@pculpepper.bsky.social
Professor of Government & Public Policy, Oxford; Billionaire Backlash: The Age of Corporate Scandal and How It Could Save Democracy (on FT's What to Read in 2026; https://linktr.ee/billionairebacklash); www.pepperculpepper.net
Had a good chat recently with Reed Galen on Home Front about the possibility of coming scandals in AI and crypto, why Dieselgate got him a good trade-in, and the arguments of Billionaire Backlash.
Sounds suspiciously like “all errors the fault of my research assistants.”
It’s insane this is legal. People around Trump are profiting off war and death. I’m introducing legislation ASAP to ban this.
A wealth management magazine asked me to distill advice from Billionaire Backlash for the 'good billionaire.' The punchline: Leave the hubris on the yacht.
We’ve got a book length study of public opinion suggesting you are right on the solution being progressive populism.
Is Meta short for metastasis?
Exciting new book by @gabrielzucman.bsky.social ! May I recommend a great political science complement to it and a cracking good read.
The splits in the coalition multiply…
There was a cleavage at the heart of the admin between MAGA, which is fundamentally anti-big tech, and the billionaires. The billionaires have now triumphed with the departure of Gail Slater, even as the Epstein files confirm MAGA’s suspicions. So what’s the Republican base for the midterms?
Feisty exchange with Andrew Keen about the Epstein files and Billionaire Backlash, in which I defend academics and our students for doing the right thing.
Houston, we have a problem…with out of control capex of highly uncertain value.
I’m teaching a class on lobbying for future policymakers on Monday. Hard to do better than this sensational oped from @nickmacpherson.bsky.social about money in UK politics and the transition from big banks to big tech—but the song remains the same. And the loser is public trust in government.
🤣🤣🤣. I generally favor protests of all sorts as a sign of vibrant democracies. But I urge this guy instead to find a quiet place at Bohemian Grove to curl up and read Billionaire Backlash.
FT to the business elite: snap out of it before it’s too late.
This is one of the most elegantly written "academic" trade books that I've read in a long time and it puts forward an intriguing argument. The implicit baseline, as I understand it, is ``quiet politics'', with business prevailing most of the time, save www.bloomsbury.com/uk/billionai...
That‘s the spirit.
This part of our response essay is where I'm at. Boiling down all of politics to electoralism has been absolutely terrible for resisting rising authoritarianism.
www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...
Have FOMO from missing the launch event of Billionaire Backlash last week? Here's the event online, with Will Hutton and Ngaire Woods. Thanks to both of them and a fantastic audience for the questions and conversation.
Great to chat with Tim Coulson and Syma Khalid on The Science of the Times podcast about Billionaire Backlash and the commonalities between social and natural science.
💯
Rentiers vs. cowboys as big vs banks and crypto lobbyists wage a titanic battle to determine who has the right to extract rents from US consumers. “There’s something uniquely American about stablecoins.” @nikasgari.bsky.social in today’s FT.
Thanks Jerome! Excited it’s finally out.
New from @pculpepper.bsky.social, just arrived in time for book/class/grant application. So many uses.
Billionaire Backlash is published today! (If you are in the US, this is a teaser -- out March 17 there). I had a fantastic conversation about the book with @hugorifkind.bsky.social from Times Radio yesterday. Link below (interview starts at about 50:30). Or join us for the launch in Oxford tonight.
Minneapolis is a place that means a lot to me, so I wrote a short Substack about the city, its people, and what we all owe them.
benansell.substack.com/p/my-minneap...
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
Generous review of Billionaire Backlash in today’s FT. 🙏 Book is in stores this week!
Free to read for a limited period from @pspolisci.bsky.social -
From Bookworm to Browser: The Decline of Books in Political Science Scholarship - cup.org/3WfnBiX
- Alixandra B. Yanus & Phillip J. Ardoin
#FirstView
OpenAI exec James Dyett calling out the cowardice
