Postdoc opportunity in development studies at Cambridge. Apply! www.queens.cam.ac.uk/about-us/vac...

🚨🚨My book "Fragmented Policy Change" is forthcoming in 2026 with @universitypress.cambridge.org! 🚨 🚨 Find a preview of the cover below. You can also check out the book description here: www.cambridge.org/core/books/f... Stay tuned! 🥳

🚨🚨My book "Fragmented Policy Change" is forthcoming in 2026 with @universitypress.cambridge.org! 🚨 🚨 Find a preview of the cover below. You can also check out the book description here: www.cambridge.org/core/books/f... Stay tuned! 🥳

New paper in New Political Economy! With @ingarade.bsky.social, we study central bank strategic politicisation management in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis. Focusing on the Bank of England, we find that it devised 3 tactics to curb politicisation. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The only game in town: central bank politicisation management and macroeconomic policy discourse at the zero-lower-bound

When the 2007–2009 Global Financial Crisis erupted, Bank of England officials supported expansive fiscal and monetary remedies. However, while Quantitative Easing (QE) was further expanded over tim...

tandfonline.com

New paper in New Political Economy! With @ingarade.bsky.social, we study central bank strategic politicisation management in the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis. Focusing on the Bank of England, we find that it devised 3 tactics to curb politicisation. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

The only game in town: central bank politicisation management and macroeconomic policy discourse at the zero-lower-bound

When the 2007–2009 Global Financial Crisis erupted, Bank of England officials supported expansive fiscal and monetary remedies. However, while Quantitative Easing (QE) was further expanded over tim...

tandfonline.com

On the war in Iran, energy prices, gilt yields, and the UK government's "ironclad fiscal rules": Sadly, it seems that "setting [fiscal] rules for sunny days in the mid-2020s" was "painfully naïve" after all. 👇 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Towards a (Minority) Shareholder State? The Labour Government's Fiscal Framework

This article explores the politics of the fiscal framework launched by the Labour government in October 2024. Relative to the trajectory of fiscal frameworks in the UK since fiscal rules were first i...

onlinelibrary.wiley.com

JOB Assistant Professor of Political Theory University of Cambridge @thecambridgeschool.bsky.social www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/univers...

✍️The 2026 RA Butler Prize essay questions are now available. The RA Butler Prize is an annual essay competition in politics and international studies, open to students in Year 12 or the Lower 6th. www.polis.cam.ac.uk/about-us/pri...

If Arsenal do win the Premier League this season, they'll need to have the parade in the Cardiac Care unit because that's where everyone will be.

Did Congress forget the Fed controls inflation, or was forgetting the point? My paper in New Political Economy shows Congress engaged in strategic repoliticisation, where political conflict serves electoral interests and preserves the Fed's technocratic autonomy www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Strategic repoliticisation: inflation, blame, and the fracturing of democratic accountability in the United States

When inflation returned to the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic after decades of price stability, it created a critical test for the accountability mechanisms underpinning the system of d...

tandfonline.com

Congratulations to our PhD Francisca Valenzuela for passing her viva this Wednesday for her thesis "A comparative history of land telegraphy in nineteenth century South America." And many thanks to her examiners, Richard Noakes and Ana María Otero.

Applications are open until 17 April to our Hans Rausing Scholarship to enter an MA+PhD or PhD-only to study the history of science and/or technology from October 2026. Contact a prospective supervisor and find out more about the schemes here: tinyurl.com/mw84w7py

Chunky falls in 10 year gilt yields going a bit under the radar given all else going on. Good news for fiscal headroom. Would be different if move had been in the other direction; accusations would be levelled (mostly unfairly) at Reeves. Gilt market moves are mostly not driven by fiscal policy.

Why do #Venezuela and #Greenland matter to U.S. power? Professor Helen Thompson shares her analysis. Helen Thompson is Professor of Political Economy at @campolis.bsky.social and a Fellow at Clare College.

The Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine at @kingshistory.bsky.social is inviting applications for prospective students to pursue a PhD in the History of Science and Technology. For more information, click here: tinyurl.com/mw84w7py

People should know that foreign student fees cross-subsidise inadequate home student funding very heavily. There are no free lunches in British Higher Ed.

New book, coming soon! Duncan Bell & Douglas Mao, Utopia (Oxford UP, 2026) It's a short interdisciplinary volume in the recently launched OUP Literature and Politics series. global.oup.com/academic/pro...

"The government needs to take ownership of the Budget and use it to construct a convincing narrative. That means not blaming the OBR or HMT but explaining why tax reform is necessary, why it will be good for growth and public services and how pain will be fairly shared. www.ft.com/content/a06d...

Blaming the OBR for the Budget maths is a waste of time

The government must explain why tax reform is necessary and desirable for fiscal sustainability

ft.com

"The Tiny Desk has witnessed some pretty legendary guitar solos. Shrouded in fog, this one opens with some shred played by a puppet. Only the deeply beloved 31 Minutos could pull off such a dramatic feat, even at the Desk." youtu.be/UEqTIwRrWvA?...

This truly is an excellent article. 👇

Colm Murphy@colmpm.bsky.social · last yr.

I'm thrilled to have been published in Past & Present. Diving into the fractious politics of rich-country macroeconomics after 1973, I use the neglected case of protectionist Keynesians to rethink what happened, and why. I highlight statecraft, geopolitics, and Maier's 'territoriality'. (1/2)

"Los hombres y los pueblos sin memoria de nada sirven, ya que ellos no saben rendir culto a los hechos del pasado que tienen trascendencia y significación; por esto son incapaces de combatir y crear nada grande para el futuro". Salvador Allende, C Diputados, 1939. Allende vive.

As far as I can tell, and as you would expect, NIESR do not mention a "50bn black hole" anywhere in their report or commentary. Who is the BBC quoting here? No indication of where the phrase has come from, or what it refers to. Nor is there a link to the interview. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Rachel Reeves rejects claims of £50bn ‘black hole’ in finances

The chancellor hit back at the idea that the government faces so large a gap between spending and tax income.

bbc.co.uk

Three things to note on Gilts: i. The 30yr yield is historically quite elevated at 5.6%, the 10yr at 4.7-4.8% is a bit more normal - levels that were typical in the 2000s. What's (possibly) different is it was also normal for the economy to grow at 2.5% real, 5% nominal back then.

I have a new article out on wage-earner funds, a famous attempt at economic democracy in Sweden in the 70s & 80s. It explores the funds' defeat, emphasising the issue's stronger resonance with businesses compared to workers & the Social Democratic Party journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

How do federal and state governments drive innovation in the US? My new paper @cjres.bsky.social shows how the 'Polycentric Innovation State' with multi-level, place-based policies is reshaping regional growth in places like Michigan and Maine academic.oup.com/cjres/advanc...

The US’ Polycentric Innovation State

Abstract. This paper analyses US innovation policymaking since the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, as prevailing political economy accounts, such as the Vari

academic.oup.com

What a game. And what a legend Mo is. On and off the pitch.

Great. As ever, this actually isn't about 'Green Book reforms' but much more about 'clearly stated strategic policy objectives *as set set by ministers* that form the basis for any objective appraisal of projects'. But, granted, that's much less catchy.

Rachel Reeves to announce billions in regional spending after Treasury rule changes

Extra investment lined up for schemes such as energy projects, roads and rails outside London and south-east

theguardian.com

I had to read this several times as “prioritise growth” and “hit universities over the head” are so mutually contradictory

Margot Finn@eicathomefinn.bsky.social · last yr.

'Universities will be lucky to avoid being “completely hit over the head” in the UK government’s upcoming spending review as ministers look set to prioritise plans for growth – which could eat into core research funding – and save higher education reform for a later date.' 1/3

The Telegraph has deleted the seemingly made-up article titled “We earn £345k but soaring private school fees mean we can’t go on five holidays” featuring “Al & Alexandra Moy” from its website... but, if interested, you can access an archived version here. h/t @alanrew.bsky.social archive.is/s1GPF