#FollowTheMoney 𧔠40/n havenât added anything here in a while - but this needs to be posted!
Trumpâs victory adds record $64bn to wealth of richest top 10
Share surge increases Elon Muskâs fortune by $26bn in a day as Jeff Bezos, Sergey Brin and Bill Gates also benefit
#FollowTheMoney 𧔠41/n Ok so the reason for the long pause in this 𧔠was being made rdundant in July, by my lovely (not) employer of 13 years, Goldsmiths University. You can read all about it in this long #AcademicVenting đ§”, tracing the whole sorry saga from first rumblings in Nov â23 to the bitter end. But of course, #redundancy is all about money, and I think about money all the time now (I have to), so really should write it about it all here a bit
Half thinking of starting an #AcademicVenting hashtag here, about the dire, dire state of UK (global?) higher education. Sharing nuggets of senior management decisions, neoliberal language, and overall slow collapse. Wonât work of course because most of us canât risk honesty, but honestly: the everyday reality of what is happening deserves recording in all its depressing and damning detail. #Universities #AcademicChatter #neoliberalism
#FollowTheMoney 𧔠43/n Now of course Elon Musk - having made 2/3 of Twitter staff redundant - has been hired by Trump to head the new âEfficiency Departmentâ. i find this prospect alone deeply, deeply scary - both in terms of public services disappearing and the 1000s who will lose their jobs. As you all know: there is absolutely nothing âefficientâ about these kinds of cuts whatsoever. They are deeply destructive, nothing else.
#FollowTheMoney 𧔠44/n but also: #Redundancy has made me think deeply (of course!) about the role of money in personal decision making. I may be wrong but it feels like this is something we donât talk about much, and yet it is is so central to everything! I DO want to talk about it, even if I have nothing insightful to say actually. Just a few observations.
1. Money was at core of my decisions around redundancy. I have two teenage children and a high mortgage.
#FollowTheMoney 𧔠45/n
I could not go for lovely 0.5 offered, or for tribunal; I had to opt for enhanced redundancy. If had chosen tribunal route i would have probably been able to keep my job as the 12 who did (who were able to do so due to different financial circumstances) were all reinstalled in an even lovelier deal btw management and union. (The 64 of us eho accepted enhanced redundancy by deadline did not know this would happen).
#FollowTheMoney 𧔠46/n
2. Money is now also so core to all my decision-making in how to spend my time, what jobs to go for - and balancing the need for money with wanting to do good, environmental work, and things I enjoy and am good at. It is quite strange, I gave a lecture at SOAS in Feb this year on âDoing Work You Believe in and be paid for itâ, on the very day the Goldsmiths mass redundancies were announced (will see if I can upload recording here)
#FollowTheMoney 𧔠47/n
This was a combination of two papers: one on unpaid Eastbourne climate activism, one on sustainability professionals in the palm oil sector. It is very strange that I gave that lecture and wrote that paper - this is me now! I am out here in the wilderness, having to make a living, and yes, doing consultancy work. Which, of course, as I am rapidly learning, does not have to mean âselling out â - my current work for the RSPB is really rewarding.
https://journals.librarypublishing.arizona.edu/jpe/article/id/4717/
#FollowTheMoney 𧔠48/n here also a link to the other paper on Eastbourne climate activism, iâve shared it before but doing so again as it has a brief section on what kind of work is rewarded by high salaries, and what isnât. I still feel this is an incredibly important topic and not really talked about enough in #ClimateAction circles. Maybe we can talk about it more together here?
In July 2019, Eastbourne Borough Council declared a climate emergency and committed to making Eastbourne carbon neutral by 2030. In order to achieve this, citizens together with Council created a unique model of council-citizen collaborative climate governance, the Eastbourne Eco Action Network (EAN). EANâs main strategy has been the setting up of targeted working groups, each bringing together Councillors, engaged citizens and providers, and each tackling a specific area of climate action through a combination of infrastructure, institutional and behavioural changes. As an environmental anthropologist living in Eastbourne, I was involved in this process right from the beginning, having had my own âecophanyââthe realisation that the climate emergency required urgent actionâin February 2019. Two years and one pandemic later, in this paper I reflect on the overall experiences and challenges of EANâs and Eastbourne Borough Councilâs work towards town-wide carbon neutrality to date, discussing possible factors (structural and other) determining varying successes and failures. At the same time, this paper provides an auto-ethnographic account of what âengaged anthropologyâ means in practice, mapping out the real contributions anthropologists can and should make in local climate action, but also reflecting on challenges encountered along the way.
#FollowTheMoney 𧔠50/n Today adding this excellent video by @RichardJMurphy on how âthe Cityâ is not our âJewel in the Crownâ, as Rachel Reeves put it, but a parasite extracting huge amounts of money for self-enrichment. It does not add any value to the economy.
So important to see the City for what it is.
#FollowTheMoney 𧔠51/n Richardâs video has spurred me on to do a few posts now on #PrivateEquity. Long overdue here, because private equity is at the heart of how our world works!
(Just to state again: i am not an expert, just someone who is trying to make sense of our world by #FollowingTheMoney, in an eclectic đ§”)
To start with basics: what is private equity? I like this clear definition by Justin Robertson
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13563460903288270
#FollowTheMoney 𧔠52/n
The amount of wealth and assets held by private equity is vast. The biggest private equity firm of all is of course #BlackRock, founded by Larry Fink in 1988. Here is a lovely Statistica chart showing how its âassets under managementâ grew from $1.31 trillion (i mean, not bad) to $10.41 trillion in 2024. Bloomberg predicts they will hit $15 trillion in a few years
https://www.statista.com/statistics/891292/assets-under-management-blackrock/
#FollowTheMoney 𧔠54/n
This article is hard to stomach for all those of us currently looking for work, and not finding anything suitable, or anything at all. But itâs good that at least rising #unemployment is recognised now.
My own #redundancy last year and subsequent struggles have made me so alert to all these wider structural changes; I am really scared that this may be just the beginning. Terrible combination of AI and money going only to the rich
#FollowTheMoney đ§”55/n
âKeri said her father had been âpowered by unconditional loveâ but he felt the government took advantage of the nearly 6 million people like him who care for a loved one, saving the taxpayer at least ÂŁ162bn a year.â
This reminded of a thought I had a while back: how salaries/wages are directly negatively correlated with love.
When you do something you love, or out of love, this is instantly punished by capitalism.
Carers, nursery workers -
David Lodge died after being found next to his father and full-time carer Peterâs body. His sister Keri believes the strain of caring and lack of government support contributed to their deaths
#FollowTheMoney đ§”56/n
- nurses, art gallery workers, conservation NGOs, academics, etc - all these jobs that people do out of love for something/one are poorly paid. Love is exploited. More love = less money.
Only love of money itself and nothing else is rewarded with money (high salaries, bonuses, etc). Maybe not surprising - what do you expect in capitalism - but not much honesty about it. All that neoliberal motivational #Passion talk (âmy work is my passionâ) - exploitative bollocks.
#FollowTheMoney đ§”57/n
This LinkedIn post resonates ⊠wanted to share here just in case there are others who are in this situation too.
Also one reason I hardly ever add to this đ§”any more is that, of course, I am literally trying to #FollowTheMoney, or rather, divert some from somewhere to my bank accountđ #JobSearch #FediHire
This week, a friend told me theyâd taken a job with lower pay and a smaller title. âItâs not my dream job,â they said. âBut I need the money.â My heart ached for him. The last two years have been the hardest Iâve seen in 30 years of watching the job market. Talented people who once had their pick of opportunities are taking lower salaries/titles because they donât have any choice. This in a world thatâs full of âFind your purpose.â And âDo work that lights you up every damn day.â F**k purpose for a minute. Thereâs no shame in taking the job that feeds your family. Thereâs no shame in staying in an industry you donât love if it keeps the lights on. Some of us are just trying to get through the month. And thatâs okay. This season wonât last forever. I used to believe I had to âlove what I doâ every day. That if I wasnât perfectly aligned with my highest values, I was failing. What a load of privileged bullshit. I once seriously considered selling used knickers on eBay. It was twenty years ago and I was broke and desperate. I never went through with it but it tells you where my head was. To those of you who are between jobs, just remember you more resilient, more adaptable, more courageous than any job title can measure. And this too shall pass. | 158 comments on LinkedIn
#FollowTheMoney 𧔠58/n
I think so much about middle class-ness at the moment. More research in news this week how itâs the top 10%, those with incomes over ÂŁ36,000, who are largely responsible for CO2 emissions; but itâs even more than that; middle-class aspirations shape everything. So conscious of this now as I am so driven in finding work so as not to have to sell our (nice, middle class, highly mortgaged house). Then a friend just sent me this - must read. #ClimateDiary
#FollowTheMoney đ§”59/n
Meanwhile our lovely king..
Meanwhile also, as I am listening to the radio as I am typing this: yet another horrific attack in northern #Gaza. Another 50 killed, after yesterdayâs 80. This is our world.
#FollowTheMoney đ§”60/n
âThe wealth of the worldâs 3,000 billionaires has surged by $6.5tn (ÂŁ4.8tn) in real terms over the past decade, according to Oxfam, equivalent to 14.6% of global outputâ
Capitalism is shit.It is by the rich for the rich and destroys everything else in the process. Letâs keep saying it!
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2025/jun/26/billionaires-wealth-oxfam-report?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
#FollowTheMoney đ§”61/n
Just adding this here. A little poll I did a while back!
So, does anyone on here still believe in capitalism? #Capitalism [ ] Yes [ ] No
#FollowTheMoney đ§”62/n
A key dimension to capitalismâs destructivism is, of course, its complete intertwining with warfare. Here more than anywhere itâs crucial to #FollowTheMoney, as Craig Murray does beautifully in this piece.
Dystopia UK: Genocidal RAF Squadron Targeted by Palestine Action is Owned by a Hedge Fund
If you thought RAF jets were owned by the RAF, think again. The RAF squadron targeted for a repaint by Palestine Action due to its involvement in supplying Israelâs genocide, does not in fact belong to the RAF at all. It belongs ultimately to Polygon Global Partners LLP, a Hedge Fund. Through a chain of [âŠ]
#FollowTheMoney đ§”63/n Excellent article by Tim White on how across Europe #privateequity has been buying up significant proportions of housing and driving up rental prices. A key dynamic in growing inequality that contributes to alienation and rise of far-right.
Everything is about #Assets.
#FollowTheMoney đ§”64/n The article made me think once again about Monopoly, and how perfectly it captures what the world is like. Originally called âthe Landlord Gameâ, it was invented in 1903 by left-wing feminist Lizzie Magie who wanted to expose how rentier capitalism works through a game. She more than succeeded but - this being capitalist US - never got the credit for it. Interesting piece about it all here.
#FollowTheMoney đ§”65/n
Why is the FTSE 100 at a record high? Could it be that the markets love war, chaos, the prospect of building concentration camps and more? Is the City rubbing its hands in glee at the prospect of making profit from oppression?
Why is the FTSE 100 at a record high? https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2025/07/11/why-is-the-ftse-100-at-a-record-high/ Why is the FTSE 100 at a record high? Could it be that the markets love war, chaos, the prospect of building concentration camps and more? Is the City rubbing its hands in glee at the prospect of making profit from oppression?
#FollowTheMoney đ§”66/n Have to add this here, too. As Takei says, always follow the money!
Soencer Hakimian: I have good reason to believe that somebody knew the copper tariffs were coming and traded the news ahead of time, and made an ungodly amount of profit.
Trump announced his new 50% copper tariff at 12:58 PM yesterday.
But as my charting shows, the price of copper began spiking at 12:56 PM.
Attached: 2 images Always follow the money.
#FollowTheMoney đ§”67/n
Forgot that this post should havev been part of this thread, really! đ
Attached: 1 image Someone just said âHe who has the golden goose makes the golden ruleâ to me, and, googling this, I came across this book about the Kingdom of Id. Now as good a time as ever to share, I thought! #Trump #Golden #WizardOfId
#FollowTheMoney đ§”68/n Have been reading up a bit on Elbit Systems, the Israel military corporation that has been a key supplier in rhe genocide, that Palestina Action protested about, and that the UK government may shortly be signing a ÂŁ2billion contract wirh to train UK military. Was wondering whether UK pension funds may be investing in Elbit Systems - and yes, they are!
âgood returnsâ
#FollowTheMoney đ§”69/n I then looked up whether USS (the university oension scheme) invests in Elbit, and of course, yes, indirectly , they do
#FollowTheMoney đ§”70/n and THIS is the USS statement on this - really worth reading. #Gaza
Financialisation is so evil.
#FollowTheMoney đ§”71/n Great to see Zack Polanski use âFollow The Moneyâ as a political slogan - so it should be! (apologies for sharing an X post, tried to find the video elsewhere, failed) #ZackPolanski
#GreenParty #UKPolitics
Now this is how you announce your election victory! Finally the Green Party have good comms - and finally they have a leader whoâs totally confident using anti-elite populist rhetoric that will enthuse a far wider voter base. No more meekness!
#FollowTheMoney đ§”72/n âVice like gripâ - nice.
âIn 2025 you can still buy advantage, massively increasing your chance of getting into the most powerful roles in the country. This is grossly unfair, and a waste of talent on a huge scale. If we want a fairer country and a stronger economy, employers and policymakers must take responsibility for levelling the playing field, where privilege is no longer a passport to power.â
#FollowTheMoney đ§”73/n
American billionaires have reached $7.6 trillion of personal wealth , up $4.7 trillion (or 160%) in the less than eight years since the first Trump-GOP tax law was enacted in December 2017.
Most of that wealth increase has never been taxed and may never be under current law.
Number of billionaires grew from 551 to 905. But the top 15 - each worth over $100 billionâ have seen their wealth grow by more than 300%.
https://americansfortaxfairness.org/billionaires-7-trillion/
Total Billionaire Wealth Is Up 160% Since First Trump Tax Law; Proposed New Levy Would Finally Tax Unrealized Gains of the Wealthiest American billionaires reached a record breaking $7.6 trillion of personal wealth as of Labor Day 2025, up $4.7 trillion (or 160%) in the less than eight years since the first Trump-GOP tax law âŠ
#FollowTheMoney đ§”74/n Just finished listening to this 2part #TheDig podcast interview with Melinda Cooper about her book âCounterrevolution. Extravagance and Austerity in Public Financeâ, and really cannot recommend it enough. A really excellent, grounded and stimulating account of the neoliberal âcounterrevolutionâ as a deliberate project carried out over several decades by different political actors making fiscal choices that reshaped economy, values and politics
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-dig/id1043245989?i=1000729326228
#FollowTheMoney đ§”75/n what i particularly appreciated:
1. Disaggregating each decade - how assets became the key focus of economic over time
2. How this links to a conservative political project - the family the key unit for multiple reasons
3. How asset economics the material basis for far right populism
4. Brilliant focus on changing construction worker politics,property speculators (Trump) and homeownership - construction such a key sector in all this
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-dig/id1043245989?i=1000731213819
#FollowTheMoney đ§”76/n i have just ordered the book (Counterrevolution) - i really feel itâs so important to get a grounded understanding of how this world that we now all live in was created - and, as Melinda Cooper brings out so clearly: none of this was inevitable, it was all done, bit by bit, on purpose. This doesnât make it any easier to undo necessarily but understanding all this is surely a first, key step.
Here also Katrina Forresterâs review in the LRB
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n12/katrina-forrester/i-appreciate-depreciation
#FollowTheMoney đ§”77/n This piece really chimes with Melinda Cooperâs analysis âŹïž (74-76) and many previous posts: itâs about how asset capitalism (and AI) is hollowing out the middle class, with a small number joining the elite, the rest working increasingly on close to minimum wages. Also speaks to my own recent experiences⊠and many others too, I imagine. Especially recent graduates. The whole university>white collar job>decent salary model is crumbling.
#FollowTheMoney đ§”78/n #ZohranMamdaniâs win has to be logged here - for three reasons!
1. This 𧔠all about the #oligarchy, the way it structures our world, and Mamdani taking it on directly, talking about it, making us all #SEEtheoligarchy is just đ„
Mamdani condemns âoligarchy and authoritarianismâ in speech directly talking to Trump
#FollowTheMoney đ§”79/n
2. Melinda Cooperâs brilliant #Counterrevolution (posts 74-76 âŹïž ) describes how #NewYork was the place that the neoliberal counterrevolution began - where fiscal policies redistributing money towards the rich, assets and property (Trumpâs world!) were first tested and then taken elsewhere.
So exciting that New York is now the place where a different, socialist politicsl economy is emerging! Go New York! Let this spread everywhere from here, too!
Pauline von Hellermann
Zoidberg For President