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Sean Vanatta

@seanvanatta.bsky.social

Financial historian at University of Glasgow and non-resident fellow at Princeton's JRCPPF. Writing about credit cards (@yalepress), bank supervision (@princetonupress), & pensions.

657 Followers  |  426 Following  |  83 Posts  |  Joined: 21.09.2023  |  1.7161

Latest posts by seanvanatta.bsky.social on Bluesky

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With the Em Dash, A.I. Embraces a Fading Tradition

I use the Em dash--over use it even--and I am not a robot.

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/18/m...

19.09.2025 05:53 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

I was delighted to contribute to the Yale JREG symposium on @seanvanatta.bsky.social and @petercontibrown.bsky.social's excellent new book.

My essay examines what the book can teach us about efforts to eliminate management ratings from the supervisory toolkit.
www.yalejreg.com/nc/in-defens...

12.09.2025 17:34 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Thrilled about this. Check it out!

12.09.2025 06:04 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Introduction to Symposium on Peter Conti-Brown & Sean Vanattaโ€™s Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America, by Brian D. Feinstein - Yale Journal on Regulation This post introduces Notice & Commentโ€™s symposium on Peter Conti-Brown and Sean Vanattaโ€™s Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America. For other posts in the series, click ...

The Yale Journal of Regulation is hosting a symposium on @petercontibrown.bsky.social & @seanvanatta.bsky.social's new book "Private Finance, Public Power" - a deeply researched history of bank supervision that anyone interested in banking, state capacity, or Am. political development should read.

11.09.2025 12:08 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Airlines Want a Piece of Every Purchase You Make

Your periodic reminder that credit card rewards are a regressive tax that should be regulated out of existence:

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/06/b...

10.09.2025 05:37 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 40    ๐Ÿ” 9    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The tooth fairy is rummaging through the couch cushions tonight. Anyone have 2 quid lying around?

29.08.2025 18:51 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Antimonopoly Banking After the New Deal - ProMarket The following is an excerpt from "Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America" by Peter Conti-Brown and Sean H. Vanatta, now out atย Princeton University Press.ย 

NEW: Read an excerpt from โ€œPrivate Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in Americaโ€ by @petercontibrown.bsky.social and @seanvanatta.bsky.social, now out at @princetonupress.bsky.social.

www.promarket.org/2025/07/25/a...

25.07.2025 15:00 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Brown & Vanatta, "Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America" New from Princeton University Press: ย  Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America ย  (2025), byย  Peter Conti-Bro...

Private Finance, Public Power featured on the Legal History Blog:

legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2025/06/brow...

24.06.2025 11:58 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Thank you to the many friends and colleagues who have supported this work over its long journey, and to the team at @princetonupress.bsky.social, who made the book and brought it to the world.

24.06.2025 05:50 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Private Finance, Public Power The strange and contested evolution of the management of banking risk

Today is the official pub. date for @petercontibrown.bsky.social and my book, Private Finance, Public Power: A History of Bank Supervision in America.

We did not anticipate that it would drop at a moment when so much in supervision is up for grabs.

press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

24.06.2025 05:33 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 28    ๐Ÿ” 6    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

If you want to understand what @jeremykress.bsky.social is so worked up about, our book Private Finance, Public Power is out today!

press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

24.06.2025 05:30 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

It's called supervisory discretion, Jeremy!

24.06.2025 05:28 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Proud of my two students, @petercontibrown and @seanvanatta.bsky.social on their fantastic new book, Private Finance, Public Power. @princetonupress.bsky.social

19.06.2025 20:27 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 18    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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That magic moment when your research comes full circle. Charge it!

19.06.2025 12:16 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Classic bring your bagpipes to work day here in Glasgow.

18.06.2025 08:06 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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That's a wrap on The Past and Future of Bank Supervision @brookings.edu . Thanks to Aaron Klein for organising and hosting a great event!

10.06.2025 19:08 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Peter Conti-Brown and Sean Vanatta on the History of Bank Supervision in America Peter Conti-Brown is a historian and legal scholar of the Federal Reserve System, and an associate professor at the

Super fun show this week with @seanvanatta.bsky.social and @petercontibrown.bsky.social on their new history of bank supervision in the United States. We also cover the recent SCOTUS case on POTUS removing Fed governors, powerlifting, and more! www.mercatus.org/macro-musing... (1/n)

09.06.2025 15:00 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 7    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Unfortunately, Illinois did not adopt the pension laws commission's recomendations, and has continued to be a poster child for disastrous unsound pension plans.

03.06.2025 15:12 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Started writing the next book today. Off to a good start:

โ€œThe laws of the various states for pensions of public employes have been enacted with almost utter disregard for the disastrous experiences contained in the history of unsound pension plans.โ€

Illinois Pension Laws Commission, 1919

03.06.2025 15:12 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Private Finance, Public Power, real and in the flesh! Can't wait until this starts shipping out.

Get yours at press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...

26.05.2025 18:31 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 34    ๐Ÿ” 8    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Glasgow, Taps-Aff or Taps-Oan?

I do love this country. It's Braw.

www.taps-aff.co.uk

17.05.2025 12:15 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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๐Ÿ“ข Call for Applications: ๐‡๐ž๐ง๐ซ๐ฒ ๐Š๐š๐ฎ๐Ÿ๐ฆ๐š๐ง ๐…๐ข๐ง๐š๐ง๐œ๐ข๐š๐ฅ ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ƒ๐ข๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ž๐ซ๐ญ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐…๐ž๐ฅ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฐ๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ฉ๐ฌ
hagley.org businesshistory.bsky.social historians.bsky.social #skystorians

๐Ÿ—“๏ธ Application deadline: November 1 2025

thebhc.org/dissertation...

#FinancialHistory

15.05.2025 10:02 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Consumers Show Signs of Strain Amid Trump's Tariff Rollout Consumer spending has been the bulwark against recession. A pullback could slow the economy.

โ€œ'The U.S. consumer never lets us down,' John Williams, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York."

This, with the graph of credit card delinquencies, is the entire post-New Deal US political economy.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

16.05.2025 05:14 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Could they redirect those investments toward public infrastructure in a turn to US-style fiscal mutualism (an investment strategy from the midcentury era of conservative nostalgia)?

I'm...not hopeful...

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

13.05.2025 08:28 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Migrants will have to spend decade in UK before applying to stay Government to also end visas for care workers as part of immigration clampdown

Oh FFS

Migrants will have to spend decade in UK before applying to stay - on.ft.com/42UkLnF via @FT

12.05.2025 05:10 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Xaq Frohlich & Sean Vanatta -- Book talk #bizhis #books
YouTube video by Business History Conference Xaq Frohlich & Sean Vanatta -- Book talk #bizhis #books

If you missed the American Society for Legal History Virtual Book Club last week, you can watch here the recording of @seanvanatta.bsky.social and me discussing our two books: www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEYe....

Compliments of the @businesshistoryc.bsky.social .
#businesshistory

24.04.2025 21:40 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 4    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Enjoyed the launch event for @seanvanatta.bsky.socialโ€™s Plastic Capitalism, a new history of how credit cards transformed finance and unmoored New Deal America.

22.04.2025 17:04 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 8    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Want to see how informing consumers evolved as a regulatory strategy across credit and food? Join @comedoergosum.bsky.social next week!

09.04.2025 16:07 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Join me and @seanvanatta.bsky.social online a week from today for our talk about both our books and intersections between legal history and business history, part of the American Society for Legal History Virtual Book Club, co-hosted with @businesshistoryc.bsky.social : aslh.net/virtual-book...

09.04.2025 14:38 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 8    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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US Treasuries sell-off deepens as โ€˜safe havenโ€™ status challenged Investors say misfiring โ€˜basis tradesโ€™ are piling pressure on US government bond market

"You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!"

US Treasuries sell-off deepens as โ€˜safe havenโ€™ status challenged - on.ft.com/3FXNnTK via @FT

09.04.2025 13:26 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

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