Nick Bernards
@nickbernards.bsky.social
Critical Political Economist -- Author: A critical history of poverty finance (http://bit.ly/3pEV7Cf); Fictions of financialization (http://bit.ly/3PUWzdR) -- Reader in Global Sustainable Development, University of Warwick.
Views mine.
Views mine.
Pinned
Out now!
I've edited a special issue of New Political Economy on 'Centring exploitation in global political economy'.
Link to the intro:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Other articles (all brilliant!) and a short summary 👇
1/
I've edited a special issue of New Political Economy on 'Centring exploitation in global political economy'.
Link to the intro:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Other articles (all brilliant!) and a short summary 👇
1/
Someone, somewhere in the University of Kent’s research office, is trying to work out whether they can put together a REF impact case study out of Matt Godwin.
January 27, 2026 at 4:47 PM
Someone, somewhere in the University of Kent’s research office, is trying to work out whether they can put together a REF impact case study out of Matt Godwin.
Feels almost quaint, at this point, to be reporting things like disclosure requirements and stricter labelling rules ‘did not materially alter the sustainability of [mutual fund] portfolios’.
www.ft.com/content/7535...
www.ft.com/content/7535...
EU green rules fail to boost funds’ ESG credentials, research finds
SFDR also did not boost flows to more sustainable funds, say academics
www.ft.com
January 24, 2026 at 8:29 AM
Feels almost quaint, at this point, to be reporting things like disclosure requirements and stricter labelling rules ‘did not materially alter the sustainability of [mutual fund] portfolios’.
www.ft.com/content/7535...
www.ft.com/content/7535...
Reposted by Nick Bernards
My co-edited book with Kayhan Valadbaygi, Mode of Production and the Historiography of Capitalism, is now out with Bristol University Press.
The book reopens the mode of production debate and its historiographical stakes.
50% off in the January sale.
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/mode-of-prod...
The book reopens the mode of production debate and its historiographical stakes.
50% off in the January sale.
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/mode-of-prod...
January 23, 2026 at 2:08 PM
My co-edited book with Kayhan Valadbaygi, Mode of Production and the Historiography of Capitalism, is now out with Bristol University Press.
The book reopens the mode of production debate and its historiographical stakes.
50% off in the January sale.
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/mode-of-prod...
The book reopens the mode of production debate and its historiographical stakes.
50% off in the January sale.
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/mode-of-prod...
Reposted by Nick Bernards
while the richest person on the planet cannot shut up about satellites, we mere mortals (w. @joschabels.bsky.social) are left to study the pesky cables here down on earth in the mud (or rather on the seabed).
Check what we found out in our new open access paper in Globalizations: lnkd.in/ep4q94XK
Check what we found out in our new open access paper in Globalizations: lnkd.in/ep4q94XK
January 23, 2026 at 10:10 AM
while the richest person on the planet cannot shut up about satellites, we mere mortals (w. @joschabels.bsky.social) are left to study the pesky cables here down on earth in the mud (or rather on the seabed).
Check what we found out in our new open access paper in Globalizations: lnkd.in/ep4q94XK
Check what we found out in our new open access paper in Globalizations: lnkd.in/ep4q94XK
Reposted by Nick Bernards
📣 My new article on Iran’s latest unrest for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/ira...
Iran has witnessed another wave of unrest beginning on 28 December—the fourth major uprising since 2017. (1/5)
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/ira...
Iran has witnessed another wave of unrest beginning on 28 December—the fourth major uprising since 2017. (1/5)
Iran in Revolt | Kayhan Valadbaygi
Deep political-economic transformations are causing recurrent waves of unrest, with no long-term solution in sight.
www.phenomenalworld.org
January 22, 2026 at 1:38 PM
📣 My new article on Iran’s latest unrest for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/ira...
Iran has witnessed another wave of unrest beginning on 28 December—the fourth major uprising since 2017. (1/5)
www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/ira...
Iran has witnessed another wave of unrest beginning on 28 December—the fourth major uprising since 2017. (1/5)
Reposted by Nick Bernards
Now available for pre-order and we're open for book talks to students, workshops and conferences, organisations etc.
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
January 21, 2026 at 11:36 AM
Now available for pre-order and we're open for book talks to students, workshops and conferences, organisations etc.
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
press.princeton.edu/books/hardco...
Enough ‘now is the time of monsters’, in with ‘widespread participation in financial markets compels contradictory state action to backstop financial markets’ Gramsci.
January 20, 2026 at 1:26 PM
Enough ‘now is the time of monsters’, in with ‘widespread participation in financial markets compels contradictory state action to backstop financial markets’ Gramsci.
Out now!
I've edited a special issue of New Political Economy on 'Centring exploitation in global political economy'.
Link to the intro:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Other articles (all brilliant!) and a short summary 👇
1/
I've edited a special issue of New Political Economy on 'Centring exploitation in global political economy'.
Link to the intro:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Other articles (all brilliant!) and a short summary 👇
1/
January 20, 2026 at 10:05 AM
Out now!
I've edited a special issue of New Political Economy on 'Centring exploitation in global political economy'.
Link to the intro:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Other articles (all brilliant!) and a short summary 👇
1/
I've edited a special issue of New Political Economy on 'Centring exploitation in global political economy'.
Link to the intro:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Other articles (all brilliant!) and a short summary 👇
1/
Reposted by Nick Bernards
With the politics of monetary policy much in the news, this is a great new piece by the always excellent Jeremy Green on the hidden importance of gold supply from Apartheid South Africa to Bretton Woods and postwar international monetary stability
The extractive foundations of Bretton Woods: gold, apartheid, and the racial politics of monetary order
This article revisits gold’s role within Bretton Woods, contributing to recent efforts to develop a more global and thematically inclusive international political economy (IPE). Challenging dominan...
www.tandfonline.com
January 13, 2026 at 8:35 AM
With the politics of monetary policy much in the news, this is a great new piece by the always excellent Jeremy Green on the hidden importance of gold supply from Apartheid South Africa to Bretton Woods and postwar international monetary stability
Reposted by Nick Bernards
'we're too civilised for this banana republic behaviour' is such neocolonial language.
BERNANKE/YELLEN/GREENSPAN JOINT STATEMENT:
“.. this is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets ..”
(via @apnews.com)
“.. this is how monetary policy is made in emerging markets ..”
(via @apnews.com)
January 12, 2026 at 3:37 PM
'we're too civilised for this banana republic behaviour' is such neocolonial language.
Central bank independence and financial market reaction appear to be two more supposed liberal bulwarks against fascism which have, shockingly, failed.
January 12, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Central bank independence and financial market reaction appear to be two more supposed liberal bulwarks against fascism which have, shockingly, failed.
Hairsplitting about 'fascism' seems to me like it's more or less accomplishing the same thing as hairsplitting about 'genocide'.
www.ft.com/content/3610...
www.ft.com/content/3610...
Defining Donald Trump
The US leader is often called a fascist but he represents a different kind of political authoritarianism
www.ft.com
January 8, 2026 at 2:03 PM
Hairsplitting about 'fascism' seems to me like it's more or less accomplishing the same thing as hairsplitting about 'genocide'.
www.ft.com/content/3610...
www.ft.com/content/3610...
One telling consequence of the US intervention: Hedge funds scrambling to figure out how to buy exposure to unpaid compensation for 2007 nationalizations.
www.ft.com/content/2c04...
www.ft.com/content/2c04...
January 8, 2026 at 11:33 AM
One telling consequence of the US intervention: Hedge funds scrambling to figure out how to buy exposure to unpaid compensation for 2007 nationalizations.
www.ft.com/content/2c04...
www.ft.com/content/2c04...
Feels very likely that the ‘US oil companies claim Venezuela owes them billions in compensation for expropriation’ is a much more relevant detail than ‘Venezuela sits on massive oil reserves’.
January 8, 2026 at 10:01 AM
Feels very likely that the ‘US oil companies claim Venezuela owes them billions in compensation for expropriation’ is a much more relevant detail than ‘Venezuela sits on massive oil reserves’.
Nothing I wrote in 2024, nevermind 2025, is out yet, but this piece I mostly wrote in 2022 was published in July so there’s that:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Centring exploitation in global political economy
This article introduces a special issue on ‘Centring Exploitation in Global Political Economy'. The article and broader collection argue for wider engagement with Marxist debates about ‘exploitatio...
www.tandfonline.com
December 31, 2025 at 11:12 AM
Nothing I wrote in 2024, nevermind 2025, is out yet, but this piece I mostly wrote in 2022 was published in July so there’s that:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This is wild. At no point at the peak of structural adjustment would you have heard the IMF or WB say:
‘Turn every possible state-owned resource into an asset, every possible state-owned asset into a security, and leverage all possible state-owned funds.’
www.ft.com/content/2d9e...
‘Turn every possible state-owned resource into an asset, every possible state-owned asset into a security, and leverage all possible state-owned funds.’
www.ft.com/content/2d9e...
China’s cash-strapped local governments drive record sales of asset-backed securities
ABS issues bring in badly needed money but some assets are of uncertain quality
www.ft.com
December 29, 2025 at 3:51 PM
This is wild. At no point at the peak of structural adjustment would you have heard the IMF or WB say:
‘Turn every possible state-owned resource into an asset, every possible state-owned asset into a security, and leverage all possible state-owned funds.’
www.ft.com/content/2d9e...
‘Turn every possible state-owned resource into an asset, every possible state-owned asset into a security, and leverage all possible state-owned funds.’
www.ft.com/content/2d9e...
Reposted by Nick Bernards
Me and Mary Robertson in @ripejournal.bsky.social articulating a Marxist perspective on race, racialisation and subprime in a special issue on Raced Finance expertly co-edited by @iliasalami.bsky.social @alibhagat.bsky.social @vincentguermond.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Locating race in capitalism’s laws of motion: the case of subprime
Through a critical engagement with the racial capitalism literature, this article problematizes interpretations of the subprime crisis that foreground expropriation and the historical continuity of...
www.tandfonline.com
December 26, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Me and Mary Robertson in @ripejournal.bsky.social articulating a Marxist perspective on race, racialisation and subprime in a special issue on Raced Finance expertly co-edited by @iliasalami.bsky.social @alibhagat.bsky.social @vincentguermond.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
This is an excellent article from Ben Hetherington, a PhD student I’m very lucky to work with 👇
NEW ARTICLE 📖 Restoring former saltpans in France’s Camargue reveals tensions between climate risk, economic precarity, and differing views of nature. These conflicts have limited support for the project and challenged its framing as a nature-based solution. www.revue-mem.com/571
Situating vulnerability in relation to nature(s): the case of a saltpan restoration project in the Camargue – Mutations en Méditerranée
This article discusses the implementation of an ecosystem restoration project on formerly exploited saltpans in the Camargue, France, to interrogate human and non-human types of vulnerability. Using a...
www.revue-mem.com
December 18, 2025 at 11:10 AM
This is an excellent article from Ben Hetherington, a PhD student I’m very lucky to work with 👇
Reposted by Nick Bernards
I have a new open access article out, co-authored with @alejopedregal.bsky.social and Nemanja Lukić, called 'For an Anti-Imperialist Ecological Modernity'. The article introduces a special issue we've edited on ecomodernism and imperialism. But it does much more than that. A thread. 1/13
December 13, 2025 at 7:45 PM
I have a new open access article out, co-authored with @alejopedregal.bsky.social and Nemanja Lukić, called 'For an Anti-Imperialist Ecological Modernity'. The article introduces a special issue we've edited on ecomodernism and imperialism. But it does much more than that. A thread. 1/13
Reposted by Nick Bernards
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....
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
December 12, 2025 at 2:51 PM
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....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Along with all the obvious ways this is stupid, it’s bothering me that the guys having lunch on the steel beam in the original photo were decidedly not the ‘architects’.
It’s all very ‘bourgeois pretense of doing labour’…
It’s all very ‘bourgeois pretense of doing labour’…
December 12, 2025 at 9:01 AM
Along with all the obvious ways this is stupid, it’s bothering me that the guys having lunch on the steel beam in the original photo were decidedly not the ‘architects’.
It’s all very ‘bourgeois pretense of doing labour’…
It’s all very ‘bourgeois pretense of doing labour’…
Reposted by Nick Bernards
In the 1980s, a monster was assembled in the pharmaceutical world that pitted patients' interests against those of pharmaceutical investors: the neoliberal pharma model. In PEAK PHARMA w/ @susigeiger.bsky.social, out today @academic.oup.com, we show that this monster is entering a crucial phase...
December 11, 2025 at 4:07 PM
In the 1980s, a monster was assembled in the pharmaceutical world that pitted patients' interests against those of pharmaceutical investors: the neoliberal pharma model. In PEAK PHARMA w/ @susigeiger.bsky.social, out today @academic.oup.com, we show that this monster is entering a crucial phase...
Reposted by Nick Bernards
I have a new paper out in @ripejournal.bsky.social:
From colonial economics to structural adjustment: race, neoliberal ideology, and pernicious financial inclusion
It's Open Access!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
From colonial economics to structural adjustment: race, neoliberal ideology, and pernicious financial inclusion
It's Open Access!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
From colonial economics to structural adjustment: race, neoliberal ideology, and pernicious financial inclusion
This paper brings together scholarship on the history of neoliberal thought with the emerging ‘raced finance’ research agenda. The paper makes a methodological and an empirical contribution. First,...
www.tandfonline.com
December 11, 2025 at 9:27 AM
I have a new paper out in @ripejournal.bsky.social:
From colonial economics to structural adjustment: race, neoliberal ideology, and pernicious financial inclusion
It's Open Access!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
From colonial economics to structural adjustment: race, neoliberal ideology, and pernicious financial inclusion
It's Open Access!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
It’s socialism or barbarism, and the ‘centre left’ will choose barbarism every time…
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
We must protect our borders to defend our democracies. Here's how
This is our strong message to our friends in Europe. Unless responsible governments reflect their citizens’ concerns, populists will win, say British PM Keir Starmer and Danish PM Mette Frederiksen
www.theguardian.com
December 10, 2025 at 8:06 AM
It’s socialism or barbarism, and the ‘centre left’ will choose barbarism every time…
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...