Fiona Livesey

Economies are failing. Not by coincidence, but by design. If the best economics can offer is public goods or corrections to market failures, it is not surprising that good is impossible to achieve. In my new book The Common Good Economy, I argue that purpose, participation, reciprocity, shared learning, shared benefits and accountability are not additions to the economy, they are fundamental. On 23 May I'll be at @hayfestival in conversation with @zannymb, Editor-in-Chief of @TheEconomist, to discuss the book. Links in replies.

Not the final cover, but feels so good to hold a hard copy of the new book. It really is the end result of a decade and a half thinking about the impact of AI on work and society. Excited to share it soon.

Nice feature of HOW TO RULE THE WORLD in @opinion today! @parmy calls it “a gripping book published this week, offering a blow-by-blow account of [Baker’s] investigation” and “the university’s culture of excess and cronyism.”

Has anyone written more sharply about the crisis in universities, and elite culture, than intellectual historian Stefan Collini? Today we have him in the @NewStatesman reviewing @tab_delete's expose of Silicon Valley's obscene "Get Rich U" (aka Stanford) newstatesman.com/politics/educa…

LAST TICKETS: Professor Mariana Mazzucato – The Common Good Economy: A New Compass Join Professor @MazzucatoM as she presents a rigorous reimagining of economics and a manifesto for a future economy that serves people and the planet. Final tickets: howtoacademy.com/events/mariana…

Great review of HOW TO RULE THE WORLD (out today) in @thetimes! "A thrilling story of journalistic investigation: effectively, it’s All the President’s Men as a campus novel."

I fell in love with Stanford when I was seven. Fourteen years later, I’ve written a book about it — and it’s out today! HOW TO RULE THE WORLD is a story set in Silicon Valley’s training ground, where avarice and power too frequently outmatch good intentions.

“A vivid, dishy exposé of the sometimes comical, at times seemingly corrupt, efforts by tech funders to seduce undergraduates who smell like future moguls and geniuses, and vice versa.”

"One of these women who unknowingly had a child with one of these Scotland Yard agents referred to it as state rape." Investigative journalist Eric Schlosser joins @OliDugmore on The Exchange. Link in bio.

"If Baker’s portrait of Stanford could be its own movie (The Internship crossed with The Skulls), his gripping account of how a tip turned into a history-making investigation has the makings of All the President’s Men." Great review of HOW TO RULE THE WORLD in @sfchronicle:

"Something about this place was off, like Disneyland after all the rides have closed and the park is emptied for the night." Read an excerpt of HOW TO RULE THE WORLD in @VanityFair, describing the "War on Fun" — the story that began my investigation of Stanford.

Theo Baker just wanted to go to college. He ended up at the rapacious, awkward center of the world, where a rising dweebocracy is plotting to rule, a new Wall Street but in Silicon Valley, with more pimples and less eye contact. My review of @tab_delete: nytimes.com/2026/05/18/boo…

ChatGPT arrived on campus two months after we did. Now, as this graduating college class of 2026 approaches commencement, A.I. has already permanently changed how we think and behave. We were the experiment. My essay in @nytopinion Sunday Review:

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“A senior AI executive told him about ‘Iliad wrestling parties’, where guests read passages from The Iliad, strip off, and wrestle, grappling with Homer as much as with one another.” @tab_delete tells @willpavia about the peculiar habits of Silicon Valley’s elite.

HOW TO RULE THE WORLD is out Tuesday. I spoke with @willpavia for @thetimes about my debut book and what it's been like to both go to and investigate "this university in which students are a monetisable product." Link in the next tweet!

Our economic system is broken. The climate crisis is accelerating. Inequality is deepening. But what if we did things differently? For our next Downstream IRL at @EartHackney, @AaronBastani will sit down with visionary economist @MazzucatoM. They'll discuss what it means to radically reimagine the economy around the ‘common good’ and whether it’s possible - or indeed desirable - to fix capitalism. To kick the evening off, @ayocaesar will be speaking to long-serving Labour MP and former Shadow Chancellor @johnmcdonnellMP about whether Britain is ready for socialism in the next decade. Get your tickets here: novara.media/4wrrQZD

Nice mention in @FinancialTimes of my debut HOW TO RULE THE WORLD (out on Tuesday)!

Exciting new Anne Serre coming from Penguin International Writers this November