Benjamin Braun

@benbraun.bsky.social

9.2K followers 970 following 860 posts

Political economist @ LSE | Finance, central banking & more | benjaminbraun.org

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Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · Jul 1

🚨New article🚨 The consensus is that contestation pushed central banks to talk 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 about inequality & climate.

Our theory: At first, CBs seek to ward off politicization by talking 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 about controversial topics.

We tested this 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐲𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬.🧵
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Screenshot of the title page of linked article:
"Noisy Politics, Quiet Technocrats: Strategic Silence by Central Banks"
By Benjamin Braun and Maximilian Düsterhöft

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 14h

Truly can’t make this stuff up. What utter nonsense.
www.ft.com/content/77a9...

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 14h

What Yakov says.

Reposted by Christian E. Weller, Benjamin Braun

Lenore Palladino @lenorepalladino.bsky.social · 21h

meanwhile, I'm teaching my PhD econ course on the Political Economy of Corporations this semester, so re-sharing the publicly-available "Political Economy of Corporations Curriculum"

lenorepalladino.notion.site/Political-Ec...

Zotero | Your personal research assistant

www.zotero.org

Reposted by Fabián Muniesa, Benjamin Braun, Brett Christophers , and 1 more Fabián Muniesa, Benjamin Braun, Brett Christophers, Béatrice Cointe

daniela russ @ueberdruss.bsky.social · 1d

what do we talk about when we talk about energy? my answer features (among many others) adorno, bogdanov, and the austrian communist wilhelm frank, who experimented with national exergy balances in the 1950s. out april 2026.

Reposted by Dave O’Brien, Matthias Doepke, Benjamin Braun , and 9 more Dave O’Brien, Matthias Doepke, Benjamin Braun, Miles Corak, Shelly Lundberg, Claudia Diehl, Jens Rydgren, Steven Fielding, Wolfgang Huber, Mauro Gatti, Simon Wiederhold, Steven H. Seggie

Anna Stansbury @annastansbury.bsky.social · 1d

📢now forthcoming in ECMA!

The Class Gap in Career Progression: Evidence from US Academia

Class is rarely a focus of research or DEI in elite US occupations.

Evidence suggests it should be: we find a large class gap in at least one occupation - tenure-track academia...🧵

Reposted by Benjamin Braun

Gregor Semieniuk @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social · 2d

Delighted to be giving today's seminar at Harvard's Growth Lab on

"The world is not flat: Persistence in the hierarchy of economic complexity across a century"

with @isabellamweber.bsky.social, Junshang Liang, @tomwestland.bsky.social

Live 10am ET at: growthlab.hks.harvard.edu/event/the-wo...

A figure with two panels that regress contemporary economic complexity (left y-axis) and GDP per capita (right y-axis) on historical economic complexity from around 1900 (both x-axes) for around 100 countries. Both data clouds are formed from bottom left to top right, and best fits have a positive slope.

Reposted by Jörg Peters, Benjamin Braun, Matthias Schnetzer

Miriam Rehm @miriamrehm.bsky.social · 2d

Ich freue mich über mein Interview in der SZ @szde.bsky.social! Die Ungleichheit bei den Vermögen in Deutschland ist extrem hoch. Das hat strukturelle Gründe, vor allem Unternehmensbesitz am oberen Ende. Daraus folgen höhere Renditen der Reichen, was die Ungleichheit weiter treibt sz.de/li.3372503

„Reiche haben in Deutschland zu viel Macht“

Die Ökonomin Miriam Rehm sieht politische Gründe für die Kluft zwischen Arm und Reich. Ein Gespräch über Erbschaftsteuer und den Einfluss von Superreichen wie Elon Musk.

sz.de

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 2d

From this

‘He’s the one who has to pull the trigger’: threat of Streeting still looms over Starmer

With Andy Burnham sidelined, the health secretary is the strongest contender to challenge for the Labour leadership

www.ft.com

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 2d

Ha, wait until the press finds out that he was in town today to introduce Lea Ypi at her inaugural lecture on "Are revolutions justified?"

FT quote: "Sightings of David Miliband, now head of the International Rescue Committee, at Westminster on Monday were a reminder to ambitious Labour politicians of the perils of dithering and missing a political moment."

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 4d

“The removal of Zhang and Liu reduces the CMC to its smallest size in history, leaving as its only members Xi, who heads the body, and Zhang Shengmin, a political commissar who leads the military’s anti-corruption watchdog.”

Xi takes sole operational control of army as China probes military leaders

Two generals are being investigated for ‘serious discipline violations and violations of the law’

www.ft.com

Reposted by Benjamin Braun

Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 5d

"The crackdown has done nothing to address the origins of the upheaval, which lie in the country’s political economy."

NEW @kayhanvaladbaygi.bsky.social on the crisis in Iran

www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/ira...

Iran in Revolt | Kayhan Valadbaygi

Deep political-economic transformations are causing recurrent waves of unrest, with no long-term solution in sight.

www.phenomenalworld.org

Reposted by Ben H. Ansell, Benjamin Braun, Sarah Roberts

Daniel McDowell @danielmcdowell.bsky.social · 5d

Yet another data point supporting the view that there is change afoot in the global financial system.

I know it's trite, but this is all "how to dismantle a reserve currency."

The dollar as the go-to haven in times of crisis, well, that appears (again) to be shaky.

1/

Reposted by Christian E. Weller, John Hogan

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 6d

Straight to the week 5: Financial and monetary hegemony reading list.

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 6d

‘The more that other countries look to escape US financial coercion, the more the US will scale it up… The global dollar system may now be a source of instability rather than stability.’ Our new paper by
@dsquareddigest.bsky.social & @himself.bsky.social
www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/documents/60...

Cover of discussion paper ‘The US dollar system as a source of international disorder’

Reposted by Benjamin Braun, Duncan Bell, James Scott , and 3 more Benjamin Braun, Duncan Bell, James Scott, Margot C. Finn, Henry Farrell, Kathleen Kennedy

Hetan Shah @hetanshah.bsky.social · 6d

Reposted by Benjamin Braun, Felicity Callard

Sarah Jaffe @sarahljaffe.bsky.social · 6d

As Minnesota kicks off its day of freedom from ICE, my piece on how the state's movements built power to be ready for this moment, and the closest thing to a real general strike in maybe a century newrepublic.com/article/2053...

If Anyone Can Pull Off a General Strike, It’s Minnesotans

The massive outpouring of support for Friday’s day of action against ICE is something that just comes naturally to residents of the North Star State.

newrepublic.com

Reposted by Benjamin Braun

Cédric Durand @cedricdurand.bsky.social · 6d

In this paper I show that the prevalent forms of knowledge production and use are inadequate to guarantee the perpetuation of a safe ecological space and argue in favor of planning episteme against green finance 1/
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
@tandfresearch.bsky.social @dehes.bsky.social

The problem of knowledge in the Anthropocene

In the twentieth century, debates about economic planning were largely shaped by arguments concerning knowledge and the acquisition of information. As the century drew to a close, the dispute was a...

www.tandfonline.com

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 6d

The joys of teaching the same class the second time. No more scrambling each week to get the content right; instead, focus on important things: title slide background images.

Late 19th-century finance: Financial globalization 1.0

Political economy of finance in Europe

From Bretton Woods to financial globalization 2.0

Political economy of finance in Europe

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 6d

"And then we said: ‘Let’s just plan for catastrophic success’.”
(J. Kushner from a podium in Davos)

We truly live in hellish times.

www.ft.com/content/b6ad...

Jared Kushner outlines the ‘master plan’ for ‘New Gaza’ at Davos. The slide talks about "security, deradicalization, free market economy, reconstruction."

Jared Kushner outlines the ‘master plan’ for ‘New Gaza’ at Davos. The slide shows an AI-generated image of "coastal tourism".

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 6d

This UK university finance dashboard is so good. Incredible public service.

Jan Derrfuss @jderrfuss.bsky.social · 6d

📊 Just launched: An interactive dashboard for visualising UK university finance data published by HESA.

Compare universities. Explore key financial indicators, trends and correlations.

🔗 shiny.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/lpzjd/uni-fi...

#UKHE #OpenData #rstats #AcademicSky

Reposted by Benjamin Braun

Jan Derrfuss @jderrfuss.bsky.social · 6d

Reposted by Benjamin Braun, Felicity Callard

John Merrick @johnmerrick.bsky.social · 6d

Political economy mates: can you suggest book reading on the political economy of Britain in the late 1980s to mid/end 1990s? Contemporary texts, or things written after, both are good. Thanks!

Reposted by Fabián Muniesa, Benjamin Braun, Luke Moffett , and 2 more Fabián Muniesa, Benjamin Braun, Luke Moffett, John Hogan, Bessma Momani

Elke Schwarz @elkeschwarz.bsky.social · 6d

Is there a risk that the dynamics of military technology hype enroll us all into a war hype? I argue yes in this piece just published by @techpolicypress.bsky.social. www.techpolicy.press/tech-venture...

Tech, Venture Capital and the Hype of War

The more of the world that is enrolled into the VC war-tech hype machine, the more we must ask where this leaves the possibility for peace, writes Elke Schwarz.

www.techpolicy.press

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 6d

A rupture not a transition.

Seva @seva.bsky.social · 7d

Toronto poli sci PhD applications: 201 two years ago, 385 this year. Trump's policies are working great, just not for the US

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 7d

Have said this before: Given how much we academics talk and post about the job drought in our own part of the labor market it's mildly bewildering how little talk there is about the even more severe job drought in the part of the labor market that our students are headed for.

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 7d

Many horror quotes in the article: "University careers services departments ... are offering students AI tools that give personalised recommendations on how to tailor CVs and cover letters so that first-time jobseekers can game the bots reading them."

The great graduate job drought

Economic uncertainty and the arrival of AI have brought a reduction in entry-level roles, with potentially disastrous consequences for young people

www.ft.com

Reposted by Holger Nehring, Oliver Nachtwey

Benjamin Braun @benbraun.bsky.social · 7d

Scariest chart I've seen in a long time. If this is real, UK graduate vacancies have fallen 70% relative to 2017 and are as low as at the bottom of the pandemic. Data is from job matching platform Adzuna.
www.ft.com/content/c894...