Nick Taylor
@ntaylor.bsky.social
Lecturer at Queen Mary Uni of London | History of welfare, unemployment; history of economics; finance & climate change 🚲🌳
Reposted by Nick Taylor
Happy to have written about plastic for @thepolycrisis.bsky.social. Thanks to @70sbachchan.bsky.social for sourcing the excellent graphics. And thanks to @rebecca-altman.bsky.social and @anjakrieger.bsky.social for being my go-to's on all-things plastic.
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pla...
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pla...
Plastic Planet | Venus Bivar
Stalled negotiations and accelerating accumulation in the global petrochemicals industry
www.phenomenalworld.org
November 17, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Happy to have written about plastic for @thepolycrisis.bsky.social. Thanks to @70sbachchan.bsky.social for sourcing the excellent graphics. And thanks to @rebecca-altman.bsky.social and @anjakrieger.bsky.social for being my go-to's on all-things plastic.
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pla...
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pla...
Reposted by Nick Taylor
This is a great, important piece by @joelkhalili.bsky.social for @wired.com - on how many Bitcoin miners have pivoted to generative machine learning.
Plenty of technical overlap but just the core equation of [more GPU-melting-overconsumption] = [more money] is perhaps the most relevant
Plenty of technical overlap but just the core equation of [more GPU-melting-overconsumption] = [more money] is perhaps the most relevant
America’s Biggest Bitcoin Miners Are Pivoting to AI
In the face of a profitability crisis, industrial-scale bitcoin miners are transforming their data centers into AI factories.
www.wired.com
December 15, 2025 at 7:39 PM
This is a great, important piece by @joelkhalili.bsky.social for @wired.com - on how many Bitcoin miners have pivoted to generative machine learning.
Plenty of technical overlap but just the core equation of [more GPU-melting-overconsumption] = [more money] is perhaps the most relevant
Plenty of technical overlap but just the core equation of [more GPU-melting-overconsumption] = [more money] is perhaps the most relevant
Reposted by Nick Taylor
1/ This year, OCI’s research team challenged powerful blockers and helped shift the story on fossil fuels, uncovering evidence and exposing injustice. Here’s what we did and why we need your support for 2026 🧵
December 11, 2025 at 3:30 PM
1/ This year, OCI’s research team challenged powerful blockers and helped shift the story on fossil fuels, uncovering evidence and exposing injustice. Here’s what we did and why we need your support for 2026 🧵
“They can’t [fix it], because it bankrupts the industry as we know it.”
Captivating read on the millions of toxic abandoned oil wells in the US, the failure of regulation & the activists trying to hold the industry & government to account for cleaning up.
www.motherjones.com/environment/...
Captivating read on the millions of toxic abandoned oil wells in the US, the failure of regulation & the activists trying to hold the industry & government to account for cleaning up.
www.motherjones.com/environment/...
Meet the TikTok stars demanding oil companies clean up their mess
There are millions of abandoned oil wells across the United States. A group of unlikely activists in Texas is making sure no one forgets they need to be cleaned up.
www.motherjones.com
December 9, 2025 at 8:30 PM
“They can’t [fix it], because it bankrupts the industry as we know it.”
Captivating read on the millions of toxic abandoned oil wells in the US, the failure of regulation & the activists trying to hold the industry & government to account for cleaning up.
www.motherjones.com/environment/...
Captivating read on the millions of toxic abandoned oil wells in the US, the failure of regulation & the activists trying to hold the industry & government to account for cleaning up.
www.motherjones.com/environment/...
Von der Leyen & the EPP partners with the far-right bloc to pass the first 'omnibus' law & slash reporting requirements for EU businesses on their ecological impacts & respect for human rights/labour laws in their supply chains.
www.politico.eu/article/eu-s...
www.politico.eu/article/eu-s...
EU closes deal to slash green rules in major win for von der Leyen’s deregulation drive
Controversial “omnibus” bill saw center-right EU lawmakers side with the far right to water down environmental standards.
www.politico.eu
December 9, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Von der Leyen & the EPP partners with the far-right bloc to pass the first 'omnibus' law & slash reporting requirements for EU businesses on their ecological impacts & respect for human rights/labour laws in their supply chains.
www.politico.eu/article/eu-s...
www.politico.eu/article/eu-s...
How Google Maps determines restaurant survival. This brilliantly unearths the political economy of the algorithm here.
"You start seeing an algorithmic market - one where visibility compounds, demand snowballs, and who gets to survive is increasingly decided by code."
"You start seeing an algorithmic market - one where visibility compounds, demand snowballs, and who gets to survive is increasingly decided by code."
I wanted dinner recommendations so I scraped 13,000+ London restaurants and accidentally discovered Google Maps is running a shadow economy. Anyway here's a dashboard and a political economy thesis: open.substack.com/pub/laurenle...
How Google Maps quietly allocates survival across London’s restaurants - and how I built a dashboard to see through it
I wanted a dinner recommendation and got a research agenda instead. Using 13000+ restaurants, I rebuild its ratings with machine learning and map how algorithmic visibility actually distributes power.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 9:58 AM
How Google Maps determines restaurant survival. This brilliantly unearths the political economy of the algorithm here.
"You start seeing an algorithmic market - one where visibility compounds, demand snowballs, and who gets to survive is increasingly decided by code."
"You start seeing an algorithmic market - one where visibility compounds, demand snowballs, and who gets to survive is increasingly decided by code."
Reposted by Nick Taylor
Every welfare reform in living memory is dressed up in punitive language. And yet the challenges are as great now as ever.
Perhaps a messaging focused on support, to generate greater trust, might be worth trying?
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Perhaps a messaging focused on support, to generate greater trust, might be worth trying?
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Young people risk losing benefits under UK welfare reforms
Youths will have to accept offers of work or training as part of government plan, says McFadden
giftarticle.ft.com
December 8, 2025 at 7:00 AM
Every welfare reform in living memory is dressed up in punitive language. And yet the challenges are as great now as ever.
Perhaps a messaging focused on support, to generate greater trust, might be worth trying?
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Perhaps a messaging focused on support, to generate greater trust, might be worth trying?
giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...
Reposted by Nick Taylor
"Our analysis shows that in the aftermath of extreme weather events, lower-income neighbourhoods are less likely to rebuild and do not return to their pre-disaster state, whereas higher-income areas rebuild and tend to improve...highlighting increasing disparities in their built environments."
Nature research paper: Built environment disparities are amplified during extreme weather recovery
go.nature.com/3YcD2ZS
go.nature.com/3YcD2ZS
Built environment disparities are amplified during extreme weather recovery - Nature
Higher-income neighbourhoods rebuild and improve after disasters while lower-income areas do not return to pre-disaster conditions.
go.nature.com
December 8, 2025 at 12:00 PM
"Our analysis shows that in the aftermath of extreme weather events, lower-income neighbourhoods are less likely to rebuild and do not return to their pre-disaster state, whereas higher-income areas rebuild and tend to improve...highlighting increasing disparities in their built environments."
Reposted by Nick Taylor
Pleased to see this paper now published - in it, I examine the status of Keynes as a post-growth economist www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Keynes as a post-growth economist
Some key aspects of J.M. Keynes's economics are reassessed, showing how they fit with and can add to a modern post-growth economics. While Keynes favo…
www.sciencedirect.com
December 8, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Pleased to see this paper now published - in it, I examine the status of Keynes as a post-growth economist www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A few Autumn/Winter Epping Forest photos
December 7, 2025 at 11:48 AM
A few Autumn/Winter Epping Forest photos
Reposted by Nick Taylor
To close our affordability series, I wrote about captive pricing.
If you're at the ballpark or the movie theater and have no choices for concessions, they've got you.
But it's more widespread than that: ambulances, auto sales, airports, anesthesia... it's becoming inescapable.
If you're at the ballpark or the movie theater and have no choices for concessions, they've got you.
But it's more widespread than that: ambulances, auto sales, airports, anesthesia... it's becoming inescapable.
Trapped at the Concession Stand - The American Prospect
Captive pricing follows when customers have no choices. Policymakers can do something about it.
prospect.org
December 5, 2025 at 5:01 PM
To close our affordability series, I wrote about captive pricing.
If you're at the ballpark or the movie theater and have no choices for concessions, they've got you.
But it's more widespread than that: ambulances, auto sales, airports, anesthesia... it's becoming inescapable.
If you're at the ballpark or the movie theater and have no choices for concessions, they've got you.
But it's more widespread than that: ambulances, auto sales, airports, anesthesia... it's becoming inescapable.
Reposted by Nick Taylor
Wild how the Fed chair saying that *entire regions of the United States* won’t be able to get a mortgage in the next decade barely registered as a news event
June 18, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Wild how the Fed chair saying that *entire regions of the United States* won’t be able to get a mortgage in the next decade barely registered as a news event
Well done to Steve & others involved in producing this 👏
Now we just need university governance to live up to such principles! The code, usefully, lays out practical steps towards this. It's collective/political pressure & organising that can make it a widespread reality.
Now we just need university governance to live up to such principles! The code, usefully, lays out practical steps towards this. It's collective/political pressure & organising that can make it a widespread reality.
Excited to see the final version of the @cdbu.bsky.social Code of Ethical University Governance in the public domain, and looking forward to the launch event in Parliament later today. cdbu.org.uk/cdbu-code-20... #UKHE #governance
CDBU Code of Ethical University Governance | CDBU
cdbu.org.uk
December 4, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Well done to Steve & others involved in producing this 👏
Now we just need university governance to live up to such principles! The code, usefully, lays out practical steps towards this. It's collective/political pressure & organising that can make it a widespread reality.
Now we just need university governance to live up to such principles! The code, usefully, lays out practical steps towards this. It's collective/political pressure & organising that can make it a widespread reality.
Reposted by Nick Taylor
2025 was heat and drought. 2024 was incessant rain
Three of the five worst British harvests on record have now occurred since 2020
Some farmers are asking whether the growing impacts of the climate crisis are making it too financially risky to sow their crops
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Three of the five worst British harvests on record have now occurred since 2020
Some farmers are asking whether the growing impacts of the climate crisis are making it too financially risky to sow their crops
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
UK farmers lose £800m after heat and drought cause one of worst harvests on record
Many now concerned about ability to make living in fast-changing climate after one of worst grain harvests recorded
www.theguardian.com
December 4, 2025 at 8:28 AM
2025 was heat and drought. 2024 was incessant rain
Three of the five worst British harvests on record have now occurred since 2020
Some farmers are asking whether the growing impacts of the climate crisis are making it too financially risky to sow their crops
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Three of the five worst British harvests on record have now occurred since 2020
Some farmers are asking whether the growing impacts of the climate crisis are making it too financially risky to sow their crops
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Reposted by Nick Taylor
1/6 🚨🌾🧵
Everyday cereal products across Europe contain high levels of the forever chemical #TFA, our new PAN Europe study reveals. #TFA is an ultra-short #PFAS and a breakdown product of other PFAS, including PFAS #pesticides.
www.pan-europe.info/press-releas...
Everyday cereal products across Europe contain high levels of the forever chemical #TFA, our new PAN Europe study reveals. #TFA is an ultra-short #PFAS and a breakdown product of other PFAS, including PFAS #pesticides.
www.pan-europe.info/press-releas...
December 4, 2025 at 9:04 AM
1/6 🚨🌾🧵
Everyday cereal products across Europe contain high levels of the forever chemical #TFA, our new PAN Europe study reveals. #TFA is an ultra-short #PFAS and a breakdown product of other PFAS, including PFAS #pesticides.
www.pan-europe.info/press-releas...
Everyday cereal products across Europe contain high levels of the forever chemical #TFA, our new PAN Europe study reveals. #TFA is an ultra-short #PFAS and a breakdown product of other PFAS, including PFAS #pesticides.
www.pan-europe.info/press-releas...
Reposted by Nick Taylor
THE ASSET CLASS, my first book, will be published by @wnbooks.bsky.social on 9 April 2026. It’s a narrative investigation of private equity, a secretive and relentlessly destructive wing of finance that penetrates almost every aspect of our lives - and it’s available to pre-order now!
November 18, 2025 at 12:00 PM
THE ASSET CLASS, my first book, will be published by @wnbooks.bsky.social on 9 April 2026. It’s a narrative investigation of private equity, a secretive and relentlessly destructive wing of finance that penetrates almost every aspect of our lives - and it’s available to pre-order now!
The classic early retirement story! @will-davies.bsky.social & I wrote about this movement & all its contradictions back in 2020. doi.org/10.1080/1753...
I assume FIRE has been turbocharged post-pandemic, with the combo of job disillusionment & asset appreciation.
I assume FIRE has been turbocharged post-pandemic, with the combo of job disillusionment & asset appreciation.
December 1, 2025 at 9:35 PM
The classic early retirement story! @will-davies.bsky.social & I wrote about this movement & all its contradictions back in 2020. doi.org/10.1080/1753...
I assume FIRE has been turbocharged post-pandemic, with the combo of job disillusionment & asset appreciation.
I assume FIRE has been turbocharged post-pandemic, with the combo of job disillusionment & asset appreciation.
Reposted by Nick Taylor
Last week, Comptroller Lander recommended NYC’s pension funds drop BlackRock + 2 other public asset managers due to inadequate decarbonization plans.
After evaluating the pension systems’ 49 managers, only 3 failed to submit plans with the seriousness we expect.
comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/com...
After evaluating the pension systems’ 49 managers, only 3 failed to submit plans with the seriousness we expect.
comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/com...
December 1, 2025 at 5:43 PM
Last week, Comptroller Lander recommended NYC’s pension funds drop BlackRock + 2 other public asset managers due to inadequate decarbonization plans.
After evaluating the pension systems’ 49 managers, only 3 failed to submit plans with the seriousness we expect.
comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/com...
After evaluating the pension systems’ 49 managers, only 3 failed to submit plans with the seriousness we expect.
comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/com...
Reposted by Nick Taylor
Today's new @publicenterprise.bsky.social report is a comprehensive analysis of the capital structure of the entire AI sector: data center real estate, GPU markets, private credit, you name it.
It's also a financial risk management framework for policymakers!
publicenterprise.org/report/bubbl...
It's also a financial risk management framework for policymakers!
publicenterprise.org/report/bubbl...
Bubble or Nothing
Policymakers concerned about the deployment of clean energy and compute-focused infrastructure over the long term need a framework for managing the uncertainty in the AI sector's investment landscape—...
publicenterprise.org
November 12, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Today's new @publicenterprise.bsky.social report is a comprehensive analysis of the capital structure of the entire AI sector: data center real estate, GPU markets, private credit, you name it.
It's also a financial risk management framework for policymakers!
publicenterprise.org/report/bubbl...
It's also a financial risk management framework for policymakers!
publicenterprise.org/report/bubbl...
Reposted by Nick Taylor
Senior MPs including Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Darren Jones are claiming tens of thousands of pounds a year in taxpayer-funded rent expenses while either calling for or implementing benefit cuts on the poorest
By me, for the Big Issue www.bigissue.com/news/politic...
By me, for the Big Issue www.bigissue.com/news/politic...
Revealed: MPs rack up huge rent expenses while pushing through cuts to benefits
MPs are allowed to rent a second home, but while they are simultaneously cutting benefits for the vulnerable, the cost feels hard to swallow.
www.bigissue.com
December 1, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Senior MPs including Kemi Badenoch, Robert Jenrick and Darren Jones are claiming tens of thousands of pounds a year in taxpayer-funded rent expenses while either calling for or implementing benefit cuts on the poorest
By me, for the Big Issue www.bigissue.com/news/politic...
By me, for the Big Issue www.bigissue.com/news/politic...
Reposted by Nick Taylor
GEP's Special Issue on "The North–South Politics of Global Just Transitions" is now out, guest edited by Chuks Okereke, Ken Mbeva, Reuben Makomere. Several articles are available open access, including the introduction. Check them out at the link below!
direct.mit.edu/glep/issue/2...
direct.mit.edu/glep/issue/2...
Volume 25 Issue 4 | Global Environmental Politics | MIT Press
direct.mit.edu
November 30, 2025 at 8:01 AM
GEP's Special Issue on "The North–South Politics of Global Just Transitions" is now out, guest edited by Chuks Okereke, Ken Mbeva, Reuben Makomere. Several articles are available open access, including the introduction. Check them out at the link below!
direct.mit.edu/glep/issue/2...
direct.mit.edu/glep/issue/2...
Reposted by Nick Taylor
'Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has made Tehran impossible to sustain'
#Iran 🇮🇷
#Iran 🇮🇷
Iran president says capital move now a necessity as water crisis deepens
Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has mad...
www.iranintl.com
November 21, 2025 at 4:52 AM
'Iran’s capital must be moved because the country “no longer has a choice,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday in remarks carried by state media, warning that severe ecological strain has made Tehran impossible to sustain'
#Iran 🇮🇷
#Iran 🇮🇷
Reposted by Nick Taylor
Worth remembering as this unfolds that it was disabled people and people from ethnic minority backgrounds who disproportionately died. Tens of thousands needlessly lost their lives, many who died alone or with just an iPad. Thousands more were left with life changing Long Covid. A true scandal.
BREAKING: The UK’s response to Covid was “too little, too late”, a damning official report on the handling of the pandemic has concluded, saying the introduction of a lockdown even a week earlier than happened could have saved more than 20,000 lives.
November 20, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Worth remembering as this unfolds that it was disabled people and people from ethnic minority backgrounds who disproportionately died. Tens of thousands needlessly lost their lives, many who died alone or with just an iPad. Thousands more were left with life changing Long Covid. A true scandal.
Reposted by Nick Taylor
As @glenpeters.bsky.social says, we're way off target for any 1.5°C scenario.
To see how far off, each of the red/green bars represents the decrease in CO₂ emissions during COVID. Even if we achieved that from now until the end of 2030, we would still miss our 1.5°C target by a significant margin.
To see how far off, each of the red/green bars represents the decrease in CO₂ emissions during COVID. Even if we achieved that from now until the end of 2030, we would still miss our 1.5°C target by a significant margin.
November 18, 2025 at 10:39 AM
As @glenpeters.bsky.social says, we're way off target for any 1.5°C scenario.
To see how far off, each of the red/green bars represents the decrease in CO₂ emissions during COVID. Even if we achieved that from now until the end of 2030, we would still miss our 1.5°C target by a significant margin.
To see how far off, each of the red/green bars represents the decrease in CO₂ emissions during COVID. Even if we achieved that from now until the end of 2030, we would still miss our 1.5°C target by a significant margin.
Check out the brilliant @cibled.bsky.social in @econsocjournal.bsky.social on the extremes of Becker's human capital theory & its normalisation of inequality.
doi.org/10.1080/0308...
doi.org/10.1080/0308...
‘Most (if not all!) deaths are to some extent suicides’: Human capital and endogenous mortality in Gary Becker’s work
Chicago School economist and Nobel Memorial Prize winner Gary Becker writes that ‘most (if not all!) deaths are to some extent “suicides” in the sense that they could have been postponed if more re...
doi.org
November 17, 2025 at 9:55 AM
Check out the brilliant @cibled.bsky.social in @econsocjournal.bsky.social on the extremes of Becker's human capital theory & its normalisation of inequality.
doi.org/10.1080/0308...
doi.org/10.1080/0308...