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Benjamin Braun Profile picture
Benjamin Braun
@BJMbraun
Political economist @ LSE | Finance, central banking & more | benbraun on the blue site
2 subscribers
Mar 25, 2024 • 10 tweets • 6 min read
The @economyandspace theme issue I've been editing with Brett Christophers is out: 'Taking stock [sorry couldn't help it] of asset manager capitalism'. Open access!

It's been a privilege working with these scholars – we're *very* happy with the result! A 🧵 on the contributions. Image Brett and I have tried to condense our combined thoughts into 10 introductory pages: What is asset manager capitalism, who are the actors, what are their business models, and what the sources (and limits) of their power? A 'very short introduction'.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11…
Image
Jan 20, 2023 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Man muss etwas weiter ausholen, um die polit-ökonomischen Konsequenzen der Aktienrente zu erfassen – für das Machtgefüge zwischen Kapital und Arbeit, und für die Finanzialisierung der Grundlagen für ein gutes Leben im Alter. Das mache ich hier. Mini-🧵
jacobin.de/artikel/aktien… Rentenfinanzierung ist nicht nur Rentenpolitik, sondern die politische Stellschraube schlechthin, um das Ausmaß der Finanzialisierung zu steuern.

Ein Blick ins Ausland hilft, die Rolle der Kapitaldeckung als Treiber der Finanzialiserung zu verstehen: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10…
Dec 17, 2022 • 8 tweets • 5 min read
Starke Recherche über einen heftigen Fall von #MeTooScience. Die @UniCologne sieht extrem schlecht aus, die Argumentation ihrer Justiziarin bei der "Vernehmung" ist ein Skandal.

Hoffentlich bald ohne Paywall, @derspiegel? Bis dahin, das wichtigste im 🧵.
spiegel.de/panorama/bildu… Image Erste Beschwerde 2019. Bis heute kein Resultat. Dabei gibt es sogar Chat-Protokolle (s.u.). ImageImage
Oct 18, 2022 • 14 tweets • 10 min read
Are asset managers powerful? I'm excited that my attempt at an answer is now published (open access).

Summary:
1) Exit-based power is down
2) Control-based power is up
3) ...but also more visible: AM power is constrained by politics.

More in 🧵
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00… We theorize the structural power of finance as being based on exit. But the primary function of finance has been shifting from financing to asset management, which reduces exit options.
-> Financialization and rising financial-sector power are *not* two sides of the same coin. /2
Feb 14, 2022 • 7 tweets • 8 min read
Thank you, @adam_tooze! Couldn't have wished for a more cracking summary of my thoughts on asset manager capitalism. I'll take the opportunity for a brief 🧵on recent work on the topic by stars such as @adribuller, @MadisonECondon, @franziscooi, @lenorepalladino & @NataschaZwan. Someone who knows everything about index funds, ESG, and climate is @adribuller. Her recent @DissentMag piece on private climate finance is excellent and has links to her other work. Incredibly, Adrienne is writing two (2) books, both scheduled for 2022. dissentmagazine.org/article/the-li…
Dec 8, 2021 • 8 tweets • 4 min read
China will prohibit its firms from using variable interest entities (VIEs) in offshore jurisdictions. What, you ask.

@m_maggiori et al have done incredible work showing the giant impact of VIEs on bilateral investment positions. Quick IPE data explainer.
academic.oup.com/qje/article-ab… FT visual on VIEs. To deal with this, Coppola et al. match "the universe of traded securities issued by firms in tax havens with their issuer’s ultimate parent" to restate bilateral investment positions.

The issue: So far, data on bilateral positions has been residency-based.
Dec 6, 2021 • 11 tweets • 9 min read
For New Labor Forum I wrote about what’s wrong with funded pensions. It's a crucial question for many countries, and yet the debate is often confused.

I focus on one issue: Pension funds are financialization machines.

Open-access link & a short 🧵
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/10… Image Some context: The dream of wielding labor’s capital in the interest of workers is old, see Barber/Rifkin 1978.

And it's true that capital stewardship has often delivered results for US workers, see @DavidWebber's excellent Labor’s Last Best Weapon.
hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?is… ImageImage
Apr 29, 2021 • 12 tweets • 6 min read
Draghi’s Recovery Plan for Italy mentions productivity and competitiveness 50 times. What is it – Keynesian investment program or good old structural reform?

Both! To see why, let’s take a *little* step back: Draghi’s 1976 PhD dissertation at MIT. Bear with me. 1/n Image Draghi’s thesis fully articulates the theory that came to bring us structural reforms: A planner opting for short-run stimulus will never reach the optimal long-run path. By contrast, enforcing optimum long-run policies today will *not* have negative short-run consequences. 2/ ImageImage
Jun 23, 2020 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
What is asset manager capitalism? (How) does index fund dominance change the political economy of corporate governance?

This has taken me forever. It's a first working paper, focused on the United States. Brief summary below. 1/
osf.io/preprints/soca… ImageImageImage The #CorpGov literature remains in thrall to what I call the Berle-Means-Jensen-Meckling ontology: Shareholders, while dispersed and weak, are the owners and principals of the corporation.

The rise of asset managers has pulled the empirical rug from under the BM-JM ontology. 2/ Image