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Brett Christophers

Brett Christophers

@brettchristophers.bsky.social

3.8K followers 370 following 77 posts

Geographer

Brett Christophers is an economic geographer who is professor at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University. He has written extensively on the history of the modern financial sector, the financial management of real economic assets, and the effect on the environment from financial management of land and natural resources. .. more

Economics 66%

Political science 16%

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Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · May 20

UK paperback of The Price is Wrong available from today, @versobooks.bsky.social

The Price is Wrong

RECENT TECHNICAL ADVANCES mean it is typically cheaper to produce electricity from renewable sources than from fossil fuels. Yet, around the world, the transition to green energy is happening too slow...

www.versobooks.com

Reposted by Brett Christophers, Els Torreele

Paul Langley @paullangley.bsky.social · 19h

The private equity investment strategy of USS should be subjected to scrutiny. How USS became main shareholder in debt-laden zombie firms like Thames Water and G.Network is a scandal. Trustees should read research by USS members instead of advice from asset managers
www.ft.com/content/2ca2...

UK broadband operator sold to distressed debt specialist

G.Network’s lenders trigger sale of company with £300mn of net debt but just 25,000 customers

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Wen Stephenson @learning2live.bsky.social · 1d

My new post on this:

Has the Left Given Up on Climate Justice?

Yes, it's a provocation. But serious. Both Malm and @triofrancos.bsky.social see a left in denial.

wenstephenson.substack.com/p/has-the-le...

Has the Left Given Up on Climate Justice?

Excerpts from the live event with Andreas Malm and Thea Riofrancos on the left and the climate emergency.

wenstephenson.substack.com

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Jim Kane @kanejim.bsky.social · 1d

Ludo Phalippou on the Wild West of private equity data...

Navigating Private Equity Data: A Critical Review of Key Sources

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the main data sources used in academic research on private equity. It reviews the strengths, limitations, and co

papers.ssrn.com

Reposted by Jan W. Mueller, Axel Bruns, Jonathan M. Gilligan , and 8 more Jan W. Mueller, Axel Bruns, Jonathan M. Gilligan, Brett Christophers, Rebecca Tushnet, Alan Richardson, Michael Zimmer, Adrian Daub, Brian Keegan, Manisha Sinha, Nathan P. Kalmoe

Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 2d

NYT gonna NYT: "Both Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Maduro identify as socialists, though they have no relationship.” — would be funny if they did this every time you write about two capitalists.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/03/w...

Mamdani Called Trump to Criticize Venezuela Strikes

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Jonathan Liew @jonathanliew.bsky.social · 3d

the world youth final of 2023 is the world final of 2026. but in reality luke littler v gian van veen could scarcely be more different: a clash of styles, temperaments, personalities, even culture, and potentially a final for the ages. www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...

Gian van Veen to face Luke Littler in world final after denying Anderson in epic

Gian van Veen will face Luke Littler in the PDC world championship final after beating Gary Anderson 6-3 in an instant classic semi-final

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Will Jennings, Patrick Dunleavy, Steve Peers , and 6 more Will Jennings, Patrick Dunleavy, Steve Peers, Tim Bale, Brett Christophers, John Foot, Robert C. Richards, Gary Sheffield, Michael Larkin

Duncan Weldon @duncanweldon.bsky.social · 6d

Glad the FT is asking the question. Even if I’m not convinced they found a compelling answer.
I get that Starmer & Reeves are unpopular, I really don’t understand the extent of the dislike.

www.ft.com/content/1995... ‘There’s a real dislike, even loathing’: why voters hate Starmer and Reeves

‘There’s a real dislike, even loathing’: why voters hate Starmer and Reeves

Allies concede the prime minister and chancellor have made mistakes yet the level of disdain towards them is still striking

Reposted by Daniela Gabor, Brett Christophers

Cédric Durand @cedricdurand.bsky.social · 7d

Tribute to Michel Aglietta in @newleftreview.bsky.social: "a tireless thinker, committed to the proposition that we should aim to comprehend our changing historical times in their totality, which meant grasping the inter-relationships of their many moving parts." newleftreview.org/issues/ii156...

Cédric Durand, Michel Aglietta, NLR 156, November–December 2025

A tribute to the founder of the Parisian Regulation School of heterodox economics, with its striking combination of elite statistical training, rich conceptualizations and long-range economic history....

newleftreview.org

Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · 10d

Why LCOE is meaningless, in one chart (from Spain). Not much good your electricity being a bit cheaper to produce, if it earns just 10% of the revenue of other electricity....

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Paul Langley @paullangley.bsky.social · 13d

Largesse for the few, austerity for the rest. Spending at UK universities mirroring the UK fiscal state

21 Group @21group.bsky.social · 13d

Ulster University senior management spends freely in the skies

Three trips to Qatar cost £83114, attended by Vice-Chancellor & other senior figures including pro-VCs

St Patrick’s Day visit to Washington added another £61000 — or ~£12400 per head

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/educati...

Ulster University under fire for £83k cost of Qatar trips after telling Stormont it is ‘feeling the squeeze’ of cuts

Ulster University has been criticised over an £83,000 bill for trips to Qatar.

www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Diane Coyle @dianecoyle1859.bsky.social · 13d

Surely you’ve all been waiting for the Enlightened Economist book prize long list for 2025? www.enlightenmenteconomics.com/blog/index.p...

The Enlightened Economist Prize 2025 – Longlist | The Enlightened Economist

www.enlightenmenteconomics.com

Reposted by Brett Christophers

David Wallace-Wells @dwallacewells.bsky.social · 17d

The great Jim Hansen predicts that global average temperatures will jump 0.23 degrees Celsius in a single year, between 2026 (which he projects will see warming of 1.47 degrees C) to 2027 (which he projects will see 1.70 degrees C). open.substack.com/pub/jimehans...

Global Temperature in 2025, 2026, 2027

James Hansen, Pushker Kharecha, Dylan Morgan and Jasen Vest

open.substack.com

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Verso Books @versobooks.bsky.social · 18d

Now available for preorder: The Alibi of Capital by Timothy Mitchell

Stealing the future and concealing the theft – capitalism’s method, as examined by the author of the acclaimed Carbon Democracy

The Alibi of Capital

Today, extraordinary wealth seems to arrive from nowhere. The trick of conjuring this unearned wealth is, in fact, the key to understanding capitalism’s origins and a clue to why the catastrophe of c...

www.versobooks.com

Reposted by Markus Jäntti, Brett Christophers

Simon Kuper @simonkuper.bsky.social · 19d

European states need immigrants but don't want them. How to square that circle? Posture against immigrants while taking in more than ever before but treating them as a permanent second-class serving caste with few rights. Me @financialtimes.com on European kafala as.ft.com/r/7e2026f8-5...

Europe’s second-class citizens

[FREE TO READ] Countries that looked down on the Gulf’s ‘kafala’ system are edging closer to creating their own

Reposted by Brett Christophers

The BREAK—DOWN @the-breakdown.bsky.social · 19d

📚 In this week's newsletter, our favourite writers and contributors tell us the best books they read this year 👇

📚 Books of the Year '25

From the late Mike Davis’s opus, 'Ecology of Fear', to works of sci-fi and essays about the landscape of Essex.

open.substack.com

Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · 19d

"Energy transition"? None of these seven has ever used much fossil fuel to generate power, as far as I am aware...

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Quinn Slobodian @quinnslobodian.com · 20d

Very funny that between Clegg as VC and Osborne at OpenAI, the British have somehow found an unlikely place in the imperial order as techno-plenipotentiaries.

Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · 24d

It was at 67% in 1985 ..... 😂😂

Cheryl in Nova Scotia 🇨🇦🍁🍁 @minibubbly.bsky.social · 25d

Countries that rely the most on Renewable Power - I was happy to see the huge increase for #Canada at 70% - 2022 data

Link: www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/mapped-re...

Link with breakdown % by country: www.voronoiapp.com/energy/Renew...

Canada 70%
USA avg 23%
European countries low 20's up to 100% in some smaller countries

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Matt Farish @mattfarish.bsky.social · 24d

Join us in Toronto for the 10th @antipodeonline.bsky.social Institute, in June! antipodeonline.org/institute-fo...

About the Institute - Antipode Online

Antipode’s 10th Institute for the Geographies of Justice (IGJ):“Organizing and Solidarity in a Polycrisis” Toronto, Ontario, Canadathe traditional territory of the Huron Wendat, the Seneca and the Mis...

antipodeonline.org

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Cheryl in Nova Scotia 🇨🇦🍁🍁 @minibubbly.bsky.social · 25d

Countries that rely the most on Renewable Power - I was happy to see the huge increase for #Canada at 70% - 2022 data

Link: www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/mapped-re...

Link with breakdown % by country: www.voronoiapp.com/energy/Renew...

Canada 70%
USA avg 23%
European countries low 20's up to 100% in some smaller countries

Reposted by Brett Christophers

James Dart @jamesdart.bsky.social · 25d

This is great: Stephen Bunting with @jonathanliew.bsky.social

‘I messaged Sia on Instagram. She didn’t get back to me’: cult darts hero Stephen Bunting on his viral walk-on

The world No 4’s entrance to the song Titanium has become an iconic moment in darts, but while he loves the attention what he really wants is the world title

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Brett Christophers, John Hogan, Michiel van Meeteren

Chris Muellerleile @muellerleile.bsky.social · 25d

I wrote a paper about Cryptofinance, and the ways the U.S. state has negotiated the consolidation of cryptocurrency trading in large platform firms. It traces the rise of FTX (Sam Bankman-Fried's firm) as it moves from Berkeley to Hong Kong to the Bahamas.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

From cryptocurrency to cryptofinance: FTX, disintermediation and the US state

During the first decade of cryptocurrencies (2008–2017) there were few connections established between crypto and the conventional finance sector, but in the US in 2025 the integration of these two...

www.tandfonline.com

Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · 25d

Indeed I do. Yes, part of the issue is the very labels we use. What is a "tax" and what isn't?

Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · 25d

BBC Radio 4 / @benchu.bsky.social recently did a good series (3 episodes, called the Tax Conundrum) exploring, inter alia, precisely this disjuncture between how the UK's tax system actually works (income taxation has gotten much more progressive) and how most Brits think it works

Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 25d

I understand what marginal tax rates and how they work, but (with apologies for naive point) the fact that someone on a median income only pays this much tax - given the general state of the discourse on this - is surprising to me

Reposted by Brett Christophers, Paul Nightingale

Will Davies @will-davies.bsky.social · 25d

I understand what marginal tax rates and how they work, but (with apologies for naive point) the fact that someone on a median income only pays this much tax - given the general state of the discourse on this - is surprising to me

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Housing, Theory and Society @housingtheory.bsky.social · 25d

📢 📖 New book review!

Mika Hyötyläinen discusses Chua Beng Huat's book "Public Subsidy/Private Accumulation: The Political Economy of Singapore’s Public Housing" ➡️ "it offers a compelling, accessible introduction to one of the most intriguing alternative models of housing provision".

Public Subsidy/Private Accumulation: The Political Economy of Singapore’s Public Housing

Published in Housing, Theory and Society (Ahead of Print, 2025)

www.tandfonline.com

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Jonathan Liew @jonathanliew.bsky.social · 26d

gian van veen is third favourite for the world darts championships, and also a fascinating guy: brilliant and brittle, open about his struggles, a thinking man in a fiercely anti-intellectual sport. we talked about doubt, and dartitis, and aviation engineering

www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/d...

‘It can be brutal’: Gian van Veen, the anti-Luke Littler, on overcoming teenage dartitis

Dutch rising star has gone from not knowing ‘how to grip the dart’ to a dark horse for the PDC world championship

www.theguardian.com

Brett Christophers @brettchristophers.bsky.social · 26d

Money always decides.

“It was the finance guy who would come in and say, ‘I don’t get it. I don’t know why we are investing in this, the returns are low.’ And the lawyers, and the treasury. Everyone had an opinion.”

Inside the failed green revolutions at BP and Shell

How the energy giants tried to transform their businesses — but ended up dramatically scaling back those plans and writing off billions of dollars

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Robin Wigglesworth @robinwigglesworth.ft.com · 27d

Fascinating guest post on how the “democratisation” of private equity could end up biting the industry. www.ft.com/content/c460...

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Jonathan Liew @jonathanliew.bsky.social · 28d

fantastic michael van gerwen interview by @donmcrae.bsky.social

www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/d...

Michael van Gerwen: ‘Of course I love darts, but I love my kids much more’

The former world No 1 tells Donald McRae how a traumatic year has shaped him as a darts player and a father and insists he can recapture his glory days at the world championship

www.theguardian.com

Reposted by Brett Christophers

Common Wealth @cmmonwealth.bsky.social · 29d

“The decarbonization project is a matter of investment and divestment.”

For a successful transition, these decisions must prioritize systemic social outcomes and avoid disruptions — regardless of whether doing so will generate profit.

👇
https://www.common-wealth.org/green-planning-commission