Palma Polyak
Senior Researcher @ Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne | IPE & Geoeconomics | Trade imbalances 🚢 & EV battery value chains 🔋
palmapolyak.weebly.com/research.html
- It's MaxCPE day! 🥁 Join us for our online seminar at 15.30 for an exciting talk titled "Adaptive Political Economy: Towards a New Paradigm" by Yuen Yuen Ang of Johns Hopkins University, discussed by MPIfG's Lucio Baccaro ✉️ Drop an email to maxcpe@mpifg.de to sign up www.mpifg.de/max-cpe-work...
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- yay! congrats 🙌
- Happy Schuman Day! ✌️🇪🇺🔥
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- Maybe that’s why they were tariffed
- The first Hungarian ever to win the Premier League 🥰🏆 #YNWA
- ✨ It’s MaxCPE week! ✨ Don’t miss tomorrow’s webinar at 1pm CEST—Oddný Helgadóttir will present her co-authored paper on lay expertise in economics & @benclift.bsky.social will join us to discuss. ✉️ Drop an email to maxcpe@mpifg.de to sign up
- Such an important call by @katalincseh.bsky.social to respond to Orban’s hideous Pride ban👇 Please share it widely & write your representatives. Also: no one from the @ec.europa.eu has offered more than deep concerns so far #SeeYouAtBudapestPride 🏳️🌈 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
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- "US Treasury moron premium" 👌😍
- I've been browsing the 'Posts' tab of this pack quite a bit lately — it might come in handy. It's by no means exhaustive, but as a bonus: it's gender balanced. go.bsky.app/S87TfHvat://did:plc:7hjw3n2f7fokngvj5a43ly2k/app.bsky.graph.starterpack/3lgq67tdtjy2h
- I keep thinking about this quote from Matthew C. Klein. The US was actually a big winner from this predicament, but spectacularly failed to redistribute the gains from these wins, and let key constituencies lose out. www.ft.com/content/f057...
- Trade Wars Are Class Wars focuses more on surplus-country inequality depressing demand & fueling imbalances. But US inequality mattered too, politically: overall, the economy was booming, but manufacturing jobs & regions lost out. No one compensated the losers & this helped blow up the whole thing.
- ... and instead of directing their anger at plutocrats who won from trade but never shared the gains, Americans ended up with this mindless destruction, inflicting enormous self-harm. Even if some degree of rebalancing happens (far from guaranteed), the pie shrinks & everyone ends up poorer. Tragic.
- … and beside China, Europe has also notoriously been part of the problem, not the solution Let’s see if we can rediscover the importance of domestic demand to sustain employment
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- I don’t think he’ll be vindicated at all. Above all, he’s inflicting enormous self-harm on the US. This mindless destruction will shrink the global economy—reducing the overall size of the pie—even if some degree of rebalancing happens (which is far from guaranteed)
- Really heartwarming stuff ❤️🇪🇺 As Orbán’s Pride ban threatens us with facial recognition cameras and €500 fines for marching at Budapest Pride, MEPs are pledging to join us in the march.
- 🥹🇧🇪
- They’re saying—it doesn’t matter *why* you’re not buying enough from us (currency manipulation, tariffs, austerity, you hate us, etc), if you’re not buying enough, you get the tariff What really makes zero sense is to 1) call it tariffs, 2) put an actual tariff next to it & call it “reciprocal”
- to be fair, they do look like sneaky currency manipulators
- traders frantically google "is northern irish company stock a thing"
- I just got around to listening to this in full. You rarely hear so much wisdom in one podcast. Weirdly, it's equal parts terrifying and soothing.
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- Again: I never suggested you personally have a responsibility to organize or attend protests. I mentioned structural conditions—including a well-funded opposition party. Please don’t attribute thoughts to me that I haven’t expressed or wouldn’t hold. I’m grateful you’re making the effort to visit us
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- I never suggested you personally have a responsibility to organize or attend protests. I mentioned structural conditions—including a well-funded opposition party. Please don’t attribute thoughts to me that I haven’t expressed or wouldn’t hold. And I’m grateful you’re making the effort to visit us.
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- OK, we don’t understand then… 🙄 But we do see 500k protests in DC from time to time, the 2017 Women’s March was one of them. If there ever was a time for organizing, I think this would be it. As I said above, it’s not like there are no resources
- I think everybody understands the geographic limitations of protest organizing in the US. BUT the DEMs & civil society also have so much more resources than opposition movements in Turkey or Serbia or Hungary could ever dream of. I still think it's fair to ask why we don't see mass organizing
- Join us tomorrow for this exciting webinar! 📧 Drop an email to maxcpe@mpifg.de if you're not on our mailing list yet bsky.app/profile/mpif...
- Watching the US slide into autocracy feels eerily familiar — like re-living the early years of Orbánism (only more intense, honestly). I wrote down some reflections from that period. It won’t make you feel better. But it might make the stakes clearer. medium.com/@palma.polya...
- … very similar takeaways in this great piece by @drodrik.bsky.social www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/w...
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- … worst still: the Orban playbook is, originally, Putin’s playbook
- Hungary’s regime typology debate has raged for 15 years. Of all the labels for non-democracies that aren’t full dictatorships—hybrid regime, electoral autocracy—I’ve always backed one: mafia state. It nails the Putin-style kleptocracy at Orbánism’s core, and I agree the US is heading the same way 👇
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- …oooh you’re on to something @fabschmidt.bsky.social Getting strong ‘States versus markets’ vibes too @thunen.bsky.social
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- 👀 it’s getting interesting
- Your turn, @ec.europa.eu
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- Thank you for paving the way! ❤️
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- This whole talk about ‘expelling’ HU is unserious—why not discuss Article VII (taking away his voting rights), a viable move that would actually help without massive costs & disruption? Feels like just another way to procrastinate bsky.app/profile/palm...
- This debate feels off. Orbán would never want to leave, he'd lose relevance & his value to RU/CN. His goal is to weaken the EU from within. The EU would never 'expel' HU (whatever that means) fearing the cost to DE supply chains & integration. It took them a decade to even consider (light) sanctions
- This debate feels off. Orbán would never want to leave, he'd lose relevance & his value to RU/CN. His goal is to weaken the EU from within. The EU would never 'expel' HU (whatever that means) fearing the cost to DE supply chains & integration. It took them a decade to even consider (light) sanctions
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- Genuine question: *WHY* aren’t they fighting back? With all those levers of power and all those resources? I thought I’d seen every way an autocrat's opposition could screw up—but I’m completely baffled by what the Democrats are doing.
- Re: today's news about the German fiscal bazooka Back in 2019, I argued that DE austerity & underinvestment would only change if their external enablers disappeared. These policies were always self-harming, but buoyant US & Chinese demand kept the costs hidden. Not anymore. doi.org/10.1080/1356...
- ... that said, I never thought they’d wait until the world turned upside down to actually make a shift. www.ft.com/content/1f82...
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- But seriously... WHY aren't they fighting back? They have so much more power to push back in meaningful ways & *SO* much more resources than any of us in the HU or PL opposition movements ever did. I genuinely don't understand.
- We’re beyond thrilled to launch the 2nd Max Planck Summer School for Women in Political Economy If you’re a fellow political economist annoyed by all-male rooms & gendered comments— join us & share! 🗓️ 22-25 Sept, 2025 in Cologne 🚨 Apply by 25 Apr, 2025 www.mpifg.de/1343511/2025...
- *Call for Applications* We’re excited to announce the Second Max Planck Summer School for Women in Political Economy! Link to the conference website: www.mpifg.de/1343511/2025... Please share widely! @mpifg.bsky.social @palmapolyak.bsky.social
- This is the second instalment of our biennial summer school, proudly following the footsteps of @aritassinari.bsky.social @bjoernbremer.bsky.social & Saila Stausholm ❤️
- CfA: keeper.mpdl.mpg.de/f/e6a072a4dc... TL;DR:
- Come & join us 🤩
- Or maybe Europe is the Liverpool FC of the global economy — disappointing for 20 years, but found its way back with a little German help 🤞
- “The US turn toward Russia & away from democracy will be an existential test for the European project & Europe’s commitment to law & democracy. ... the task of stepping up to save Ukraine – & Europe – falls to Berlin” Watching the creeping Putinization of Hungary for 15 years—this resonates so much
- The best part of a great #ISA2025? Celebrating these two wonderful humans. It’s impossible to imagine what our thinking, our field & our community would be like without @thunen.bsky.social—but thankfully, we don’t have to.
- Great way to start the morning at #ISA2025! Thank you all for an excellent exchange on dollar dominance—and here’s @thunen.bsky.social pointing at buckets of cash 💸
- Excited to kick-off #ISA2025 in Chicago, presenting my work on the EU battery strategy at this superb panel on Europe & the Global Economy! Come say hi if you're around! 👋
- See you at Budapest Pride, we’ll have it anyway 🏳️🌈 www.politico.eu/article/hung...
- For the history books. (Ironically, since he hasn’t read any.)
