by right-wing nationalist authoritarians. It's that his loss materially changes things in those other countries, because he's been operating as a headquarters and funding source...

Fascinated by the mix of 1848 references and Hungarian football chants in this victory speech. Would absolutely read 3000 words on the rhetorical moves being made here...

An astonishing watch, even if you have followed this story already.

That sound you hear is Millennial American women giving away all our money: www.glamour.com/story/the-or... Probably the first things I learned to cook for myself came from Molly McIntyre's WWII rationing cookbook.

I think he’s been itching for some pretext to use nuclear weapons since his first term. Not to achieve any real goal, but as a pure display of power and dominance, because he’s an amoral monster.

When the holiday calendars of the Abrahamic faiths align like this, it is time to quote the great @samkusnetz.bsky.social: "Jesus is risen, and so He is chametz." Happy everything to those who celebrate.

Monkey's paw theory: Italy has been cursed by the crimes against fair play committed the last time they were in the World Cup.

maybe my favorite thing on the internet: neal.fun/deep-sea/

How to Win a Trade War, in sea shanty form... I'm posting this today because @barnesandnoble.com has a special 25% off deal on pre-orders with the code PREORDER25. Deal runs until tomorrow, so pre-order How to Win a Trade War now! www.barnesandnoble.com/w/how-to-win... #BNPreorder

"Mr. Brightside"

Also "Allah" is just the generic Arabic for "God." It's a declaration of broad monotheism - "There is no god but God" - that people like Timothy always want to sound more alien to Christian or Jewish expressions than it is.

friend, this is Marcus Junius Brutus CAESAR has declared himself DICTATOR FOR LIFE and MUST BE STOPPED can you rush a donation of ten denarii today to show that you STAND WITH THE REPUBLIC?

Sticker on top of dive bar toilet, New Orleans

Habermas dead. Arguably outlived the public sphere. apnews.com/article/juer...

We are living through an era of imperial polycrisis much like the one Smith tried to make sense of. Here at @uofgsocsci.bsky.social, our program of conferences, exhibits and interactive experiences on “The World in 1776/2026” begins in June: www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/events/briti...

250 years ago today, Adam Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a proto-libertarian paean to free markets, but a blistering critique of vested interests, corporate power and the British Empire. Some favorite bits:

250 years ago today, Adam Smith published An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a proto-libertarian paean to free markets, but a blistering critique of vested interests, corporate power and the British Empire. Some favorite bits:

Happy International Women's Day to the original International Woman

Odysseus had his crew lash him to the mast to keep him from doing an interview with Chotiner.

"Government goes to war by deleting the risks section of the pro-con intelligence analysis" is literally the plot of In The Loop.

"I had to punch that guy because I could tell he was going to hit me back once we jumped him" is just a description of jumping a guy

When assessing threats from fascism, the most important thing is not to assess how ridiculous those threats seem, but to assess the scale of the resources - both military and financial - that the fascists can use to carry out those threats. What seems ridiculous today can be executed tomorrow.

posting, once again, the well-established definition of the crime of aggression in the rome statute for the ICC

UK followers: I'll be on BBC News sometime between 4:30 and 5pm talking tariffs that were, tariffs that are, and tariffs to come.

The opera AU fan fiction where Rigoletto and Figaro are lads on tour in Egypt and meet Aida who is besties with Madama Butterfly is maybe of niche interest but it is so my niche. God bless the Italians for this gift. #milanocortina2026

Will I make it past the montage scored to "Con Te Partiro" without tearing up? No, no I will not. #milanocortina2026