Palma Polyak

Our next Resisting Mining Book Club is coming up on 11 March, and it's a hybrid event!

Join us in person or online to discuss "Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism" with @triofrancos.bsky.social.

Find all the details and register here:
londonminingnetwork.org/2026/01/resi...

Two-speed Europe, coalitions of the willing, core Europe - all different labels currently circling in the debate for same idea that way forward is no longer at EU27.

But the how is important, and I think different people understand different things by the concept.

Quick thread on legal options:

A small bombshell on rule of law conditionality from Luxembourg today: Advocate-General Capeta finds in her opinion that Commission was not allowed to unfreeze EU funds to Hungary in December 2023 and proposes that the Court of Justice annul the decision: curia.europa.eu/site/upload/...

Thread:

Hungary's opposition Tisza promises wealth tax, euro adoption in election programme Hungary's opposition Tisza party plans to introduce a wealth tax for the rich, adopt the euro currency and firmly anchor Hungary in the European Union and NATO, its 240-page election programme publish...

With Hungary’s elections only 2 months away, let’s look at what the opposition promises when it comes to the EU, rule of law & Hungary’s alliances. Media coverage highlighted euro adoption and independence from RU energy by 2035 but there's much more in the program
www.reuters.com/business/hun...

Handwritten note saying: "But I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything."

Let's celebrate #DarwinDay by reminding ourselves that everyone has moments when they feel worse for wear.

Darwin wrote to Charles Lyell in 1861:
"But I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything."

www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/DCP-L...

So, hang in there, #academicsky!
🧪🌏🐵

Lol. Bannon is president of the Orbán fan club, Epstein still workshopping the spelling.
(h/t telex.hu)
www.justice.gov/epstein/file...

That's right, the finance summer school is coming to Europe! June 4-5 at the LSE – applications are open until March 1.

Thanks @erinkaylockwood.bsky.social for including my book in this wonderful list! And I totally share the motivation and spirit

Looking forward to discussing Franziska Cooiman’s paper next week 👇

Amazing, congrats, guys! 🤩
Great to see this out

🚨New piece in Politics & Society! w/ @maxkiefel.bsky.social @mathiaslarsen.bsky.social
Internationalizing Industrial Policy: How China and the United States Use State Capacity to Secure Critical Minerals for Electric Vehicles 🇨🇳 🇺🇸
doi.org/10.1177/0032...

🚨 The political economy of finance summer school is back, 3rd year running! Better still: We're bringing it to London via @lse-ei.bsky.social.

𝐓𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐜: Finance & democracy
𝙳̲̲𝚊̲̲𝚝̲̲𝚎̲: 4-5 June 2026
𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦: March 1. Link below.

We've got brilliant instructors as usual. Please spread the word!

Applications are open for the Finance Summer School 2026. Last two have been at Brown. This one is at LSE thanks to LSE European Institute and Huth Initiative, plus the Berkeley Program on Finance and Democracy. Stellar Line up. Apps open: forms.gle/WsEVk4Yy52Dn...

We are looking for a postdoc!

brass solidarity band performing “stand by me” in the streets of whittier next to alex pretti’s memorial. the crowd started chanting “the people united will never be defeated” so they incorporated it into the song. i love minneapolis

Happening TODAY 🤩

Wow, welcome to growth models scholarship, President Macron! 🤩

I will be presenting my study on far-right financial regimes Wed 21st (1pm CET) at the Max Planck Comparative Political Economy Series; join us if you'd like to discuss why Meloni's financial-market policies differ so sharply from Trump's... www.mpifg.de/1030945/curr...

Really looking forward to next week’s MaxCPE webinar with @ingarade.bsky.social presenting her great work on finance & the far right, with @gscheiring.bsky.social joining as discussant.

📅 Wed 21 Jan, 1–2pm CET
📧 Sign up: maxcpe@mpifg.de

Check out the full program here: www.mpifg.de/1030945/curr...

Even after two world wars and a century of upheaval, wealth in 🇩🇪 shows strong persistence. About 8% of today’s top fortunes trace back to the early 1900s: 82 of the richest families today were already among the richest in 1913, challenging the idea of a fully meritocratic elite.

Amazing 🤩 so much congrats

cw.usconsulate.gov/history-of-t...

Little known WWII fact: ~70% of Allied fuel came from Venezuelan crude, refined at Shell’s Curaçao & Aruba plants. It helped defeat Nazi Germany and save Europe. The US commandeered that oil too. Today’s talk of “running” Venezuela? Same power, same oil. The purpose is gone @70sbachchan.bsky.social

Green financial power in geoeconomic times: Development banks between Wall Street and Paris - Paula Haufe, 2025 Public climate finance in the third decade of the 21st century is awkwardly positioned between the Wall Street Consensus (WSC), state capitalism, and climate ju...

📢 Very timely new paper by @paulahaufe.bsky.social - give it a read!

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

The Environmental and Human Rights Costs of China’s Clean Energy Investments Abroad Chinese companies have pledged hundreds of billions of dollars in clean energy manufacturing investments overseas, but the projects are having significant social, environmental, and human rights impac...

A sobering read on the sacrifice zones of China’s green FDI boom. From environmental harm to smear campaigns against local residents, Nick Kusnetz’s excellent reporting centers the Hungarian activists pushing back against battery megaprojects under autocratic conditions
www.wired.com/story/chinas...

The Pentagon and A.I. Giants Have a Weakness. Both Need China’s Batteries, Badly.

Delighted to have consulted on this story. The Trump administration recognizes importance of batteries for drones & AI but is biased against EVs which is biggest source of demand for batteries. Can the US have a vibrant battery sector w/o robust production of EVs? www.nytimes.com/2025/12/23/c...

The decision to finance arms for Ukraine through collective EU debt is taboo-breaking--but also part of a larger security turn in Europe. Ophelia Bentley & I have a new piece out that shows how the EU has geopoliticized markets in an unexpected arena: competition policy. doi.org/10.1017/elo.... 1/

Not exactly a Xmas merrymaking post, but I wrote something on the changing environment for international academics in the Netherlands and how it has changed over the last 10 years: open.substack.com/pub/alexandr...

So sad 😞

"This is an under-discussed aspect of the EV transition. Why on earth would an oil-less country like Germany be so keen on sticking to the internal combustion engine?"-@giuliomattioli.bsky.social

Many countries leapfrogging & getting EVs QUICKLY. Great Ember report ember-energy.org/latest-insig...