“How do we want to live together?” Our Director Mathew Lawrence for PoliticsJOE on why public ownership is about democracy 👇

“An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted.” Mathew Lawrence for PoliticsJOE on why Arthur Miller helps explain our era of exhaustion. 👇

The problem with privatisation is that you eventually run out of endowments from the past.

“It’s like a video game. You’re hundreds of meters away, you play with the joystick, see the target, and drop [a grenade].” In interviews with +972 Magazine, Israeli soldiers admit to targeting civilians — including children — with drone strikes in Gaza. 972mag.com/drones-grenade…

All the years of Common Wealth have built to this moment.

The executive director of UNICEF:

"Mathew Lawrence, director of the Common Wealth think-tank, said transmission network owners had “habitually underinvested” in maintenance and called for a shift from an “asset sweating to an asset building” system." Privatisation is failing the public. ft.com/content/0ec7ee…

In India, most of the electrification of railway lines happened very recently. Nearly half the network was electrified between 2019 and 2023. Meanwhile, in Mathew Lawrence's words, UK prioritizes asset sweating over asset building.

New Common Wealth website just dropped common-wealth.org

"10 children per day lose one or both of their legs"

On Common Wealth's beautiful new website a US update: Rakeen Mabud is now a CW Associate Fellow. Rakeen is an esteemed economist and thinker on the political economy of everyday life. We are excited to work with her on inclusive liberalism and state reconstruction post-Trump.

Why don’t we just put all electricity cables underground? It’s a debate that’s rumbled on for decades . New blog. energynetworks.substack.com/p/why-dont-we-… 🧵⬇️

The Israeli military is targeting everything that remains to sustain human survival in Gaza.

World historical crimes

The new Chartbook just dropped! Chartbook 400: Murder not crisis - Why Israel's starvation of Gaza is exceptional in a global context. tinyurl.com/3upaa8he

Conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a group.

Free Gifts by Alyssa Battistoni is a remarkable, important work of sophisticated Marxist theory informed by spectacularly detailed analysis of our actually-existing capitalist world—and beautifully written at that. It’s about nature but also everything. Wow. Convo this fall The Dig.

Free Gifts is officially out today!!

Where does progressive economic policy go from here? By the great Alex Williams in his Common Wealth debut!

Welcome to Rip-Off Britain.   A country remade by privatisation.  Our latest project — Who Owns Britain? — explores how a radical experiment transformed our society and shapes your life. 🧵