Damian Penston
@dpenston.bsky.social
Currently working on a post-GDP rights-based framework for measuring public value. #MMT #ViabilityEconomics
ORCiD: 0009-0003-8807-7335
ORCiD: 0009-0003-8807-7335
Tall, middle-aged man seeking collaborator for light applied econometrics.
Interests include revenue stability, distributional outcomes, sectoral behaviour (vacancy, market power), and policy falsification. No drama - R or Python. Must be comfortable with regressions and bad-ass ideas. No romance.
Interests include revenue stability, distributional outcomes, sectoral behaviour (vacancy, market power), and policy falsification. No drama - R or Python. Must be comfortable with regressions and bad-ass ideas. No romance.
January 27, 2026 at 12:00 AM
Tall, middle-aged man seeking collaborator for light applied econometrics.
Interests include revenue stability, distributional outcomes, sectoral behaviour (vacancy, market power), and policy falsification. No drama - R or Python. Must be comfortable with regressions and bad-ass ideas. No romance.
Interests include revenue stability, distributional outcomes, sectoral behaviour (vacancy, market power), and policy falsification. No drama - R or Python. Must be comfortable with regressions and bad-ass ideas. No romance.
Many recurring economic failures look less like incentive problems and more like system design failures.
I tried analysing political economy the way a software engineer analyses architecture.
Architectural Patterns for Economic Systems v1.0
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
I tried analysing political economy the way a software engineer analyses architecture.
Architectural Patterns for Economic Systems v1.0
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
January 18, 2026 at 5:10 PM
Many recurring economic failures look less like incentive problems and more like system design failures.
I tried analysing political economy the way a software engineer analyses architecture.
Architectural Patterns for Economic Systems v1.0
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
I tried analysing political economy the way a software engineer analyses architecture.
Architectural Patterns for Economic Systems v1.0
doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
Ireland doesn’t have empty buildings because it lacks laws. It has them because leaving property unused is cheap, safe, and rewarded by system design.
This short article is about why vacancy taxes and enforcement fail, and what would actually fix it.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
This short article is about why vacancy taxes and enforcement fail, and what would actually fix it.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
Why Ireland’s Vacancy Policies Are Designed to Fail
Vacancy is Rewarded, Not Prevented
open.substack.com
January 16, 2026 at 3:58 PM
Ireland doesn’t have empty buildings because it lacks laws. It has them because leaving property unused is cheap, safe, and rewarded by system design.
This short article is about why vacancy taxes and enforcement fail, and what would actually fix it.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
This short article is about why vacancy taxes and enforcement fail, and what would actually fix it.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
Economists need to be trained on trauma informed systems theory if our species is to have a chance of surviving.
January 15, 2026 at 1:18 PM
Economists need to be trained on trauma informed systems theory if our species is to have a chance of surviving.
Ireland is facing climate fines, but that is not really the story. This is about a political choice to delay investment in transport and energy, and why that delay is now being priced.
Read the post: open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
Read the post: open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
The Cost of a Missed Climate Opportunity
How delaying investment turned climate obligations into a bill
open.substack.com
January 11, 2026 at 12:32 AM
Ireland is facing climate fines, but that is not really the story. This is about a political choice to delay investment in transport and energy, and why that delay is now being priced.
Read the post: open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
Read the post: open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
Closing the door on sick leave doesn’t remove the cost of illness. It decides who carries it: workers, the public, and a private insurance system that profits from exclusion.
That’s not inevitability. It’s a choice.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
That’s not inevitability. It’s a choice.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
When Authority Pretends to Be Necessity
Closing the Space for Argument on Sick Leave
open.substack.com
January 6, 2026 at 11:55 AM
Closing the door on sick leave doesn’t remove the cost of illness. It decides who carries it: workers, the public, and a private insurance system that profits from exclusion.
That’s not inevitability. It’s a choice.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
That’s not inevitability. It’s a choice.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
Progressive movements are morally clear and highly organised, yet their demands are repeatedly diluted or delayed.
It's not a question of values or effort, but of economic assumptions that enter strategy before demands are set, weakening movements from the inside.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
It's not a question of values or effort, but of economic assumptions that enter strategy before demands are set, weakening movements from the inside.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
Same Struggle, Different Language (Part 2)
How Progressive Movements Undermine Their Own Demands
open.substack.com
December 29, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Progressive movements are morally clear and highly organised, yet their demands are repeatedly diluted or delayed.
It's not a question of values or effort, but of economic assumptions that enter strategy before demands are set, weakening movements from the inside.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
It's not a question of values or effort, but of economic assumptions that enter strategy before demands are set, weakening movements from the inside.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
I wrote about memory, recognition, and why the far right’s version of Irish identity collapses on contact with history.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
The Inheritance the Far Right Cannot Claim
Irishness, memory, and the poverty of exclusion
open.substack.com
December 27, 2025 at 3:01 AM
I wrote about memory, recognition, and why the far right’s version of Irish identity collapses on contact with history.
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
I woke up with flu like symptoms and impaired cognition, constituting a negative health shock. In response, a minestrone scarcity constraint imposed the previous evening by the household provisioning authority was relaxed and the asset reclassified from dinner input to medical intervention.
December 23, 2025 at 10:33 AM
I woke up with flu like symptoms and impaired cognition, constituting a negative health shock. In response, a minestrone scarcity constraint imposed the previous evening by the household provisioning authority was relaxed and the asset reclassified from dinner input to medical intervention.
4:36am - this is what's kept me awake so far:
Which fiscal structures are inherently unstable?
When does inequality become system breaking rather than redistributable?
Which forms of economic power cannot be safely permitted?
How much extraction can a system tolerate before legitimacy collapses?
Which fiscal structures are inherently unstable?
When does inequality become system breaking rather than redistributable?
Which forms of economic power cannot be safely permitted?
How much extraction can a system tolerate before legitimacy collapses?
December 21, 2025 at 4:37 AM
4:36am - this is what's kept me awake so far:
Which fiscal structures are inherently unstable?
When does inequality become system breaking rather than redistributable?
Which forms of economic power cannot be safely permitted?
How much extraction can a system tolerate before legitimacy collapses?
Which fiscal structures are inherently unstable?
When does inequality become system breaking rather than redistributable?
Which forms of economic power cannot be safely permitted?
How much extraction can a system tolerate before legitimacy collapses?
Version 2.0 of Labour, Rights, and Public Value: Reconstructing Value Theory for a Just Economy is now published on Zenodo.
DOI: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
DOI: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
December 19, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Version 2.0 of Labour, Rights, and Public Value: Reconstructing Value Theory for a Just Economy is now published on Zenodo.
DOI: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
DOI: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...
My daughter's apple tart preferences have forced an exit from the crust sector: we shall liquidate low fruit capacity, ringfence the apple rich tranche, and deploy ice cream transfers to secure full utilisation of desired dessert real resources. A child-driven dessert sectoral balance adjustment.
November 19, 2025 at 1:15 PM
My daughter's apple tart preferences have forced an exit from the crust sector: we shall liquidate low fruit capacity, ringfence the apple rich tranche, and deploy ice cream transfers to secure full utilisation of desired dessert real resources. A child-driven dessert sectoral balance adjustment.
Progressives share the same goals, but those who can diagnose the system’s failures and those who can mobilise people to change it aren’t collaborating. The result is weaker strategy for them and poorer outcomes for everyone.
This is the first of two articles: open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
This is the first of two articles: open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
Same Struggle, Different Language (Part 1)
Why Progressives Talk Past Each Other
open.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Progressives share the same goals, but those who can diagnose the system’s failures and those who can mobilise people to change it aren’t collaborating. The result is weaker strategy for them and poorer outcomes for everyone.
This is the first of two articles: open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
This is the first of two articles: open.substack.com/pub/damianpe...
Leadership development is now a $366 billion industry that still hasn’t agreed on a definition of what leadership is. I suspect that’s the point.
Here’s the answer, free of charge: steemit.com/leadership/@...
Here’s the answer, free of charge: steemit.com/leadership/@...
What is Leadership? — Steemit
Yes, I know. It’s been eight years since I wrote What Makes a Leader? and promised a follow-up post. Somewhere out… by penston
steemit.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Leadership development is now a $366 billion industry that still hasn’t agreed on a definition of what leadership is. I suspect that’s the point.
Here’s the answer, free of charge: steemit.com/leadership/@...
Here’s the answer, free of charge: steemit.com/leadership/@...
(1/6) In quantum physics, radical pairs are particles whose behaviour is linked. Change one, and the other responds. The same is true in economics: every credit depends on a matching debt, and every surplus on a matching deficit. Nothing moves alone.
November 9, 2025 at 4:45 AM
(1/6) In quantum physics, radical pairs are particles whose behaviour is linked. Change one, and the other responds. The same is true in economics: every credit depends on a matching debt, and every surplus on a matching deficit. Nothing moves alone.
In electronics, reliability = mean time between failures (MTBF).
For my post-GDP paper, I think I'll say legitimacy resilience = mean time between institutional failures (corruption, policy breakdowns, judicial breaches).
For my post-GDP paper, I think I'll say legitimacy resilience = mean time between institutional failures (corruption, policy breakdowns, judicial breaches).
October 17, 2025 at 11:18 AM
In electronics, reliability = mean time between failures (MTBF).
For my post-GDP paper, I think I'll say legitimacy resilience = mean time between institutional failures (corruption, policy breakdowns, judicial breaches).
For my post-GDP paper, I think I'll say legitimacy resilience = mean time between institutional failures (corruption, policy breakdowns, judicial breaches).
I just joined the global call to #DrawTheLine — for peace, climate justice, and a world beyond fossil fuels. Be part of the actions this September: drawtheline.world?utm_source=b...
Home | Draw The Line - For life, for people, for the planet.
Join us this September to draw the line against injustice, pollution, and violence; for a future of peace, clean energy, and fairness.
drawtheline.world
August 22, 2025 at 9:51 PM
I just joined the global call to #DrawTheLine — for peace, climate justice, and a world beyond fossil fuels. Be part of the actions this September: drawtheline.world?utm_source=b...
They deregulated the banks, then the banks regulated you.
Access to credit was framed as freedom, but when every option is a loan, you're selling your future to the money markets.
See my latest in Sufficiency and Wellbeing.
@degrowth.bsky.social @debtcollective.bsky.social @annpettifor.bsky.social
Access to credit was framed as freedom, but when every option is a loan, you're selling your future to the money markets.
See my latest in Sufficiency and Wellbeing.
@degrowth.bsky.social @debtcollective.bsky.social @annpettifor.bsky.social
They deregulated banks, then banks regulated you
When I was a teenager, I saw a bank advertisement that never left me.
www.sufficiencywellbeing.com
July 28, 2025 at 7:14 PM
They deregulated the banks, then the banks regulated you.
Access to credit was framed as freedom, but when every option is a loan, you're selling your future to the money markets.
See my latest in Sufficiency and Wellbeing.
@degrowth.bsky.social @debtcollective.bsky.social @annpettifor.bsky.social
Access to credit was framed as freedom, but when every option is a loan, you're selling your future to the money markets.
See my latest in Sufficiency and Wellbeing.
@degrowth.bsky.social @debtcollective.bsky.social @annpettifor.bsky.social
I assume from the background of the image that their color is off-white.
At the risk of sounding judgemental, that eagle in the logo looks like it's possessed by the Devil.
At the risk of sounding judgemental, that eagle in the logo looks like it's possessed by the Devil.
they had to go with “america party” over the more natural sounding “american party” because the american party already existed and they ran george wallace for president in 1968
July 9, 2025 at 12:09 PM
I assume from the background of the image that their color is off-white.
At the risk of sounding judgemental, that eagle in the logo looks like it's possessed by the Devil.
At the risk of sounding judgemental, that eagle in the logo looks like it's possessed by the Devil.
The video shows alarmism from British right-wing media.
The EU Commission gave Ireland until July 7 to align with a 2008 framework on incitement to hatred (like Holocaust denial), not pass new ‘hate speech’ laws. Ireland already has hate-crime rules, so this is about harmonisation, not censorship.
The EU Commission gave Ireland until July 7 to align with a 2008 framework on incitement to hatred (like Holocaust denial), not pass new ‘hate speech’ laws. Ireland already has hate-crime rules, so this is about harmonisation, not censorship.
Ireland FIGHTS BACK: Will Brussels CRUSH Democracy?
YouTube video by GBNews
www.youtube.com
June 27, 2025 at 9:24 AM
The video shows alarmism from British right-wing media.
The EU Commission gave Ireland until July 7 to align with a 2008 framework on incitement to hatred (like Holocaust denial), not pass new ‘hate speech’ laws. Ireland already has hate-crime rules, so this is about harmonisation, not censorship.
The EU Commission gave Ireland until July 7 to align with a 2008 framework on incitement to hatred (like Holocaust denial), not pass new ‘hate speech’ laws. Ireland already has hate-crime rules, so this is about harmonisation, not censorship.
Iran has been bombed without congressional approval. This article examines how POTUS became untouchable and what that means for the future of war.
Will there come a point where the constitutional crisis is treated as a crisis?
#WarPowers #CollapseOfAccountability #USPolitics #Authoritarianism
Will there come a point where the constitutional crisis is treated as a crisis?
#WarPowers #CollapseOfAccountability #USPolitics #Authoritarianism
Who Can Stop the POTUS from Starting a War? At This Point, No One.
The Consequences of Decades of Turning a Blind Eye
open.substack.com
June 22, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Iran has been bombed without congressional approval. This article examines how POTUS became untouchable and what that means for the future of war.
Will there come a point where the constitutional crisis is treated as a crisis?
#WarPowers #CollapseOfAccountability #USPolitics #Authoritarianism
Will there come a point where the constitutional crisis is treated as a crisis?
#WarPowers #CollapseOfAccountability #USPolitics #Authoritarianism
1/7
If you care about justice, or inclusion, or what it means to build a society that doesn't give up on people, please take a moment to watch the video below and learn more. You may find, as I did, that what An Saol Foundation doing is something rare and deeply worth supporting.
#AnSaolFoundation
If you care about justice, or inclusion, or what it means to build a society that doesn't give up on people, please take a moment to watch the video below and learn more. You may find, as I did, that what An Saol Foundation doing is something rare and deeply worth supporting.
#AnSaolFoundation
HSE warns of risk to nursing home exit plan for under-65s
The HSE has warned that efforts to move younger people with disabilities out of nursing homes are under threat, after funding for its relocation programme fell short of what was requested
www.rte.ie
June 19, 2025 at 10:58 AM
1/7
If you care about justice, or inclusion, or what it means to build a society that doesn't give up on people, please take a moment to watch the video below and learn more. You may find, as I did, that what An Saol Foundation doing is something rare and deeply worth supporting.
#AnSaolFoundation
If you care about justice, or inclusion, or what it means to build a society that doesn't give up on people, please take a moment to watch the video below and learn more. You may find, as I did, that what An Saol Foundation doing is something rare and deeply worth supporting.
#AnSaolFoundation
We were promised freedom, but what we got was access. And access comes with an invoice.
Rent became the price of entry, rights became products.
Housing, medicine, credit, even visibility... someone owns the toll booths that count as 'access'.
#GenerationRent #EconomicJustice #CostOfLiving
Rent became the price of entry, rights became products.
Housing, medicine, credit, even visibility... someone owns the toll booths that count as 'access'.
#GenerationRent #EconomicJustice #CostOfLiving
A Price for everything, the right to nothing
Photo by Lucas Vieira dos Santos on Unsplash
substack.com
June 15, 2025 at 1:01 PM
We were promised freedom, but what we got was access. And access comes with an invoice.
Rent became the price of entry, rights became products.
Housing, medicine, credit, even visibility... someone owns the toll booths that count as 'access'.
#GenerationRent #EconomicJustice #CostOfLiving
Rent became the price of entry, rights became products.
Housing, medicine, credit, even visibility... someone owns the toll booths that count as 'access'.
#GenerationRent #EconomicJustice #CostOfLiving
The far-right in Ireland try to equate immigration with colonisation. Their mental gymnastics rely on the public forgetting our history of emmigration, our shared sense of justice, and basic common decency.
#IrishPolitics #FarRightDisinformation
#IrishPolitics #FarRightDisinformation
The War on Truth in Ireland’s Immigration Debate
Understanding the Origins of Far-Right Disinformation
damianpenston.substack.com
June 7, 2025 at 6:11 PM
The far-right in Ireland try to equate immigration with colonisation. Their mental gymnastics rely on the public forgetting our history of emmigration, our shared sense of justice, and basic common decency.
#IrishPolitics #FarRightDisinformation
#IrishPolitics #FarRightDisinformation