‘Tice said, however, that it was “not surprising no one reads the FT”, adding: “it’s so boring”.’ www.ft.com/content/4abf...

Reform repaid Tice loan on same day £1mn donated by mother of Farage aide Cottrell

Transactions fuel criticism of the party’s lack of transparency over its financing

ft.com

This is great on GFC’07 and the current AI bubble www.groundbrkr.com/p/the-second...

The Second Derivative: Why No One Understands the AI Boom

The market misremembers 2008. That same blind spot sits at the center of the AI boom.

groundbrkr.com

In some ways, the biggest failure of leadership has been a failure to understand or learn. Many of the reasons this govt is unpopular were avoidable or at least mitigatable, but realism constantly lost out among Starmer and his team to an outdated and ideological understanding of Labour voters.

So how did we get here, with Starmer on the way out after two years? To some extent, it does go back to the beginning. It was not an enthusiastic victory for Labour. Getting rid of the Tories was the top reason people voted for them in 2024, though with their message of 'Change' also resonating.

This is a great thread. My decision to leave the Labour Party was about that speech - it didn't represent my values. I didn't think about whether others felt the same way, it was a personal decision at the time. So its interesting to see that it was a massive strategic own goal.

Dylan Difford@dylandifford.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Then came a new flashpoint: the "islands of strangers" speech. Labour, Lib Dem and Green voters reacted strongly against it, with Starmer losing net positive favourability among 2024 Labour voters for the first time, while receiving absolutely no credit from voters on the right.

👇

Tech Policy Press@techpolicypress.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Tech hype isn't just marketing and PR—it's also alarm, paranoia, and propaganda. Fabian Muniesa argues today's hype matches what scholars Adorno and Horkheimer called reason's collapse into fascist madness.

We are advertising 3xPhD scholarships: AI in Healthcare; Apprenticeship provision in S Yorkshire and Data assetization in B2B firms. These will launch our three new research themes: Future of Healthcare; Cities; Work & Business. Find more info here: www.findaphd.com/phds/latest/...

Latest University of Sheffield, Management School PhD Projects, Programmes & Scholarships PhD Projects, Programmes & Scholarships - 8 May 2026

FindAPhD. Search Funded PhD Projects, Programmes & Scholarships at University of Sheffield, Management School.

findaphd.com

I’m thrilled that the Guardian Saturday magazine has excerpted one of my favourite chapters from THE ASSET CLASS this weekend: www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

The great care home cash grab: how private equity turned vulnerable elderly people into human ATMs

When did care homes come to be seen as recession-proof investments? And who pays the price?

theguardian.com

"Finance, paranoïa et radicalisation de la valeur" - Fabian Muniesa - Multitudes - 101 - 2026 shs.cairn.info/tap-1e50d8y7...

I made a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users - see if you can find yourself! bluesky-map.theo.io I've seen some similar projects, but IMO this seems to better capture some of the fine-grained detail

Bluesky Map

Interactive map of 3.4 million Bluesky users, visualised by their follower pattern.

bluesky-map.theo.io

'Debt & Disruption: South East Water's creaking infrastructure & finances'. With background analysis and comment from me, in this @financialtimes.com article on South East Water www.ft.com/content/534a...

Debt and disruption: South East Water’s creaking infrastructure and finances

Under-fire utility paid almost as much in interest and dividends as it invested in the network in past 15 years

ft.com

An incredible effort from @danieldylanwray.bsky.social on this. 150+ interviews, covering nearly 70 years, this is THE book on one of THE great cities for music. Very proud to be Dan's publisher 👊 #SHEFFIELD

White Rabbit Books@whiterabbitbks.bsky.social · 9mo ago

This - finally - is the definitive musical history Sheffield so richly deserves. GROOVY, LAIDBACK AND NASTY is @danieldylanwray.bsky.social's authoritative and hugely entertaining story of the city, told through its independent artists, scenes and spirit. Coming May 2026 geni.us/GroovyLaidba...

I've spoken with policyholders who are fearing life-changing losses. www.bloomberg.com/features/202...

When Wall Street’s Insurance Playbook Goes Wrong

Almost a decade after a private equity firm began reshaping a struggling life insurer, authorities are grappling with a $2.2 billion shortfall. Policyholders fear life-changing losses.

bloomberg.com

OBR to downgrade UK productivity. UK at or near bottom of the OECD investment league for 30 yrs. Problem: City has short term horizons, direct state investment neutered. China invests 40.4% of GDP in productive assets, India 30.5%, UK 18.2%, OECD average 23%. Must abandon neoliberal constraints.

OBR productivity forecast may add £20bn to Budget hole

The OBR is understood to have downgraded the UK's productivity level in early Budget forecasts

bbc.co.uk

“That’s the biggest misunderstanding in this country of the housing crisis. That it’s a crisis reserved for the poorest people in insecure jobs…” @drabioconnor.bsky.social talks to BBC Panorama’s Anita Rani as part of their investigation into the UK housing crisis. www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

Panorama - The Race to Build 1.5 Million Homes

The government’s made a very big promise: to build 1.5 million new homes in England by 2029. Anita Rani and Justin Rowlatt travel the length of the country to find out if it can be done.

bbc.co.uk

B&M finance chief quits over £7m accounting error. Its Audit & Risk Committee oversees effectiveness of internal control, internal/external audit. External auditors KPMG collected £1m in 2024/25. £7m is a big sum to miss. What else is flawed in B&M governance?

B&M shares plunge as finance chief quits over ‘embarrassing’ accounting error

The discount retailer said the issue has been resolved but will have a financial impact

independent.co.uk

A big welcome to @drabioconnor.bsky.social who has joined CRAFiC as a @leverhulme.ac.uk Early Career Fellow. Her project is titled: ‘Following urban assetisation: a comparative theory of local state restructuring’ - I'm really looking forward to the findings... sheffield.ac.uk/management/p...

My column in tomorrow's paper:

Starmer and Badenoch are handling the far-right march all wrong

A look back to the days of Enoch Powell suggests a better model

ft.com

Scrapping of audit watchdog for English councils ‘led to soaring costs and chaos’. Valuable report from @adamleaver.bsky.social & colleagues at the Audit Reform Lab www.theguardian.com/business/202... (Full report here auditreformlab.group.shef.ac.uk/administrati...)

Scrapping of audit watchdog for English councils ‘led to soaring costs and chaos’

High critical report finds that instead of promised annual saving of £100m, fees have rocketed amid financial crisis

theguardian.com

My column for Real Britain | The Mirror ➡️Brum bin workers are being told to take up to £8,000 worth of pay cuts or face #FireAndRehire while councillors' allowances increase and government commissioners – brought in to control the council – earn an eyewatering £1,200 a day.

Successfully co-organized a 2-day workshop on the theme of Valuation, Space & Power this week, bringing together a brilliant group of scholars in Sheffield. Thank you to all the participants and fellow organizers @callumny.bsky.social @richmgoulding.bsky.social @adamleaver.bsky.social & Dan Tischer!

This week, I was in Sheffield for the WS on @valspacepower.bsky.social. Met many ECRs interested in how economic value is constructed, where it is located, and who captures it. Thanks to Callum Ward, @adamleaver.bsky.social, @richmgoulding.bsky.social and @eyeofraf.bsky.social for the organisation!

Rafaella Lima @eyeofraf.bsky.social kicking us off by explaining how our workshop came about through a shared interest in value, calculation, critical accounting and economic geography

This was such a fun and stimulating workshop. Thank you to the whole organisational team and all the presenters - I learnt lots and enjoyed my trip to Sheffield 🙏

@valspacepower.bsky.social · last yr.

After lunch, Sarah Hall @drsarahhall.bsky.social in our final plenary is arguing for the need to take borders seriously as a missing analytical category in the spatialisation of finance

Thames Water on collision course with govt over exec bonuses. TW with £21bn debt, history of abuses & criminal convictions insists that it will pay bonuses, now calls them “retention payments”. Govt must cancel it's licence, let it go bankrupt, prosecute execs, nationalise. archive.ph/FpLe0

Thames Water on collision course with government over bonuses

Utility claims new legislation to block bonuses will not capture ‘retention payments’

ft.com

Agree people don’t know what councils do etc. But I also think the public is reasonable enough to question why the local area looks dirty/declining etc while council tax bills have gone up and up and up and up and up. Politically it’s therefore currently ripe for undeliverable promises

👍🤟👌👊

Finance and Society@finandsoc.bsky.social · 2y ago

We are delighted to announce that our conference this year will take place at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark, September 11-12. Keynotes speakers have been confirmed (Christian Borch, Fabian Muniesa, Vanessa Ogle) and the call for papers is now open! financeandsocietynetwork.org/finandsoc-co...

An exciting new opportunity for ECRs - a call for papers is out now for our 'Valuation, Space & Power' workshop (see below)

Urban Institute@theurbaninstitute.bsky.social · last yr.

Call for Papers: Valuation, Space and Power ECR workshop www.sheffield.ac.uk/urban-instit...

Congratulations to @savannahcox.bsky.social on this fascinating new paper on 'infrastructural time', and how resilience measures are shaped by earlier investments....

Savannah Cox@savannahcox.bsky.social · last yr.

First paper from a new project on the politics of energy crises and transitions in South Africa is out! I use the analytic of infrastructural time to make sense of (1) how such crises emerge and(2) the specific formations of "resilience" developed in response. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Real household disposable incomes (RHDI) is forecast to rise by just £1,200 over the course of the 2020s. That's less than it grew over the course of the 2010s,when it rose by £2,900.