How has our understanding of the transition from communism evolved? Korbel Prof @epsteinprof.bsky.social joins @piroskadora.bsky.social on the @viennadialogues.bsky.social podcast to discuss why liberal ideas are in crisis and what researchers should do next.
03.03.2026 17:36 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1Right now, the problem is that faculty are being asked to "experiment with AI!!!" on their own, piecemeal, and against the massive bulwark of their universities hyping the tech; requiring time spent in dedicated AI-free learning spaces is the sort of the thing that you can't accomplish individually.
23.02.2026 17:14 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
What does a year of German rearmament get you? If you're China, almost decade of cash to change the world's electricity infrastructure. geoeconomic.substack.com/p/the-china-...
23.02.2026 17:48 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
Were we too optimistic about the post-communist turn to liberal markets and democracy?
In conversation with Vienna Dialogues, Professor Rachel Epstein (University of Denver) reflects on 35 years of transition - and what we may have misunderstood.
Link to the episode: bit.ly/3MskEdA
Stack of books: The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi International Political Economy by Ben Cohen The Currency of Politics by Stefan Eich The Globalizers by Ngaire Woods The Money Laundry by J.C. Sharman The Code of Capital by Katharina Pistor Bankers' Trust by Aditi Sahasrabuddhe Unexpected Revolutionaries by Manuela Moschella Rating Politics by Zsofia Barta and Alison Johnston Bucking the Buck by Daniel McDowell The Meddlers by Jamie Martin The Entangled Legacies of Empire (eds. Gilbert, Bourne, Haiven, and Montgomerie) Depletion by Shirin Rai Chip War by Chris Miller
This year I made two big changes to my graduate International Political Economy syllabus: 1) I leaned in to money and capital as organizing themes, and 2) I assigned (nearly) all books. Here's our reading list, ft. Karl Polanyi, Benjamin Cohen, @stefeich.bsky.social, Ngaire Woods, J.C. Sharman ...
05.02.2026 16:49 — 👍 83 🔁 14 💬 6 📌 2
I’ve seen a lot of breathless praise of Moltbook but I can’t imagine anything less interesting than a Reddit clone where all of the posts and comments are generated by chatbots.
It’s impressive to have invented a social network that’s more off putting than Sora, TikTok for AI slop.
I am accepting applications for a postdoc to work with me at the University of Toronto Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.
Area of Research: Democratic Institutions, Public Engagement, American History
Due by February 23rd
munkschool.utoronto.ca/current-oppo...
What do you think of this?
arstechnica.com/information-...
The Dig you’ve been waiting for to understand the political economy of AI as it becomes fulcrum of global contests and conflicts over economic and military dominance. My interview w/ @nsrnicek.bsky.social on his book Silicon Empires: The Fight for the Future of AI www.thedigradio.com/podcast/sili...
26.01.2026 23:43 — 👍 142 🔁 48 💬 1 📌 13
Looking to crowdsource some ideas / comments.
Thinking about why the US has not pursued a CBDC - aside from domestic political opposition - and the extent to which this reflects a structural logic of full spectrum global dollar dominance. 1/n
🧵
Late Soviet Britan covers a bit longer time period, but really good. @abbyinnes.bsky.social
22.01.2026 19:13 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
For your weekend listening pleasure. I did the Top Traders podcast. These folks ask the best questions. Got into loads of interesting stuff. Enjoy: www.toptradersunplugged.com/podcast/when...
16.01.2026 16:44 — 👍 18 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
if you think this is incomprehensible jargon (who;d blame you), I've written a few papers, and once dreamt of writing a repo book for the 300 people who'd care to read a deeply technical yet deeply political take on the world's most opaque form of money.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...
still my heart - REPO IS VERY SYSTEMIC piece @alphaville.ft.com
1. We still have no granular data, a full 17 years since run on repo blew up Lehman into a global financial crisis. The OFR now has data on US repo, but European repo is also USD 12 trillion (roughly)
www.ft.com/content/220d...
My co-author @mkeremcoban.bsky.social and I have written about how this unfolded in the case of Turkey--here is a link to our paper:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
And authoritarian leaders can instrumentalize the banking sector in different ways, also see our study with @piroskadora.bsky.social and @mkeremcoban.bsky.social:
13.01.2026 10:41 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Korbel Prof @epsteinprof.bsky.social & @piroskadora.bsky.social find that European financial reform has spawned growing diversity in financial policies, with East Central Europe markets contributing significantly to EU fragmentation. What are the implications? Read more in @jcms-eu.bsky.social
09.01.2026 16:17 — 👍 3 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
Shit gets weirder every day...
06.01.2026 17:04 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0Tim Gill has written some great stuff about tall buildings. Attitudes towards them are a lot more complex than people think.
08.05.2025 19:36 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
For your last minute Christmas gift list. A list of damn good books, including one recommended by me: www.project-syndicate.org/onpoint/ps-c...
See you all in the new year!
Yesterday, CEU's Budapest site served as the venue for the Hungarian launch of Angela Merkel's memoir Freedom.
After the event, Julius Horvath (CEU's Executive Director for Budapest) had the honor of welcoming the former German Chancellor to CEU's historic campus. Thank you for the opoortunity! 👏
My IR department at the CEU in Vienna, Austria is hiring a security scholar. I am happy to answer questions.
careers.ceu.edu/job/Vienna-A...
My IR department at the CEU in Vienna, Austria is hiring a security scholar. I am happy to answer questions.
careers.ceu.edu/job/Vienna-A...
Thrilled to see the population-change decomposition method I developed now applied in the @EBRD Transition Report 2025–26, Brave New World.😃😃
EBRD report: www.ebrd.com/home/news-an...
My publication: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pa…
🇵🇱🇨🇿🇸🇮🇭🇷🇧🇬🇸🇰🇺🇦🇲🇩🇲🇪🇲🇰🇱🇹🇱🇻🇪🇪🇷🇸🇷🇴🇽🇰🇩🇪🇭🇺
27.11.2025 22:10 — 👍 108 🔁 11 💬 7 📌 1
