Basak Kus

Basak Kus

@basakkus.bsky.social

Professor of Government and Environmental Studies at Wesleyan. OUP author. SER editor. Writes about political economy, public policy, state, finance, climate, American politics. Lives in New Haven and NYC. Daydreams about Mediterranean 🐟☀️🌊 🧿 basakkus.net

2.7K followers1.1K following60 posts

Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

Super thrilled to be a part of this cohort! Thank you!

Scholars Strategy Network@scholars.org

📰 Meet the 2026–27 SSN Media Fellows! Over the next year, these 10 SSN members will work with mentors from across the network and SSN national staff to expand their media work across television, radio, print, op-eds, and social media. 👇 🔗 Meet them: scholars.org/media-fellow...

Basak Kus reposted

Albert Pinto
@70sbachchan.bsky.social

NEW: The big story is not Chinese EVs everywhere —but Chinese EV factories everywhere. And its not just Chinese firms going out. Our CM-FDI database tracks every foreign Solar, Wind, EV and battery manufacturing plant built in 21st century. cmfdi.netzeropolicylab.com

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Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

Her article examines “how and why custom was declared dead in America while also advocating for its revival.” It includes an interesting anecdote about Taylor Swift’s attempt to enclose the beach around her holiday house in Rhode Island. A must read!

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Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

Hartog’s New York case exposes that courts did not simply prohibit customary practices but rendered the claims underlying them legally unintelligible.

Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

As I was doing the final revisions, I came across a fascinating analysis by legal scholar @marciazug.bsky.social published in the Harvard Environmental Law Review: “In My Defense, I Have None”: Taylor Swift, Indian Law, and a Re-Examination of Custom’s Inapplicability in the United States.

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Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

Marx’s Prussian case reveals a direct subordination of the legislative apparatus to propertied interests. For Thompson, law is neither a neutral arbiter nor merely an instrument of ruling-class domination; it is constrained by its own claims to justice

Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

I discuss how practices long regarded as customary rights by the poor and unpropertied were reclassified as crimes and public nuisances in all three cases.

Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

This November, I’ll have the honor of hosting the 2026 Shasha Seminar on The New Global Economic Order At Wesleyan. I can’t quite believe we’ve managed to bring all these brilliant minds together. I’ll share the website and registration details soon. For now, a little teaser!

Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

And I am looking forward to working with her! @sasemeeting.bsky.social

Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI)@ibei.org

Great news! Fulya Apaydın (IBEI) has been elected to the @sasemeeting.bsky.social Executive Council for 2026-29, alongside @basakkus.bsky.social and Victor Tan Chen. Together, they will help guide the Society’s activities and shape its strategic direction for the years ahead. t.ly/wdKnw

t.lyAnnouncing the 2026 SASE Presidential and Executive Council Election Results | SASE News
Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

And here are the slides from Tim’s talk 👇

Albert Pinto@70sbachchan.bsky.social

thank you Basak! truly a terrific day and really energizing to be with all of you. Made my slides public tinyurl.com/PolycrisisWe... bsky.app/profile/did:...

Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

This isn't just about gas prices- we are looking at physical shortage with second-order consequences most people don't see yet, Tim says: no gas means no fertilizer, no sulfuric acid means no mining, no cooking gas means governments possibly shutting down restaurants to prioritize households.

Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

@70sbachchan.bsky.social: this will likely trigger a permanent regime shift. Oil and gas are no longer reliably available when needed, at bearable prices. The geopolitical conditions that once stabilized them are gone. Electrification offers a structural exit from this system.

Basak Kus reposted

Justin Wolfers
@justinwolfers.bsky.social

The reason it feels hard to get ahead right now is because it's hard to get ahead right now. Wages are barely keeping up with prices, and prices are just starting to heat up.

Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

My colleague Mitali Thakor, @70sbachchan.bsky.social, and I wrote a piece reflecting on our visit to CDMX. coexist.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2026/04/02/c... We discuss the Utopias initiative led by Mayor Brugada, Rafael Cauduro’s murals, and our convo with technology scholar Paola Ricaurte Quijano.

coexist.blogs.wesleyan.eduCDMX: Dignity and Possible Futures – coexistby Basak Kus, Tim Sahay & Mitali Thakor As part of our Bailey COE Think Tank’s ongoing work on disruption and futures that feel increasingly unpredictable, and more dystopian than hopeful, we (Basak Kus, Mitali Thakor, and Tim Sahay) headed to Mexico for a three-day excursion. The trip was short and intentionally dense. Curated by…

Basak Kus reposted

Albert Pinto
@70sbachchan.bsky.social

Replying to @70sbachchan.bsky.social

US bet: Ai, China bet: Green “In 2024, the country invested an estimated $940bn in clean-energy capex, broadly defined as renewables, electricity grids and energy storage (batteries), dwarfing its AI investments” ft.com/content/1258... Presented basically this argmnt last wk @basakkus.bsky.social

ft.comCould America win the AI race but lose the war?The US has gone all-in on artificial intelligence. But the idea of an end-of-times battle with China over tomorrow’s key technology is part delusion, part lobbying tool for Silicon Valley
Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

Intereconomics has a forum on "Frontiers of Growth" in their last issue and I have a piece in it: "rom Kuznets to Daly: Growth, Social Justice and the State in the Age of Climate Crisis." www.intereconomics.eu/contents/yea...

intereconomics.euFrom Kuznets to Daly: Growth, Social Justice and the State in the Age of Climate CrisisIntereconomics is an academic journal that publishes articles by experts on current economic and social policy issues affecting Europe.

Basak Kus reposted

Jonathan Hopkin
@jonathanhopkin.eurosky.social

It’s been 20 years and, as always happens, people have forgotten again that financial markets are inherently prone to collapse. It looks superficially different every time so we can con ourselves into believing otherwise

Erin Lockwood@erinkaylockwood.bsky.social

@profhilaryallen.bsky.social on the risky confluence of an AI bubble fueled by highly leveraged non-bank financial institutions and the integration of crypto -- an asset highly correlated with the stock market -- into traditional financial markets

project-syndicate.orgWill the AI Bubble Trigger a Financial Crisis?Hilary J. Allen explains how dashed hopes for the technology could trigger a dangerous chain reaction.

Basak Kus reposted

Nils Kupzok
@nilskupzok.bsky.social

We're now inviting proposals for the New Thinking in Industrial Policy Conference, November 6–7, 2025, at Columbia University! It is a great opportunity to present and discuss the latest research on industrial policy across the social sciences.

Eric Verhoogen@ericverhoogen.bsky.social

Call for papers! 3rd New Thinking in Industrial Policy Conference ‪at Columbia, Nov. 6-7, 2025. Submit here by Sept. 12: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F.... Conf page: cdep.sipa.columbia.edu/content/new-.... Hosts: ‪@ipdcolumbia.bsky.social‬, @cdepcolumbia.bsky.social, ‪@columbiaigp.bsky.social‬, CPE.

Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

Hello folks, we are hiring in the area of global justice (potential research areas include human rights, international inequality, migration, global health, the environment, international law, or the erosion of democracy). Here is the ad: wesleyan.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/career...

wesleyan.wd5.myworkdayjobs.comAssistant Professor of GovernmentWesleyan University Rank: Assistant Professor Subfield(s): Open Wesleyan University's Department of Government invites applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Government beginning July 1,...

Basak Kus reposted

Roosevelt Institute
@rooseveltinstitute.org

A new blog post by Director of Industrial Policy and Trade @toddntucker.com breaks down what’s really at stake from the tariff court hearing—and why the outcome could shape economic policymaking for years. Read more 📄 rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/c...

rooseveltinstitute.orgIn Constitutional Clash Between Trump and Courts on Tariffs, Risks Ahead for Progressive Policies - Roosevelt InstituteToday, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard oral arguments in two lawsuits brought against the Trump administration’s chaotic deployment of tariffs. To some observers, these cases may seem like arcane, boring trade law in a federal court that few have heard of. To others, the lawsuits represent an opportunity to resist Trump and fight his overreach on tariff hikes that are already starting to pinch consumers’ wallets. But it’s important to step back and look at some less obvious stakes in these disputes: Namely, what kind of powers do or should presidents have in the future to deal with economic emergencies?
Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

How to think about the green state? "Just as the welfare state was a political response to protect the social body from the risks and fluctuations of market-based economic systems, green states are a political response to shield against the many changes and disruptions caused by climate change...

Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

Just as welfare states can be categorized by their various functions—how much they decommodify, how much they equalize, the source of provision, and whom they primarily benefit—green states can also be conceptualized and categorized by the roles they play and how those roles are structured.

Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

We argue that "fully addressing the transformative challenges brought up by climate change requires a fundamental rethinking of core PE concepts related to the state, distributional struggles, economic growth, varieties of capitalism, and markets."

Basak Kus
@basakkus.bsky.social

Isik Ozel on climate politics in Latin America: why is it that "Chile, once a laggard, emerged as a regional leader in climate policy in the early 2020s, while Mexico, a pioneer until the early 2010s, experienced a backlash and retreated"? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

onlinelibrary.wiley.comClimate Politics in Latin America: The Cases of Chile and MexicoThis paper focuses on climate coalitions and commitments in the Global South by comparing the cases of two Latin American countries, Chile and Mexico. Chile, once a laggard, emerged as a regional lea...