Matt Polacko
@mattpolacko.bsky.social
Postdoctoral Researcher @ University of Calgary | Politics of Inequality | mattpolacko.com
The tangled financial web at the heart of Reform UK. Funded by foreign billionaires and convicted fraudsters. Unexplained gifts, donations and loans routed through opaque structures. What was promised in return? Police and parliamentary inquiries.
The tangled financial web at the heart of Reform UK
Nigel Farage’s £5m gift, the Cottrell family’s links and donations, and Richard Tice’s business dealings form part of an increasingly clear nexus of relationships
theguardian.com
(1/2) The Iran war is a redistribution machine: Big oil profits have shot up to historic highs. Our research shows that 50% of fossil fuel profits go to the richest 1% in the U.S. The rich are the ultimate beneficiaries of the war windfalls.
Imagine a media which paid as much attention to the corporate raiders ripping us all off as they do to a few thousand desperate people trying to make their home here
One of the beautiful things about Mamdani’s renewal of NYC government is that it shows how deeply business interests are usually baked into state capacity. Why should private equity, banks and real estate interests advise a mayor on what to spend?
The biggest cost Trump is imposing on us is the cost of doing nothing about three worsening crises that threaten the very survival of America and the world: climate change, AI, and widening inequality.
The Biggest Cost of Trump
It goes far beyond guns vs. butter
robertreich.substack.com
Might be helpful to read today's column in conjunction with this one, from January, as they point to the same root cause: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
At the root of all our problems stands one travesty: politicians’ surrender to the super-rich | George Monbiot
There are many excuses for failing to tax the ultra-wealthy. The truth is that governments don’t tackle the problem because they don’t want to, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
theguardian.com
Multinational corporations dodge $500bn tax by shifting profits to low/no tax jurisdictions. Stifle social development. Need a simple change - must pay tax where they actually create profit, instead of where they pretend to on paper. UK can collect extra $16.9bn a yr. Must check corporate abuse.
Countries to gain $500bn more tax a year under UN ‘pay-where-you-play’ plan - Tax Justice Network
UN tax convention commitment to scrap 100-year-old corporate tax approach will unleash new economic era without increasing taxes, experts say Countries can collect US$500 billion more in corporate tax...
taxjustice.net
ICYMI: Does a lot of today’s music sound the same? It’s not your imagination. There’s something called the “Gen Alpha melody.” #musicnews
Does a lot of today’s music sound the same? It’s not your imagination. There’s something called the “Gen Alpha melody.”
I’ve never really been able to put my finger on it, but for the last number of years, a lot of contemporary songs have sounded the same to me. Am I just getting
dlvr.it
Bombshell new report out from my investigators this morning spanning our four year investigation into Jeffrey Epstein’s financial records. This report shows exactly how Wall Street protected Epstein and enabled his sex trafficking for decades. Mega thread following with some key points:
Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, BofA Enabled Epstein, Wyden Report Says
Democrat Ron Wyden cited nonpublic documents held by the US Treasury in a report that says banks delayed reporting suspicious financial transactions and calls for tougher anti-money-laundering rules, ...
bloomberg.com
Susan Collins announcing she'll vote against a controversial nominee is basically the moment it becomes clear that nominee will be confirmed. It means Thune has enough votes to confirm, and thus, Collins gets a pass to look independent.
every election night I feel like I should apologize to all the non-Americans who have to learn the names of obscure counties on whose returns some major question of world policy swings
The questions are no longer about whether Talarico is ahead and can he win. The answers are clearly yes and yes. Even Fox News now has him over 50%. The question is whether Texas Republicans can successfully suppress enough votes to swing the election. They are taking active measures to do so now.
Bordeaux, France, has now recorded more days above 40°C in 2026 alone than during the entire 105-year period from 1920 (when observations began) to 2025. This is deeply shocking.
New from me: Until recently, the gap between comfortably-off and just-getting-started could plausibly be crossed in a decade or two of hard work. Growth in asset prices means that’s no longer true: even a lifetime of striving doesn’t offer a realistic prospect of feeling you’ve “made it”.
Super interesting. www.ft.com/content/6a35... We’ve moved from income world to wealth world
We’ve moved from income world to wealth world
Passive wealth gains increasingly matter more than earnings for one’s standing in society
ft.com
NEW - Education for Mobilization: The Effects of Knowledge about Labor History on Union Support - https://cup.org/44YYa9G - @rrahnama.bsky.social & @jonnekamphorst.bsky.social #OpenAccess
very interesting from @jburnmurdoch.ft.com - cross-over in graph on left coincides precisely with Global Financial Crisis www.ft.com/content/6a35...
Very interesting @jburnmurdoch.ft.com piece this morning - how much value AI is creating is exactly the right question. The evidence from coders here suggests it’s so far creating a lot of extra output - 290% more files, 30% more software releases - but no extra valuable outputs (app downloads)
How much value is AI really creating?
Eye-opening changes to the speed and volume of work are not always translating into genuine productivity
giftarticle.ft.com
Headline measures of wealth inequality haven't meaningfully changed since the 1980s, but it's harder to work and save your way up the ladder than it used to be. Meanwhile, inheritances are becoming ever more important. Me for this weekend's Observer: observer.co.uk/news/capital...
Does non-voting incur a partisan bias? Relying on the 2019 & 2021 Canadian Election Study, @mattpolacko.bsky.social finds non-voters have a predicted higher intention of #voting for leftist parties because young & low earners are much less likely to vote. #cdnpoli www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Partisan Bias of Non-Voters in Canada and the Consequences for Representative Democracy
Low turnout incurs greater turnout inequality and can induce partisan bias. Canada suffers from low turnout and large disparities in turnout. The close margins of recent federal elections raise que...
tandfonline.com
EU-wide taxes on wealth, crypto assets and financial transactions could raise billions for the EU budget that no individual member state could collect alone. In this Social Europe article, we summarise findings from our recent study on options for new EU revenue sources:
New post: The relationship between capital, plutocracy and populism mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2026/07/the-... Right wing populism is generally very bad for the economy and business. Yet populist governments are almost always supported by an oligarchy or plutocracy.
The relationship between capital, plutocracy and populism
In a recent post, where I discussed the Conservative party’s newfound opposition to net zero, I noted that one attraction that switch had ...
mainlymacro.blogspot.com
I wrote about how much Americans wagered on sports betting in 2025 and how it’s more than they spent on movies, art, museums and music combined. Read my article @fortunemagazine.bsky.social fortune.com/2026/07/26/g...
Gambling becomes America's favorite pastime as Americans spend more on sports bets than movies, arts, museums, and music combined | Fortune
Americans wagered $166 billion on sports last year, more than Hollywood, the music industry, books, and museums combined.
fortune.com
It’s not out for another six months or so, but *Electoral Realignment: How Brexit Reshaped British Voting Behaviour*, my book with Ed Fieldhouse, @profjanegreen.bsky.social , Geoff Evans, @jack-bailey.co.uk and @jonmellon.bsky.social, is up on the OUP website! global.oup.com/academic/pro...
NEW - The Equality Positions and Policies of Governments, 1970–2020: How Egalitarian Parties Evoke Equality While Evading Real Redistribution - https://cup.org/3TLOKfb - @alexanderhorn.bsky.social & @leoahrens.bsky.social #OpenAccess
I'm old enough to remember when polio put my friends into iron lungs. We dutifully lined up at school to get vaccinated. We eradicated the disease. We protected the common good and saved lives. What RFK Jr. is doing to public health in America is a disgrace.
I don't want a "Smart Fridge" that orders milk for me. I want a fridge that lasts 25 years and doesn't have a privacy policy that allows it to share my late-night snacking habits with my health insurance provider.
“Trump has rejected disaster aid for Democratic-run states at the highest rate in the 47-year history of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” Right now people in blue states are basically paying federal taxes as if they’re colonized territories of red states. www.politico.com/news/2026/03...
