New episode alert: @seanvanatta.bsky.social joins host @dygottlieb.bsky.social for a banking mega-pod. Come for the credit cards, stay for the fine-grained analysis of banking supervision.

The first American Pope. His first international trip. To TURKEY. On THANKSGIVING 🦃🦃🦃. 🤔🤔🤔

My parody of the repeal of New Zealand’s pay equity legislation - Salary Sticks - is out in The Listener (print first). It was fun to write – but the point is serious. Much economic reasoning in policy today still: → masks its politics → mocks its challengers → is gendered *all the way down*

I should hope so! It's the m---- f--ing labour party. 'They are unanimous in their hatred for me and I welcome their hatred,' etc. etc. Budget exposes Labour to charges of being ‘high tax, high welfare’ party - on.ft.com/49CUhL5 via @FT

I use the Em dash--over use it even--and I am not a robot. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/m...

I was delighted to contribute to the Yale JREG symposium on @seanvanatta.bsky.social and @petercontibrown.bsky.social's excellent new book. My essay examines what the book can teach us about efforts to eliminate management ratings from the supervisory toolkit. www.yalejreg.com/nc/in-defens...

Thrilled about this. Check it out!

The Yale Journal of Regulation is hosting a symposium on @petercontibrown.bsky.social & @seanvanatta.bsky.social's new book "Private Finance, Public Power" - a deeply researched history of bank supervision that anyone interested in banking, state capacity, or Am. political development should read.

Your periodic reminder that credit card rewards are a regressive tax that should be regulated out of existence: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/b...

The tooth fairy is rummaging through the couch cushions tonight. Anyone have 2 quid lying around?

NEW: Read an excerpt from “Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America” by @petercontibrown.bsky.social and @seanvanatta.bsky.social, now out at @princetonupress.bsky.social. www.promarket.org/2025/07/25/a...

Private Finance, Public Power featured on the Legal History Blog: legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/brow...

Today is the official pub. date for @petercontibrown.bsky.social and my book, Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America. We did not anticipate that it would drop at a moment when so much in supervision is up for grabs. press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

If you want to understand what @jeremykress.bsky.social is so worked up about, our book Private Finance, Public Power is out today! press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

Proud of my two students, @petercontibrown and @seanvanatta.bsky.social on their fantastic new book, Private Finance, Public Power. @princetonupress.bsky.social

That magic moment when your research comes full circle. Charge it!

Classic bring your bagpipes to work day here in Glasgow.

That's a wrap on The Past and Future of Bank Supervision @brookings.edu . Thanks to Aaron Klein for organising and hosting a great event!

Super fun show this week with @seanvanatta.bsky.social and @petercontibrown.bsky.social on their new history of bank supervision in the United States. We also cover the recent SCOTUS case on POTUS removing Fed governors, powerlifting, and more! www.mercatus.org/macro-musing... (1/n)

Started writing the next book today. Off to a good start: “The laws of the various states for pensions of public employes have been enacted with almost utter disregard for the disastrous experiences contained in the history of unsound pension plans.” Illinois Pension Laws Commission, 1919

Private Finance, Public Power, real and in the flesh! Can't wait until this starts shipping out. Get yours at press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

I do love this country. It's Braw. www.taps-aff.co.uk

📢 Call for Applications: 𝐇𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐲 𝐊𝐚𝐮𝐟𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩𝐬 hagley.org businesshistory.bsky.social historians.bsky.social #skystorians 🗓️ Application deadline: November 1 2025 thebhc.org/dissertation... #FinancialHistory

“'The U.S. consumer never lets us down,' John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York." This, with the graph of credit card delinquencies, is the entire post-New Deal US political economy. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Could they redirect those investments toward public infrastructure in a turn to US-style fiscal mutualism (an investment strategy from the midcentury era of conservative nostalgia)? I'm...not hopeful... papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Oh FFS Migrants will have to spend decade in UK before applying to stay - on.ft.com/42UkLnF via @FT

If you missed the American Society for Legal History Virtual Book Club last week, you can watch here the recording of @seanvanatta.bsky.social and me discussing our two books: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEYe.... Compliments of the @businesshistoryc.bsky.social . #businesshistory

Enjoyed the launch event for @seanvanatta.bsky.social’s Plastic Capitalism, a new history of how credit cards transformed finance and unmoored New Deal America.

Want to see how informing consumers evolved as a regulatory strategy across credit and food? Join @comedoergosum.bsky.social next week!

Join me and @seanvanatta.bsky.social online a week from today for our talk about both our books and intersections between legal history and business history, part of the American Society for Legal History Virtual Book Club, co-hosted with @businesshistoryc.bsky.social : aslh.net/virtual-book...

"You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!" US Treasuries sell-off deepens as ‘safe haven’ status challenged - on.ft.com/3FXNnTK via @FT

This conference looks very cool: Money and Humanities!

Plastic Capitalism reviewed by Vern McKinley via the Cato Institute. Unsurprisingly, we disagree about the relative merits of financial regulation (while, I suspect, agreeing on the relative demerits of Citi). @yalebooks.bsky.social @uofgsocsci.bsky.social www.cato.org/regulation/s...

“It’s the kind of language that you use when your policy isn’t going great and you can see that it’s actively harming people,” said Sean Vanatta, a financial historian at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/b...

Thrilled my book, Plastic Capitalism, was named a finalist for the Business History Conference's (@businesshistoryc.bsky.social) 2025 Hagley Prize and received an honourable mention for the 2025 Ralph Gomory Prize. @yalebooks.bsky.social @uofglasgow.bsky.social yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...

I'll know I've assimilated into UK culture when I can put down 2-3 pints at the airport at 5 am. I'm not there yet.

The opposite of a midas touch, what's that called?

Very excited that our special issue on human capital in finanical regulation and supervision has been published by Managament & Organizational History: www.tandfonline.com/toc/rmor20/2....

First review of Private Finance, Public Power by @stevenkelly49.bsky.social ! Check it out and preorder now!

In American Banker, I review (spoiler alert: positively) @petercontibrown.bsky.social and @seanvanatta.bsky.social's forthcoming book on the history of bank supervision in America:

Plastic Capitalism, in the wild, at Blackwells in Oxford.

Yes, I want to age gracefully in a country decaying from lack of investment, warmed by the smug comfort of an internationally diversified pension portfolio. Labour’s pension reforms are based on flawed analysis - on.ft.com/4gAGkxK via @FT

US credit card defaults jump to highest level since 2010. Who could have seen this coming? What the article gets wrong is that card borrowing drove inflation in '22 and '23. More likely that card borrowing increased as prices rose faster than wages. - on.ft.com/41Peuta via @FT

God bless you Jimmy Carter.

How much cheese is too much cheese? And is the answer: stop asking stupid questions (?).

We have page proofs, @petercontibrown.bsky.social ! Just in time for the holidays.... press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

A nice review of Plastic Capitalism in Democracy. Always fun when someone likes the chapter that nearly got cut. democracyjournal.org/magazine/75/...

Say what you will, but duping Gaetz into resigning his house seat (where he would have been a thorn in the side of an administration eager to spend) for an attn general job he was never going to be confirmed for and effectively removing that weasel from public life...

Whelp, there'll be a bonfire today, that's for sure. Remember, remember...

What a day to be discussing capital market disciplining of national fiscal policy under the classic gold standard in my global banking class. UK borrowing costs hit highest level this year as gilt market sell-off intensifies - on.ft.com/3AhvX27 via @FT