Hettie O’Brien

lol. ok. NOW it's cracking.

cannot tell you how many times i have watched this hat bit

The Iran oil crisis has proved Ed Miliband right on green energy. But households still need more help | Mathew Lawrence Britain’s whole energy economy needs to be reformed – decarbonising the grid is only part of the mix, says director of Common Wealth, Mathew Lawrence

found this immensely helpful for understanding how the Iran crisis affects energy bills here in the UK (and why, despite renewables, electricity is still so expensive) - from @mathewlawrence.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Tech guys who only read self help books struggling to understand Shii'ism and glorious martyrdom

MPs brand UK financial regulator 'incompetent' A report by a group of MPs and peers called for the Financial Conduct Authority to be overhauled.

the story of the FCA seems to be the same as a lot of british regulators www.theguardian.com/business/202...

Stupidology | William Davies The challenge posed by this political crisis is how to take the stupidity seriously without reducing it to a wholly mental or psychiatric, let alone genetic, phenomenon. Stupidity can be understood as...

Really enjoyed this piece by @will-davies.bsky.social on Trumpian "stupidity", which thrives when judgement is outsourced to financial markets and digital platforms, and makes the panicked 2016 discourse about post-truth politics seem altogether quaint www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/pol...

and the fees. The fees!!!

Pushing private assets: are Europe’s investors at risk of a mis-selling scandal? New vehicles are being marketed to ordinary investors just as some similar products in the US have run into trouble

“democratising private markets” always seems to me like a very fancy way of saying “allowing the super rich to harvest an even greater share of society’s wealth for themselves” www.ft.com/content/1d4e...

Look forward to this…

That’s so kind! Thank you. I loved working on that piece.

…if this all sounds up your street, you can pre-order in the UK / US using the links on my website www.hettie-obrien.com

…it’s far from a policy or business book: among the characters and stories it features are a care home millionaire from Fife, a property developer turned TikTok star, a hospital scandal set in Kenya and a small army of water campaigners in the Yorkshire Dales…

… the book follows the money across continents and examines how a hidden group of dealmakers created a weapon of economic mass destruction that might just blow up our entire financial system - which feels particularly relevant right now…

It’s exactly a month until my book publishes on 9 April! THE ASSET CLASS is a narrative investigation of private equity, a relentlessly destructive wing of finance that infiltrates almost every corner of modern life. Here are some of the very generous things that people have said about it so far…

“The world that Trump and his acolytes have said they want to build, in fact, bears many striking resemblances to the unbearable policing that happened under apartheid. But the message from the vast majority of South Africans to people in the US is: you won’t like it.”

Money Beyond Borders — the making and breaking of global currencies The US dollar’s future is explored in Barry Eichengreen’s well-informed history on purchasing power in the monetary market

I reviewed Barry Eichengreen's new book about global currencies and the future of the dollar, check it out:

Revealed: UK’s multibillion AI drive is built on ‘phantom investments’ Exclusive: Rented datacentres and unrealised supercomputer site raise questions for Starmer’s push to ‘mainline AI into veins of economy’

“Investment” is one of the most abused words in the English language, particularly in government press releases. This great piece by @aishadown.bsky.social shows how a number of AI data centres announced by ministers and big tech don’t even exist: www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

‘That resentment is real’: Mahmood’s Denmark visit aims to hammer home tough line on immigration On tour of returns centre, home secretary says ‘legitimate grievances’ have to be acknowledged as part of ‘responsible’ politics

A lot of thought goes into the clothing politicians wear for photo ops. So I’m wondering what Shabana Mahmood was thinking when she decided to wear this coat www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

The influencers leaping to Dubai’s defence [FREE TO READ] As missiles streak across the region, unfazed residents insist they ‘know who protects us’

‘British expats, he claimed, were refusing to fill out evacuation forms provided by the British government “just in case it somehow turns into a tax form instead”.’

No notes.

as.ft.com/r/65cf2b43-6...

Blackstone’s flagship private credit fund hit with wave of redemptions Investors pull net $1.7bn out of vehicle over first quarter as industry strains intensify

Asset managers like Blackstone made two big and desperate bets: that private credit and retail investors would be their saviour. Now, those retail investors are starting to have doubts 👀 www.ft.com/content/7dad...

One of the funniest things to come out of this are the brits who won’t leave Dubai even as it’s being bombed. One influencer adjacent guy went on a live stream on his balcony and said he’d rather be killed by Iran than go back to Wigan

Teacher v chatbot: my journey into the classroom in the age of AI The long read: I was a newcomer, negotiating all of usual classroom difficulties for the first time. Throwing AI into the mix felt like downing a coffee in the middle of a panic attack

There have been a lot of 'AI and the classroom' essays. But this one, by writer and now high school English teacher @apcbapcb.bsky.social, is, in fact, the best www.theguardian.com/education/ng...

❤️

(and this is an excellent investigation from @edsiddons.bsky.social)

Fines for UK financial crime nosedive to ‘pitiful’ lows Penalties from the FCA drop by 78% in five years as it prepares to take on a new role as 'super-regulator'

strikes me that one of the most obvious things this government should do is properly resource regulators. There’s a gigantic gap between law and its enforcement, yet politicians always focus on announcing new rules rather than applying the old ones www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...

#1 Stored up inside my head What I'd like from this newsletter

I promised myself that I’d make a bit more effort to share what I’m working on this year, so I’ve started posting on Substack. If you like my work, please do subscribe for very infrequent updates on what I’m writing / reading: open.substack.com/pub/hettieve...

every time i look at instagram, i feel like im the only adult who doesn't know how to make money

Cédric Durand, After AI — Sidecar Legacies of the bubble.

(from @cedricdurand.bsky.social’s excellent piece on the AI data centre goldrush - and the exotic financial arrangements precariously supporting it) newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...

nothing to worry about here then

UK private equity investor plots closure of up to 80 former WHSmith stores Modella rebranded high street shops as TG Jones after buying them last year

WHSmith’s private equity owner is planning on closing 80 stores, affecting thousands of jobs. Pretty sure any of those workers could have told them that rebranding as “TG Jones” while continuing to deal mainly in grubby carpet tiles and dusty snacks was never going to work www.ft.com/content/6d68...