NYT gonna NYT: "Both Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Maduro identify as socialists, though they have no relationship.” — would be funny if they did this every time you write about two capitalists. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/w...

the world youth final of 2023 is the world final of 2026. but in reality luke littler v gian van veen could scarcely be more different: a clash of styles, temperaments, personalities, even culture, and potentially a final for the ages. www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...

“In focus groups, people say Starmer is a liar and only said what he thought he needed to say to get elected,” Tryl added. “Reeves is often deemed to be uncaring. People say she’s targeting people who can’t fight back”

Tribute to Michel Aglietta in @newleftreview.bsky.social: "a tireless thinker, committed to the proposition that we should aim to comprehend our changing historical times in their totality, which meant grasping the inter-relationships of their many moving parts." newleftreview.org/issues/ii156...

Why LCOE is meaningless, in one chart (from Spain). Not much good your electricity being a bit cheaper to produce, if it earns just 10% of the revenue of other electricity....

Surely you’ve all been waiting for the Enlightened Economist book prize long list for 2025? www.enlightenmenteconomics.com/blog/index.p...

Largesse for the few, austerity for the rest. Spending at UK universities mirroring the UK fiscal state

The great Jim Hansen predicts that global average temperatures will jump 0.23 degrees Celsius in a single year, between 2026 (which he projects will see warming of 1.47 degrees C) to 2027 (which he projects will see 1.70 degrees C). open.substack.com/pub/jimehans...

Now available for preorder: The Alibi of Capital by Timothy Mitchell Stealing the future and concealing the theft – capitalism’s method, as examined by the author of the acclaimed Carbon Democracy

European states need immigrants but don't want them. How to square that circle? Posture against immigrants while taking in more than ever before but treating them as a permanent second-class serving caste with few rights. Me @financialtimes.com on European kafala as.ft.com/r/7e2026f8-5...

📚 In this week's newsletter, our favourite writers and contributors tell us the best books they read this year 👇

"Energy transition"? None of these seven has ever used much fossil fuel to generate power, as far as I am aware...

Very funny that between Clegg as VC and Osborne at OpenAI, the British have somehow found an unlikely place in the imperial order as techno-plenipotentiaries.

It was at 67% in 1985 ..... 😂😂

Join us in Toronto for the 10th @antipodeonline.bsky.social Institute, in June! antipodeonline.org/institute-fo...

This is great: Stephen Bunting with @jonathanliew.bsky.social

I wrote a paper about Cryptofinance, and the ways the U.S. state has negotiated the consolidation of cryptocurrency trading in large platform firms. It traces the rise of FTX (Sam Bankman-Fried's firm) as it moves from Berkeley to Hong Kong to the Bahamas. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

BBC Radio 4 / @benchu.bsky.social recently did a good series (3 episodes, called the Tax Conundrum) exploring, inter alia, precisely this disjuncture between how the UK's tax system actually works (income taxation has gotten much more progressive) and how most Brits think it works

📢 📖 New book review! Mika Hyötyläinen discusses Chua Beng Huat's book "Public Subsidy/Private Accumulation: The Political Economy of Singapore’s Public Housing" ➡️ "it offers a compelling, accessible introduction to one of the most intriguing alternative models of housing provision".

gian van veen is third favourite for the world darts championships, and also a fascinating guy: brilliant and brittle, open about his struggles, a thinking man in a fiercely anti-intellectual sport. we talked about doubt, and dartitis, and aviation engineering www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/d...

Money always decides. “It was the finance guy who would come in and say, ‘I don’t get it. I don’t know why we are investing in this, the returns are low.’ And the lawyers, and the treasury. Everyone had an opinion.”

Fascinating guest post on how the “democratisation” of private equity could end up biting the industry. www.ft.com/content/c460...

fantastic michael van gerwen interview by @donmcrae.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/d...

“The decarbonization project is a matter of investment and divestment.”  For a successful transition, these decisions must prioritize systemic social outcomes and avoid disruptions — regardless of whether doing so will generate profit.  👇  https://www.common-wealth.org/green-planning-commission

NEW EPISODE: Markets, Freedom and the Politics of Nature with Alyssa Battistoni @adriennebuller.bsky.social speaks to @alybatt.bsky.social about value, the politics of nature, and how we might live freely in a finite world. Listen now 👇 www.break-down.org/politics-of-...

Yes and no. Renewables are "cheap" in large part because installed where land is cheapest, far away from demand -- hence the grid bottlenecks. I.e. the legendary "cheapness" is artificial. Include the cost of (a) land near demand, or (b) the necessary grid upgrades, and it doesn't look so good.

This resignation is worth noting. @simondonner.bsky.social is a man of impeccable integrity. If he is saying the process, and the politics, is compromised and broken, that does not bode well for climate action in Carney's Canada. www.theenergymix.com/breaking-don...

Just published! Rent Strikes: A history of collective tenant actions across the world, the book I edited with @hannesrolf.bsky.social, is out now from @uclpress.bsky.social It's OPEN ACCESS, part of the "Work Around the World" series by @iisg-amsterdam.bsky.social uclpress.co.uk/book/rent-st...

nailed-on generational bear market

who could have guessed it, there's no money to be made in capturing carbon

In Case You Missed It! Every other week, we share our favourite essays, reviews and listens on climate and capitalism that you might have missed—handpicked by the BREAK–DOWN editors. Read now and subscribe on Substack 👇

“Playing the market”, but for real.

"In 1991, a leaked memorandum on trade liberalisation sent by Larry Summers, then chief economist at the World Bank, stated that 'the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that.' " www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

I always find it interesting how changes/future changes in the City's skyline can tell you a lot about changes in the City itself about politics, regulation and the economics of finance 👇 www.ft.com/content/6fe3...

Yes. 8% is the global reduction rate from the start of 2026 &for an “83% chance of not exceeding 2°C” (based on Lamboll et al 2023 budgets). Include a relatively weak interpretation of international equity & the UK reduction rate would be nearer 13%pa; similar to that for most ‘developed’ countries.

Thanks to @sioldridge.bsky.social @nickoldridge.bsky.social & the team for their monumental efforts in pulling together yesterday’s National Emergency Briefing www.nebriefing.org on climate change. Thanks also go to those MPs, journalists & others who attended. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

📣📣📣Check out our latest issue!📣📣📣 Issue five this year brings together research on energy use and energy saving tactics, sense of home in cooperative housing, feminist theoretical perspectives on experiences of social housing and much more! www.tandfonline.com/toc/shou20/c...

Harvey at 90: A @versobooks.bsky.social series of short essays davidharvey.org/2025/11/harv...

Professor Kevin Anderson delivers some granite hard truths @kevinclimate.bsky.social "We need profound shifts in our social norms. It is too late for non-radical solutions. The UK is emitting far more than its fair share of greenhouse gases. We need deep cuts in energy use."

Climate scientist @kevinclimate.bsky.social says “we need to eliminate fossil fuels”. Societal and ecological collapse at 3-4C warming. For <2C, the UK has 7 years of current CO2 emissions. Drax and CCS are delay tech. Heat pumps, good public transport, and deep cuts of aviation are essential.

Lukas Slothuus (@lslothuus.bsky.social) on Norway's elections: ‘With the new government dependent on left votes in parliament, there is opportunity to continue to prise open the debate on the future of oil. This will not be easy.’

Yes. Partly due to rising curtailment, i.e. renewables producing power that is not consumed, either (a) because produced at times when no local demand (and without storage capacity), +/or (b) because of grid constraints (i.e. can't be delivered to where there _is_ demand).

‘The problem is that we are now recycling so much stuff that it’s impossible to recycle it all.’ @brettchristophers.bsky.social reviews three new books on the problem of trash, including 𝘞𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 by Oliver Franklin-Wallis and Alexander Clapp’s 𝘞𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘳𝘴. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

‘The wind turbine and the Catapult building advertise Blyth’s centrality to the carbon-free economy of the future. They advertise it, but I don’t quite believe it, and neither, judging by the local popularity of Reform, does Blyth.’ James Meek in the new issue: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

25 no response out of 30 requests to review! Drives me mad this selfish behaviour, which I also see as a journal editor. And it's almost always established folk with secure jobs, not least those endlessly brandishing their right-on-ness on social media

New episode this week! I sat down a little while back with the very brilliant @amirleb.bsky.social to talk about development economics, tariffs, biomimicry and what the world could learn from China. @the-breakdown.bsky.social www.break-down.org/survival-of-...

“It remains the case that we are embarking on—in fact, accelerating—the biggest chemistry experiment on the planet in 66 million years, and one of the fastest derangements of the carbon cycle in the age of animal life.” www.theatlantic.com/science/2025...

‘It is abundantly clear that corporate social responsibility was and is a myth. Even if firms claim to recognise their social and environmental responsibilities, profitability always trumps them when they clash.’ @brettchristophers.bsky.social on where our waste goes. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Great stuff by @versobooks.bsky.social: Harvey at 90, a series if posts honouring David Harvey's oeuvre in celebration of his 90th birthday. www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/h...