Benjamin Braun

Chart showing the rise and fall of US clean energy manufacturing investment since 2018.

The US clean energy manufacturing investment bust really is dramatic, and not slowing down.

Great investment tracker maintained by @jayturner.bsky.social and students.
www.the-big-green-machine.com/post-trump-s...

Reviewed in today's @faznet.bsky.social which (somewhat oddly) for a bourgeois paper comes to the defence of petty bourgeois proper
www.faz.net/aktuell/feui...

Excited to share a new #OA study with @dariatisch.bsky.social and @schechtlm.bsky.social🎉We show that while most people prefer equal inheritance, wealthy individuals are more willing to support unequal transfers when they help preserve wealth across generations ➡️ academic.oup.com/sf/advance-a...

A foreign policy for the working class is one where states collaborate to discipline capital instead of working with capital to discipline our democracies.

Kitchen table conversation about anti-fascist economics with the one and only @aoc.bsky.social in Berlin.

⏰ ONE WEEK LEFT TO APPLY!

🌍️ 👉️ jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

On Feb 23, I’ll be debating @katharinapistor.bsky.social on the topic of beyond capitalism at Columbia University. Link to details and registration below. Please share!

events.columbia.edu/cal/event/ev...

New piece for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social, written with @jacktaggart.bsky.social and @tomchodor.bsky.social! It's an attempt at grasping the dismantling of multilateral global governance, in light of intensifying geopolitical rivalries, resurgent state capitalism, and hegemonic crisis. Link below:

Merz eyes European nuclear shield in call for new relationship with U.S. By Reuters February 13, 2026 https://www.reuters.com/world/china/merz-eyes-european-nuclear-shield-call-new-relationship-with-us-2026-02-13/

Drake meme: Eurobond no, eurobomb yes

Tapping the sign

Gender studies courses are shutting down across the US. The Epstein files reveal why | Joan Wallach Scott Texas A&M University is the latest school to end women’s and gender studies programs and teaching race. We know why

banger of an op-ed from Joan Scott, you should all read it

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The European Institute to host Finance & Democracy Summer Workshop in partnership with new Huth Initiative at LSE, UC Berkeley, and Brown University The Finance & Democracy Summer Workshop is a two-day intensive training programme in partnership organised jointly by the Berkeley Program on Finance & Democracy, the Rhodes Center for International…

On 4-5 June 2026, we are organising the "Finance and Democracy Summer Workshop" w/ Program on Finance & Democracy @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social, Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance @brown.edu, and new Huth Initiative at LSE.

⏰️ Apply by 1 March:

Merz eyes European nuclear shield in call for new relationship with U.S. By Reuters February 13, 2026 https://www.reuters.com/world/china/merz-eyes-european-nuclear-shield-call-new-relationship-with-us-2026-02-13/

Drake meme: Eurobond no, eurobomb yes

Tapping the sign

Walking a fine line: Germany and the question of imperialism In a world of increased warfare and unstable accumulation regimes, German investments into large-scale weapons production and its support to the Gaza genocide have brought the question of imperiali...

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... our piece on Germany and the question of imperialism is out. An attempt at wrapping our heads around the political economy of Germany in times of genocide.

We do indeed need anti-fascist economics. And anti-fascist economists. Can’t wait for this book.

Chart showing that housebuilding in London has collapsed to a historic low not seen anywhere else in the developed world. New housing construction* per 1,000 residents (12-month rolling totals) in major global cities

Even if you know that the London housing situation is exceptionally bad this is a shocker of a chart.
www.ft.com/content/05fa...

I have a new piece out today in Phenomenal World, on the economics of a freeze in NYC regulated rents. www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/aft...

The Origins of the New Finance Capital

One more for today since this was a relatively quick copy-and-paste.

MOPED workshop on the political economy of development in Berlin

Deadline to apply: 15 Feb (Sunday already!)

This is a REALLY fun workshop; great papers, lovely space, wonderful crowd, finally some decent weather...

www.wzb.eu/en/events/mo...

NEW ANALYSIS: China's CO2 has now been 'flat or falling' for 21 months

* Down in 2025
* Still below Mar 2024
* Clean energy wave a key factor

If this is China's peak (TBC) it's the climate story of the century so far…

www.carbonbrief.org/...

This past January being the sixth wettest January in Southern England in a cool 200 years would explain why recently I haven’t been getting much joy from riding my bike to work every day.

…aber die Tochter Postbank kündigt der VVN

Once China joined the WTO, the boundaries of trade and security began to diverge. We had always traded beyond the alliance, but never before with a country of such scale, and with ambitions to become a separate pole itself. Global trade drifted away from Ricardo’s principle that exchange should follow comparative advantage. Some states pursued absolute advantage through mercantilist strategies, forcing deindustrialisation onto others, while the gains that remained were unequally shared. This sowed the political backlash we now face.

Some good bits in Draghi's last "let's just federalize already jesus fucking christ guys" pronouncement, as usual, but this bit on China and trade is wrong and embarrassing for him to say out loud. geopolitique.eu/en/2026/02/0...

BEHOLD THE POSSIBILITIES FOR SOCIAL PUBLISHING IN THE ATMOSPHERE!

Looks like the threat of stranded assets is driving some final investment decisions in the oil and gas sector.

do you need to turn every professional life event into an AI generated 800-word essay in Linkedinese? the digital public says yes. AI-generated 800-word essay introducing a new publication that already has an abstract? Doesn't everyone always have enough to read?

What if academia were to fully automate? LLMs doing all the writing and communicating, no human reading other humans’ human thoughts? Go on LinkedIn for a taste.

Across the federal government, Germany spent half a billion euros on Microsoft licenses last year. 🤯

That does not include state and local spending. A lot of taxpayer money for (mainly) software equal or inferior to already available open source alternatives...

Of course the first political economy Substack to try out @leaflet.pub is Jim and Samir's!

Do subscribe ("Subscribe via Bluesky" at the bottom of the post) and behold the possibilities for social publishing in the ATmosphere.

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

Europaparlament stimmt für leichtere Abschiebungen in Drittstaaten Das EU-Parlament hat dafür gestimmt, dass künftig leichter und in mehr Länder abgeschoben werden soll. Außerdem stimmten sie für eine europaweite Liste von als sicher eingestuften Herkunftsländern.

Meanwhile, the EU regime is moving further right, fast.