Progressives' bitter unanswered question
13.01.2026 13:48
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Europe’s moral inversion on Iran is frightening but reveals much about Europe’s selective silence.
It is happening because it doesn’t fit opressor vs oppressed binary narrative.
Yugoslav socialism ≠ Soviet socialism.
After breaking with Stalin in 1948, Yugoslavia built its unique workers’ self-management and produced world-class thinkers
It collapsed because its political architecture failed, not because its institutional experiment lacked originality.
History matters.
A large part of European academia has replaced scientific inquiry with moral theater. My new essay explores how virtue has eclipsed reason, and what it means to defend integrity when empathy itself becomes heresy.
Why is there no activism, no protests in the Eest against the horrific war atrocities and genocide in Sudan?
Because the case of Sudan cannot be used as a weapon against the US and Israel. Plain and simple.
The new bigotry hides behind the language of inclusion. I wrote about how woke conformism corrodes academic freedom and integrity, and what must be done to rebuild them.
open.substack.com/pub/rokspruk...
Honored that my essay in The Jerusalem Post is now published.
I wrote it at a moment when silence was no longer an option. This is not only about Israel, but about the values that hold our civilization together: life, truth, and moral courage.
www.jpost.com/opinion/arti...
I’m deeply astonished to see how low segments of Italian youth have sunk in espousing antisemitism. This isn’t just ignorance or protest run amok. It’s a moral collapse. We must call it out: hatred has no place in civil society, and silence is complicity
blogs.timesofisrael.com/an-iranian-i...
Happy to share that my new paper with Chiara Focacci and Mitja Kovac “The Missing Window of Opportunity and Quasi-Experimental Effects of Institutional Integration: Evidence from Ukraine” is now published in Review of Law & Economics
www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
Delighted to see our new paper with Nuno Garoupa on revolutions, structural breaks and the long-term economic and institutional consequences of the 1979 Iranian Revolution published in Constitutional Political Economy.
Public funds to Italian firms in disadvantaged areas (ex. Law 488/92) permanently increased employment, but allocation matters: Firms selected by objective rules create more jobs per € than those favored by local politicians. buff.ly/jcc6d6U
Fun read for sociologists: Apparently Granovetter's "The Strength of Weak Ties," the most cited paper in sociology, was initially rejected from the American Sociological Review. The reviews are a wild slice of disciplinary history. If you're ever dealing w nasty reviews, this could be reassuring...
Our research shows the Yugoslav wars carved a 38% average drop in regional GDP per capita, with the hardest-hit areas facing permanent economic decline - capitals bounced back faster, rural areas never did. Serb–Croat ethnic tensions alone explain up to 40% of those losses. #EconHistory #Yugoslavia
If you predicted that Princeton would be leading the principled defense of independent academic institutions, good for you as a seer. (In notable contrast to Harvard, Columbia, et al.)
Great respect to Princeton leadership, starting with Prez Eisgruber.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
For a long time, I have warned that cryptocurrencies and bitcoin are the most sophisticated forms of money laundering, spearheaded by libertarian fantasies.
El Salvador’s erratic and wild experiment with cryptocurrency ended in dismal failure, and IMF bailout.
www.economist.com/finance-and-...
The long-run cost of Yugoslav socialism.
Excited to share the new paper coauthored with Nuno Garoupa and Mitja Kovac.
No country has done more for the treatment and recovery of children of Chernobyl than Cuba, providing complete medical care to over 24,000 victims.
The EU and US have long forgotten the Chernobyl tragedy, and keep accusing Cuba of being Sino-Russian puppet.
en.escambray.cu/2021/tarara-...
Prioritising investment deregulation fuelled wage compression and stagnation, raising inequality and political divides, paving the path for the rise of oligarchy-controlled information environment threatening the survival of democracy.
news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...
An excellent essay by @frankfukuyama.bsky.social on Elon Musk, Berlusconization of US politics and the decline of Western civilization
www.persuasion.community/p/elon-musk-...
Delighted and very happy that our joint research with Shai Dothan and Mitja Kovac on long-term effects of deep institutional shocks has been selected as the editor's choice of the most impactful research article in 2024 in Journal of Government and Economics.
www.sciencedirect.com/journal/jour...
#QJE Feb 2025, #6, “LinkedOut? A Field Experiment on Discrimination in Job Network Formation,” by Evsyukova (@yuliaevsyukova.bsky.social), Rusche (@felixrusche.bsky.social), and Mill (@econmill.bsky.social): doi.org/10.1093/qje/...
Based on my paper on the rise and fall of ARG, a recent discussion in a German newspaper asks whether German economy is on the same trajectory of decline as ARG in early 20th century
As I said back in 2016 in LJU, under current econ policies, the West will end up like ARG
web.de/magazine/pol...
Trump’s arguments to support the overhaul of Torrijos-Carter treaty and control the Panama Canal are flat wrong and nothing else than a badly designed disinformation campaign.
www.economist.com/the-economis...
Without any policy response, oligarch-controlled social media algorithms is likely to skew the information environment to the point where it is incompatible with the surival of liberal democracy.
Its demise is one of Musk’s and his amigos’ unstated goals
www.ft.com/content/41e8...
Some interesting thoughts from The Economist about the potential US purchase of Greenland. Two thoughts:
Economic benefits of US statehood are well-known
Territories under US administration historically (Philippines, 1898-1946) failed to benefit from US control, grew dismally and remained poor.
This is absolutely appalling. Threats to annex Greenland, unify Canada and the US and occupy the Panama Canal have been long present in the US political jargon under the "51st state" slogan.
Perhaps Denmark and Canada can make a counter-offer to annex the U.S.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024...
In 1947, Gorizia was suddenly split between ITA and SVN through border agreement.
Seventy-eight years later, the two towns unite as the first cross-national European Capital of Culture.
Creating a common future in friendship, peace and cooperation without borders.
www.bbc.com/travel/artic...
Georgia is sliding rapidly towards autocratic rule despite 80% of citizens supporting closer integration towards the EU.
Democratic backsliding orchestrated by a rich and well-organised, Kremlin-supported clique.
Elite-targeted EU-US sanctions would be helpful.
open.substack.com/pub/persuasi...
