Pepper D. Culpepper

Pepper Culpepper

@pculpepper.bsky.social

1.4K followers 350 following 290 posts

Professor of Government & Public Policy, Oxford; Billionaire Backlash: The Age of Corporate Scandal and How It Could Save Democracy (on FT's What to Read in 2026; https://linktr.ee/billionairebacklash); www.pepperculpepper.net .. more

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Pepper Dagenhart Culpepper is an American political scientist.

Source: Wikipedia

Political science 43%

Economics 30%

Posts Replies Media Videos

Pepper Culpepper @pculpepper.bsky.social · 1d

Houston, we have a problem…with out of control capex of highly uncertain value.

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 1d

When considered as a percentage of GDP, the 2026 projected AI-driven spending by Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta rivals momentous capital efforts in U.S. history, as shown in these charts.

Big Tech’s AI Push Is Costing a Lot More Than the Moon Landing

When considered as a percentage of GDP, the projected spending of four tech giants for 2026 rivals the most momentous capital efforts in U.S. history, as shown in these charts.

on.wsj.com

Reposted by Pepper D. Culpepper

The Wall Street Journal @wsj.com · 1d

When considered as a percentage of GDP, the 2026 projected AI-driven spending by Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft and Meta rivals momentous capital efforts in U.S. history, as shown in these charts.

Big Tech’s AI Push Is Costing a Lot More Than the Moon Landing

When considered as a percentage of GDP, the projected spending of four tech giants for 2026 rivals the most momentous capital efforts in U.S. history, as shown in these charts.

on.wsj.com

Pepper Culpepper @pculpepper.bsky.social · 2d

I’m teaching a class on lobbying for future policymakers on Monday. Hard to do better than this sensational oped from @nickmacpherson.bsky.social about money in UK politics and the transition from big banks to big tech—but the song remains the same. And the loser is public trust in government.

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 3d

Counting the cost of money in politics ft.trib.al/sAx2W1p | opinion

Counting the cost of money in politics

Revelations of Mandelson’s cabinet leaks spotlight the symbiotic relationship between government and bankers

ft.trib.al

Pepper Culpepper @pculpepper.bsky.social · 2d

🤣🤣🤣. I generally favor protests of all sorts as a sign of vibrant democracies. But I urge this guy instead to find a quiet place at Bohemian Grove to curl up and read Billionaire Backlash.

TechCrunch @techcrunch.com · 2d

The organizer of the event swears it's not a joke.

An AI startup founder says he's planning a 'March for Billionaires' in protest of California's wealth tax | TechCrunch

The organizer of the event swears it's not a joke.

techcrunch.com

Reposted by Pepper D. Culpepper

TechCrunch @techcrunch.com · 2d

The organizer of the event swears it's not a joke.

An AI startup founder says he's planning a 'March for Billionaires' in protest of California's wealth tax | TechCrunch

The organizer of the event swears it's not a joke.

techcrunch.com

Reposted by Peter Holmes, Pepper D. Culpepper

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 3d

Counting the cost of money in politics ft.trib.al/sAx2W1p | opinion

Counting the cost of money in politics

Revelations of Mandelson’s cabinet leaks spotlight the symbiotic relationship between government and bankers

ft.trib.al

Pepper Culpepper @pculpepper.bsky.social · 3d

FT to the business elite: snap out of it before it’s too late.

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 3d

Trump and the normalisation of deviance ft.trib.al/uRQthsz | opinion

Trump and the normalisation of deviance

Allowing dangerous behaviour to become the norm desensitises us, paving the way for disaster

ft.trib.al

Reposted by Pepper D. Culpepper

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 3d

Trump and the normalisation of deviance ft.trib.al/uRQthsz | opinion

Trump and the normalisation of deviance

Allowing dangerous behaviour to become the norm desensitises us, paving the way for disaster

ft.trib.al

Reposted by Pepper D. Culpepper

Jacob Edenhofer @jacobedenhofer.bsky.social · 4d

This is one of the most elegantly written "academic" trade books that I've read in a long time and it puts forward an intriguing argument. The implicit baseline, as I understand it, is ``quiet politics'', with business prevailing most of the time, save www.bloomsbury.com/uk/billionai...

Lennart Jonasson @lennson.bsky.social · 4d

Reposted by Anna O. Law, Will Jennings, Patrick Dunleavy , and 6 more Anna O. Law, Will Jennings, Patrick Dunleavy, Adam Bonica, Aaron Sojourner, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Manisha Sinha, Pepper D. Culpepper, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Jake Grumbach @jakemgrumbach.bsky.social · 5d

This part of our response essay is where I'm at. Boiling down all of politics to electoralism has been absolutely terrible for resisting rising authoritarianism.

www.bostonreview.net/forum/how-no...

A final but especially important reason that popularism has put the United States at greater, not lower, risk of authoritarianism is the Democratic Party’s overly cautious use of institutional authority and political power beyond elections. Popularism doesn’t just urge candidates to check the polls before making a campaign decision; by defining politics down to poll-watching, it trains leaders to check with polls before governing—any use of their legislative and administrative power. Successful opposition parties in authoritarian environments around the world don’t do this: they engage in politics in order to wield power, not just to win or maintain it. But in the United States, the opposition party sees elections as its only tool, even as the regime repeatedly and brazenly threatens electoral integrity. The implicit pitch is “at least if you vote for us, you keep the right from governing.” Examples of Democratic squeamishness about power abound. The Democrats have just now begun to engage in partisan gerrymandering, fifteen years after Republicans used it to tremendous gain. And Democratic politicians who call Trump a dictator have voted for nearly all of his nominees in the Senate.

In this, Democratic leaders are the ultimate popularists—waiting to use their institutional power until it is overwhelmingly clear that public opinion is on their side. The results have been disastrous. Most consequential was the hesitancy of the Department of Justice under Merrick Garland to swiftly and aggressively prosecute Trump for the coup attempt on January 6, 2021. That’s exactly the opposite of what Lula’s government has done to Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil after Bolsonaro’s own coup attempt. As seen across more than two dozen other countries that convicted or banned from office national leaders for constitutional violations and crimes since 2010, this is not an impossible task.

Pepper Culpepper @pculpepper.bsky.social · 6d

Have FOMO from missing the launch event of Billionaire Backlash last week? Here's the event online, with Will Hutton and Ngaire Woods. Thanks to both of them and a fantastic audience for the questions and conversation.

Blavatnik Book Launch: Billionaire Backlash

YouTube video by Blavatnik School of Government

www.youtube.com

Pepper Culpepper @pculpepper.bsky.social · 7d

Great to chat with Tim Coulson and Syma Khalid on The Science of the Times podcast about Billionaire Backlash and the commonalities between social and natural science.

Badly Behaving Billionaires

Podcast Episode · Science Of The Times · 29/01/2026 · 43m

podcasts.apple.com

Pepper Culpepper @pculpepper.bsky.social · 7d

💯

Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 7d

a lot of americans are convinced we need to re-invent the entire financial wheel just because they're still paying for things with cheques. This is a you problem/skill issue, guys

Reposted by James Scott, Pepper D. Culpepper

Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 7d

a lot of americans are convinced we need to re-invent the entire financial wheel just because they're still paying for things with cheques. This is a you problem/skill issue, guys

Pepper Culpepper @pculpepper.bsky.social · 7d

Rentiers vs. cowboys as big vs banks and crypto lobbyists wage a titanic battle to determine who has the right to extract rents from US consumers. “There’s something uniquely American about stablecoins.” @nikasgari.bsky.social in today’s FT.

The stablecoin war: Wall Street vs crypto over the future of money

Banks say rules governing the digital currency are a risk to financial stability. Are they just trying to stamp out competition?

www.ft.com

Pepper Culpepper @pculpepper.bsky.social · 10d

Thanks Jerome! Excited it’s finally out.

Reposted by Pepper D. Culpepper

Karlo Basta @karlobasta.bsky.social · 10d

New from @pculpepper.bsky.social, just arrived in time for book/class/grant application. So many uses.

Pepper Culpepper @pculpepper.bsky.social · 11d

Billionaire Backlash is published today! (If you are in the US, this is a teaser -- out March 17 there). I had a fantastic conversation about the book with @hugorifkind.bsky.social from Times Radio yesterday. Link below (interview starts at about 50:30). Or join us for the launch in Oxford tonight.

Reposted by Anne Applebaum, Mariana Mazzucato, Stephen M. Walt , and 181 more Anne Applebaum, Mariana Mazzucato, Stephen M. Walt, Michael E. Mann, Joanna Bryson, Anna O. Law, Marc Lynch, Kim L. Scheppele, Elizabeth Saunders, Rebecca Solnit, Archon Fung, Nandita Sharma, Matthew Bunn, Nancy Kanwisher, Yadvinder Malhi, Michael Wagner, John T. Jost, Stephan Lewandowsky, Robbert Sanderman, David M. Schultz, Simon Burgess, Marco Festa‐Bianchet, David M. Farrell, Will Jennings, Ashish Arora, Peter Thorne, Martin J. Attrill, Jesse M. Shapiro, Christina C. Hicks, Richard Betts, Richard J. Butler, Mattias Hallquist, Patrick A. Jansen, Jonathan A. Foley, Michael T. Meyer, Joshua S. Weitz, John R. Hutchinson, Mieke Van Houtte, Steve Peers, John McLaren, Andrew Watt, Andreas Ortmann, Tim Bale, Tom Shakespeare, Valerie P. Hans, Mark D. White, Victor Asal, Steven S. Smith, Jill Marshall, Rosemary A. Joyce, Caroline Krafft, Jürgen Maier, Leigh Sparks, Marina Jirotka, David Rothschild, Martin Gaynor, Elizabeth Stokoe, Melissa Johnson, Vincent Tiberj, Michael J. Allen, Rupert Read, Christian E. Weller, Ian M. Kinchin, Dawn J. Wright, Joseph Schafer, Hester Blum, Markus Jäntti, Anders Nilsson, Alison Phipps, Dominik Wiedenhofer, Ramón López Facal, Gerard H. Kuper, Libby Robin, David S. Cohen, Joni Lovenduski, Alan Stewart, Patrick Walsh, Sanford F. Schram, Kevin Carey, Shelly Lundberg, Inderjeet Parmar, Göran Bolin, Jussi T. Eronen, Marta Mìrazón Lahr, Raffaella Ravinetto, Smith, Peter Schöttler, Andrew Leyshon, Melanie C. Green, Janet Murray, Steven High, Jo Barraket, David R. Miller, Robert Wolfe, Duncan Bell, Jesús Rodríguez Pomeda, Patrick Svensson, Wilson McLeod, Stephen D. Murphy, Gerald Friedman, Stacy D. VanDeveer, Fabio Giglietto, Beatriz Gallardo Paúls, Lyndsey Stonebridge, Juan Moreno‐Cruz, Todd Pugatch, Howard Stevenson, Stephen Ryan, Elizabeth Stevenson, Michael D. McDonald, Anne Norton, Josef Früchtl, Manuel Puppis, Graeme Warren, Talia Schaffer, Graham Dutfield, Marco Haan, Antoine Bernard de Raymond, Fredrik Albritton Jonsson, Paul Fisher, Michelle Williams, Alberto Corsín Jiménez, Christian Fisch, Lisa Diedrich, Nicola Carr, Enrique Fatás, Philipp Sarasin, Jessica Silbey, Feargal Cochrane, Stuart White, Mary Jane Curry, Susan Strasser, Marko Lindroos, Claire L. Adida, Sharon Erickson Nepstad, Caterina Froio, Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, Patrick Meier, Vaughan S. Roberts, Raúl Pacheco-Vega, Ryan K. Brook, Florian Keusch, Andrew Rudalevige, James Connelly, Olivier Jourdan, Hisham Zerriffi, Sean P. Corcoran, Patrick Stokes, Cullen S. Hendrix, Jon Dean, Eric J. Sundquist, Guillaume Allègre, Eric J. Segall, Melanie O’Brien, Jason A. Heppler, Karen O’Leary, Uwe M. Martens, Almut Schulze, Alexander Woywodt, Thomas D. Carroll, David S. Tanenhaus, Kate Jackson, Pam Jarvis, Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Mary McAuliffe, Aviel Roshwald, Pepper D. Culpepper, Émilien Ruiz, Nathan P. Kalmoe, Ryan Calo, Jaap Kooijman, Aidan O’Sullivan, Dan Immergluck, Jeannette Sutton, Fiona Armstrong, Beth Tellman, Lorna Hughes, Fabian Holt, Ernesto Castañeda, David Spurrett, Dunlap, Stuart Shapiro, David Darmofal, Lars Gamfeldt

Bruce Springsteen @brucespringsteen.net · 12d

I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

Stay free

Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio)

YouTube video by Bruce Springsteen

youtu.be

Reposted by Will Jennings, Tim Bale, Chris Hanretty , and 3 more Will Jennings, Tim Bale, Chris Hanretty, Patricia Owens, Brian Weatherson, Pepper D. Culpepper

Ben Ansell @benansell.bsky.social · 12d

Minneapolis is a place that means a lot to me, so I wrote a short Substack about the city, its people, and what we all owe them.

benansell.substack.com/p/my-minneap...

My Minneapolis

An ode to a city that knows who it is

benansell.substack.com

Pepper Culpepper @pculpepper.bsky.social · 13d

Generous review of Billionaire Backlash in today’s FT. 🙏 Book is in stores this week!

Blavatnik School of Government @blavatnikschool.bsky.social · 13d

"Well-timed, tightly written" and "admirably international in its approach."

⭐ The @financialtimes.com reviews @pculpepper.bsky.social's new book 'Billionaire Backlash'. 👇
www.ft.com/content/690e...

Home - Financial Times

News, analysis and opinion from the Financial Times on the latest in markets, economics and politics

FT.com

Reposted by Pepper D. Culpepper

Blavatnik School of Government @blavatnikschool.bsky.social · 13d

Home - Financial Times

News, analysis and opinion from the Financial Times on the latest in markets, economics and politics

FT.com

Reposted by Pepper D. Culpepper

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 13d

Free to read for a limited period from @pspolisci.bsky.social -

From Bookworm to Browser: The Decline of Books in Political Science Scholarship - cup.org/3WfnBiX

- Alixandra B. Yanus & Phillip J. Ardoin

#FirstView

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Brendan Nyhan, Steve Peers , and 5 more Ben H. Ansell, Brendan Nyhan, Steve Peers, Leigh Sparks, Julian Webb, Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Anne Norton, Pepper D. Culpepper

Hank Green @hankgreen.bsky.social · 15d

OpenAI exec James Dyett calling out the cowardice

There is far more outrage from tech leaders over a wealth tax than masked ICE agents terrorizing communities and executing civilians in the streets.

Tells you what you need to know about the values of our industry.

Reposted by Will Jennings

Pepper Culpepper @pculpepper.bsky.social · 17d

Many people think crypto is a scam. Why is it not more heavily regulated? We look at attitudes after the FTX scandal, showing that scandal coverage differed between left and right media. Conservatives who got their news from the left (eg NYT), and vice versa, wound up more moderate. Media matters. 👇

Political Science Research and Methods @psrm.bsky.social · 26d

📰How do scandals shape support for crypto rules?

➡️P D Culpepper, T Lee & R Shandler find that after the FTX scandal, news exposure boosted Democrats’ support for regulation, while Republicans shifted only when exposed to regulatory framing cambridge.org/core/journal... #FirstView

Reposted by Pepper D. Culpepper

Blavatnik School of Government @blavatnikschool.bsky.social · 20d

💡 Research from Vice Dean @pculpepper.bsky.social features in the @economist.com latest article suggesting that persistent pessimism has become one of the global economy’s biggest constraints. 👇
www.economist.com/finance-and-...

Pessimism is the world’s main economic problem

Gloomy expectations are starting to matter more than the data

www.economist.com

Pepper Culpepper @pculpepper.bsky.social · 25d

Brilliant article by @robertshrimsley.bsky.social on how Grok’s undressing of minors might be the Waterloo for the assault of Big Tech on democracy. The full analysis of what this looks like is coming out 29 January in our book #billionairebacklash

Financial Times @financialtimes.com · 25d

A warning shot to our tech overlords ft.trib.al/XehaMct | opinion