Milan Babic

Back when Dems governed like they meant business.

Cutting through the noise

Cutting Through The Noise

How can we not only cultivate our pessimism of the intellect, but also foster an optimism of the political will against all odds? In this #ISRFbulletin contribution, @mbabic.bsky.social suggests three avenues that might help with this task.

isrf.org/blog/cutting...

Interesting thing about the debate around ‘populism’ is that the concern about populism on the right is that it can destroy democracy and human rights, and the worry about the left is that … well they have nice ideas but maybe some of them might be hard to put into practice

Hope is here.

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Screenshot Lebensmittelzeitung: Rossmann kündigt Mitgliedschaft bei Familienunternehmerverband.

Screenshot Handelsblatt: Deutsche Bank storniert Mietvertrag des Verbands

Unerwartet, trotzdem da:

Rossmann Deutsche Bank Antifa.

Book cover of "The AI Matrix" by Daniel Mügge, Regine Paul and Vali Stan, showing a world map, hands grabbing Dollar bills, a robot arm and interconnected cables

Regine Paul, Vali Stan and I have analysed how deeply #AI is entangled in global politics and corporate profit-hunting. “The AI Matrix” is the result – and the digital book-version is open access: www.agendapub.com/page/detail/... (Link doesn't work? Try this one: www.regulaite.eu/images/pdf/M...)

The energy transition happens often in unlikely places at unprecedented rates.

Take Nepal: Over the past year, electric vehicles accounted for 76 percent of all passenger vehicles and half of the light commercial vehicles sold in Nepal.

Five years ago, that number was essentially zero.

Another gentle reminder.

The only way for Germany to stop the meltdown in its auto sector is by working with Europe.

Germany is too small to go it alone. Anyone with half an econ brain can see that.

this is just such a stark contrast to the general Western mood that climate politics is dead. THIS is what climate politics is about (the political economy of decarbonization). Everything else follows.

This is the way to deal with Trump.

Zohran Mamdani will be the 111th mayor of New York City. He represents everyday people who struggle to pay rent and bills, let alone save or get ahead. Yes, you can build affordable cities. Vienna did it a hundred years ago, and there is no reason we cannot do it again today. 1/4

check our network and submit a paper for Bordeaux 2026!

Sam Altman gonna single-handedly cause the Second Great Depression

Bürgermeisterwahl in New York: Der Antikapitalist Zohran Mamdani Zohran Mamdani kam aus dem Nirgendwo und ist jetzt der große Favorit für die Wahl zum Stadtoberhaupt in New York. Die Wirtschaftselite der Stadt macht er mit seiner Klassenkampfrhetorik mächtig nervös...

Mamdani: hey man, maybe we should use a fraction of the $1 billion the guy I am running against gave to Elon Musk when he was governor for something else instead. Maybe for fast and affordable buses in the city?

FAZ: Yep, definitely Klassenkampfrhetorik

www.faz.net/aktuell/wirt...

ich finde das ein gutes Beispiel für die begrenzte Aussagekraft der 'Populismus'-Kategorie: die einen wollen das Ende der liberalen Demokratie, die anderen einen höheren Mindestlohn.

Wenn man beide in einen Topf wirft, kommt so etwas dabei raus (nevermind d. empirische Unhaltbarkeit solcher Ideen)

Structural limitations of the decarbonization state - Nature Climate Change The implementation gap between national climate targets and actual policies has been seen as a main barrier for decarbonization. Here researchers show it is rooted in the structural limitation of stat...

Might be a useful companion piece to @ulrichbrand.bsky.social and co-authors recent, excellent article in Nature Climate Change: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... I think we largely agree, but we see more scope for bureaucratic agency to overcome the structural limitations of the #environmentalstate.

What Can the Environmental State Actually Do? Three Critiques and Their Limits Abstract. Three critiques of the environmental state shape the discussion of its possibilities and limits. First, states are deemed structurally unable to mitigate climate change due to the “glass cei...

With Caroline Ahler Christesen and @jhasselbalch.bsky.social, we asked: what can the environmental state actually do?
The answer is out now with @gepjournal.bsky.social 👇

If you ever wondered about this, check our paper and let us know what you think: direct.mit.edu/glep/article...

Laatste Peilingwijzer – Peilingwijzer De Peilingwijzer combineert de Tweede Kamerpeilingen van Ipsos I&O & Verian/EenVandaag

You think your elections are nail biters? In the last poll of the polls, the @peilingwijzer.bsky.social produced by @tomlouwerse.nl, before election day in the Netherlands tomorrow, three parties are tied for first place

peilingwijzer.tomlouwerse.nl

Maslows Hammer gilt auch hier usw., aber es ist doch erstaunlich, wie sehr die Dramatik der Diagnose - Deutschland wird bald Italien - von der Popeligkeit der Lösung - schafft die Mütterrente (wtf?) ab - konterkariert wird.

Es liegt nahe, dass weder die Diagnose noch die Medizin helfen werden.

Auch dieses Semester gibt’s an unserem Arbeitsbereich ein spannendes #Kolloquium u.a. mit @mbabic.bsky.social, @bettikohlrausch.bsky.social, Stefanie Hürtgen, Heiner Dribbusch sowie mit einem Vortrag von mir. Heute Abend stellt @stefanschmalz.bsky.social seine Thesen zum #Teslaismus vor. Seit dabei!

Sozialwissenschaftler Claus Offe gestorben Claus Offe prägte die Sozialwissenschaften mit scharfsinnigen Analysen und gesellschaftskritischen Perspektiven. Als Grenzgänger zwischen Soziologie und Politologie bleibt sein Werk wegweisend.

Ein von Michael Zürn und mir verfasster Nachruf auf Claus Offe. Ein bemerkenswerter Mensch und Wissenschaftler www.faz.net/aktuell/feui...

Why Is Trump Bailing Out Argentina? This is about ideology and Trumpian fealty, not America’s interests

a bit late to the party, but Krugman's take on the Argentina drama is worth your time: paulkrugman.substack.com/p/why-is-tru...

Existential Politics A new way to tackle the real politics of climate change through asset revaluation

Today is the day!!! Existential Politics is out in the world!

Read about why we’re doing climate policy wrong (too focused on measuring emissions) & what we should do instead (focus on $$ to constrain fossil asset owners & expand green asset owners). Just in time for #COP30.

No words

the whole list seems to be AI slop. Few of these sources actually exist.

tillykke!

The graduate ‘jobpocalypse’: Where have all the entry-level jobs gone? | FT Working It The promise of AI’s workplace abilities amid economic uncertainties have caused many companies to take pause

as someone working with the demographic affected by this on a daily basis, I see two ways out:

either the AI bubble bursts and we get back to a pre-pandemic graduate job market (lol)-

or soft neo-luddism becomes a political idea progressives should seriously consider

www.ft.com/content/62e7...

He got an entire country running on clean energy. Can he do it again? Ramón Méndez Galain helped Uruguay decarbonize its grid in just five years, with 98 percent of its energy coming from renewable sources.

Uruguay, y'all. I been sayin.

It Isn’t Just the U.S. The Whole World Has Soured on Climate Politics.

good article by Wallace-Wells on the diminishing salience of climate politics and how geoeconomic competition is reshaping decarbonization: www.nytimes.com/2025/09/16/m...

the history will continue until morale improves