News

On February 26, 2026, sociologist Fabian Muniesa visited BESI for a talk on paradoxes of modern finance, arguing that the tension is best resolved by recognizing a fascist propensity at the heart of finance.

In a new op-ed, BESI senior research Sam Trachtman argues California needs to change how California funds public policy that serves its progressive goals.

USA Today reporter Noe Padilla references BESI's research on energy affordability in California for a report on Xavier Bacerra's new "power hour" plan.

The article, coauthored with environmental governance researcher Nicholas Goedeking, advances understanding of the mechanisms of trans-subsystem policy change, offering a model of the politics of tipping points.

Recorded at BESI on March 30, 2026, this panel conversation brings together perspectives from the political economy of food systems, the legal frameworks governing emerging biomedical technologies, and bioethics in the humanities and fiction.

BESI's Brian Judge writes about the potentially catastrophic consequences of U.S. asset markets' one-way bet on AI.

On April 9, 2026, MIT political scientist Kathy Thelen visited BESI to discuss the origins and implications of the new cloud business model powering the AI boom and how it differs from the traditional platform out of which it grew.

In this talk, Harvard political scientist Stephanie Ternullo explores the political tensions of suburbs that support liberal policies at the national level but sustain exclusionary housing and education policies at the local level.

Organized by the Berkeley Program on Finance and Democracy at BESI, the Rhodes Center at Brown, the European Institute at LSE, and the Huth Initiative at LSE, the annual Finance and Democracy Summer School program aims to weave an emerging generation of researchers into an international network that bolsters the study of finance, political economy, and democracy.

In this talk, recorded at BESI on February 23, 2026, sociologist McCarthy shows how democracy and working-class power can be strengthened by creating new deliberative forms of financial governance, focusing on the inclusion of historically excluded groups. His inspiration: ancient Athens.

On May 1, 2026, BESI hosted historian Quinn Slobodian and journalist Ben Tarnoff for a talk on their new book "Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed," which explores the machine that made the man — and the world he’s making next.

Sam Trachtman reflects on the BESI panel event he moderated back last month.