Palma Polyak

There's a global race to secure EV battery gigafactories & reduce reliance on China. But not all clean-tech projects are created equal. Some generate good jobs & domestic capacities, others produce ecological harm & low value-added enclaves. New paper & thread 👇 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Serbia’s students have won. When we interviewed them for our @democratization.bsky.social article with @pelinamus.bsky.social they told us they would stay away from opposition parties ("they are all the same") and build their own list to beat Vučić. And they just did it! 🔗 doi.org/10.1080/1351...

I'd read the leak less as a message about Orbán's relevance & more as a message to Europe & Ukraine about Trump making deals over their heads with Putin & Xi. And a middle finger to multilateralism I can't see UK & FRA going along with this (& others have even more to lose in this new-Yalta world)

Different countries, different elections. But a year that has seen Orbán, Bolsonaro and Vučić defeated (and the GOP likely routed at the midterms next week) doesn't exactly fit the narrative of a relentless rightwards shift. Good candidates, campaigns, movements can still win.

Belgrade ❤️ Orbán & Vučić ousted in the same year! Watching people reclaim a future that these men treated as their personal property is something else. What a year for democracy. www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

1/ Dan Wang’s NYT essay on TSMC's Arizona plant argues that TSMC is doing for America what Apple did for China. But the analogy rests on two assumptions and it's not clear that either one of them is holding. www.nytimes.com/2026/10/23/o...

Hungary’s 1956 revolution against Soviet oppression earned the world’s respect, only for a Moscow-aligned autocrat to squander that legacy decades later. As we commemorate the uprising today, it feels good to finally give the world reasons for hope again.

I had a brilliant time at Harvard this week! Massive thanks to Jason Beckfield for bringing me out to present at The Climate Sociology Lab and The Salata Institute! Pure fun. It was exciting to learn about the interdisciplinary place-based work many are doing here.

🔥BREAKING György Matolcsy, former central bank governor and one of Viktor Orbán’s closest allies, who also served as his economy minister, has reportedly been detained on suspicion of economic fraud causing significant financial loss and using a forged private document, telex.hu reports. 2/1

It's almost as though this was foreseeable ... iranwarcost.watson.brown.edu

terrible news of Perry Mehrling passing. RIP to a wonderful scholar & teacher who demystified the global financial crisis that wrecked a generation. He has left an oeuvre with a powerful message: Money is a hierarchy of promises & payments, anchored by central bank money sites.bu.edu/perry/lectur...

What struck me immediately in German academia was the near absence of scholars from the former GDR (something I’m attuned to, as an Eastern European). The transition shock feels under-researched, with many stories untold. On this Day of German Unity, let's also remember the work that lies ahead.

This is so tragic. In 2022, Italian environment minister Cingolani was arguing that we shouldn't go too fast on EVs because the Chinese will continue to buy combustion engine vehicles www.quattroruote.it/news/industr... In 2026, China has 50%+ BEV sales - the EU lags at 20%-27%

OK so three stories there: 1️⃣The good news : ACC is finally ratcheting up production of its made in 🇫🇷 batteries; 2️⃣The other good news: demand for EV has exploded alongside gas prices; 3️⃣The bad news: ACC is struggling to produce more than its original target, creating bottlenecks for Stellantis

Why Carbon Taxes Failed is on the road! See book talk dates below (more to come). Next week is Central European University and Copenhagen Business School! Can't wait to see some dear friends at both places <3

Finally out, with @shahinvallee.bsky.social our ambitious story for European Macro Policy Network (EMPN) on the future of the global euro empn.eu/publication/...

Booooom. www.economist.com/business/202...

🚨 New: Green industrial policy in backdrop of EU recovery funds In 2020, Covid froze Italy's economy. 🇪🇺 agreed on 🇮🇹's Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR): €194.4B, largest share of NextGenEU. The PNRR is now almost over, at last instalment. What did it actually do for climate & energy? 🔋🪡

European Commission officials arguing that a customs union is the best way for the UK to avoid 'Made in Europe' barriers. But the issue seems to be Chinese investment in UK plants, not rerouted Chinese imports. www.ft.com/content/5453...

🚨 Call for Applications: Postdocs We’re looking for postdoctoral researchers for the following research areas and topics: - Political Economy - Economic Sociology - Technology and Statehood - Wealth and Social Inequality 🗓️ Application deadline: Dec. 11 📢 Please share widely! s.gwdg.de/UzLEpr

Great. mashable.com/tech/anthrop...

Bloomberg: BYD’s overseas revenue exceeded what it made at home for the first time, illustrating why Chinese carmakers have to sell outside of China. First-half sales from overseas rose 34% to account for 53% of the total, while they shrank 31% in Greater China. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Profit share of US GDP with period averages. the profit share is a political outcome. note relative stability of postwar compromise era vs more violent, financial crisis driven swings after the 1990s. last 2 periods consistent rise so same color, but different dynamics. source: FRED.

@lionhirth.bsky.social: "Prices of batteries Makes your ears flutter My impression = most people can't imagine what a 29% learning rate means. This applies to energy industry & automotive industry as well as politics this harmless line is log scale, by the way. Prices dropped by more than 99%"

When in doubt, back to Blyth.

The jobs AI was supposed to eliminate are booming (from Richard Baldwin) rbaldwin.substack.com/p/the-jobs-a...

(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.

Chinese & German carmakers have stepped up cooperation on autonomous driving despite wider trade tensions BYD, Geely, SAIC, Xpeng, Xiaomi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, VW, Porsche met in Beijing to discuss common standards for smart cars, automated parking, cross-border data

"The exchange rate is a symptom, not the disease." 👏 www.economist.com/by-invitatio...

1/3 Yasheng Huang on China's K-shaped economy and the K-shaped focus of its policymakers: "China has a K-shaped economy — its upper micro-technology arm pointing up, toward technology, and its lower macro arm [almost everything else] pointing down." yashenghuang.substack.com/p/chinas-k-s...

Welcome to the Anthropocene 🔥

Das war kein "Angriff auf uns alle". Das war ein Angriff auf queeres Leben. Ein Leben das täglich zahlreichen Angriffen ausgesetzt ist und gegen Nazis, Islamisten und auch gegen "die Mitte" verteidigt werden muss. #CSDBerlin

Being queer means being the target of violence. Every queer person knows this. It's deeply engraved in who we are. We live with it every day of our lives. Not because of terrorism but because it is structurally enshrined in our "free" societies. Violence against queer people is not an exception ...

1/9 Sébastien Jean and Jean-Pierre Landau: "In terms of welfare, European consumers should welcome cheap electric vehicles, batteries, and solar panels that are subsidized directly or indirectly by Chinese workers and taxpayers. But Europeans instead see... www.ifri.org/en/media-ext...

Yes. This point is not sufficiently recognized in the global imbalances debate. If you think your CA deficit is excessive and caused by factors outside your borders, you should tax or otherwise discourage capital inflows. Tariffs are a very blunt tool at best. +

Pornainen, Finland (pop 5,000) is now heated by a silo of crushed soapstone. I spoke to CNBC about it. 100 MWh, charged when power is cheap, emissions down ~70%. Days to weeks of storage, no critical minerals. www.cnbc.com/2026/07/25/f...

Big week for EU digital laws: After big fines for Google and AliExpress, the commission has now found TikTok in breach of Digital Services Act for failing to ensure safe accounts for minors

Inevitable 🥰 www.nytimes.com/athletic/744...

Valencia newspaper Las Provincias reports that Pedro Sanchez will today be at a factory to announce a deal whereby Ford sells part of its Almussafes plant near the Spanish city to Geely to manufacture electric vehicles in Spain

🚨 New paper in Stato & Mercato (in English): **Climate Action and Energy Transitions: Between Opportunities and Trade-offs** Remember that, until the return of Trump, politics made a big bet that greening energy and cutting emissions are a natural win-win? Did bundling the two pay off? Short 🧵:

SCMP: “What we are seeing is strong external demand alongside weak domestic consumption, with technology and future-oriented industries powering ahead while spending on housing and everyday goods remains tepid.” sc.mp/bz2oz?utm_so...

1/ Happy to announce that my paper looking at the evolution of Romania’s growth model and macroeconomic policy regime over the past 15 years, using an import-adjusted GDP decomposition approach, has been published on the Commission’s website. Long 🧵.

🇭🇺⚖️ Sulyok does the paradox and signs the constitutional amendment that's removing him from office. He really had no choice; the Tisza majority would do him in one way or another. The coast is clear for Peter Magyar to exercise unrestrained power and demolish the house that Viktor Orbán built. 1/

Whatever happens we could have gone to bed by now but for the stupid halftime show

Istanbul, 2005, Champions League final. Liverpool are 3–0 down to AC Milan at half time. The players trudge off in despair, Benítez wrecking his head for solutions, Gerrard prepping for the team talk of his life. On the pitch: Shakira and BTS getting psyched with muppets and confetti cannons.

Muppets are great, talented kids are even greater. But halftime is when we go to the toilet, listen to 3–4 of the same 20 sentences from two retired players in a studio, and then the football starts again. I’m ready to take to the streets to defend it.