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Phenomenal World

@phenomenalworld.bsky.social
3.4K followers 2K following 1.9K posts

Political economy and critical social sciences. Disponível em PT / disponible en ES. phenomenalworld.org phenomenalworld.org/pt-br phenomenalworld.org/es

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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 10h
"As Waymos enter more cities, it no longer seems like a far off dream: if autonomous vehicles can navigate around San Francisco, how hard can it be to drive them straight along a freeway?" Benjamin Y. Fong on the promises and perils of autonomous trucking phenomenalworld.org/analysis/has...
phenomenalworld.org
Benjamin Y. Fong | Has the Autonomous Trucking Revolution Arrived?
Startups are adamant that autonomous technology will solve the safety issues in the trucking industry, but many questions remain
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Join us for a conversation with @isabellamweber.bsky.social and @dwallacewells.bsky.social on: ANTI-FASCIST ECONOMICS Friday, October 16 at 5PM, at @RemarqueNYU Register here: bit.ly/antifascist-economics
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
"Since the majority of the nation’s contract construction spending has moved from union to non-union firms, union leaders welcome the assurance of the data centers’ long-term stable employment for their members." phenomenalworld.org/analysis/con...
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
“PROMESA has been transformative: a success by the terms set out by the board; a calamity from the perspective of most inside Puerto Rico, where social spending has been gutted and economic decision-making subordinated to an unelected coterie in Washington.” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/con...
phenomenalworld.org
Jose Atiles | Control Board Colonialism
Ten years of PROMESA in Puerto Rico
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Chris Adams @mrchrisadams.net · 12/09/2026
This article is a really good summary of how the US electricity grid came about as a prelude for outlining a few interesting policy responses to build out of massive datacentres on the grid - phenomenalworld.org/analysis/govern…
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
“The lack of reform in the global financial system amid these rolling disasters—setting off doom loops that tighten finance and investment in both rich and poor countries—makes funding recovery, let alone prevention, seem increasingly out of reach.” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/dis...
phenomenalworld.org
Mackenzie, Sahay, Arun | Polycrisis
How can Nepal and other countries facing climate catastrophe recover and rebuild amid rising borrowing costs and reduced aid?
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
“The paradox of safe assets points to a difficult question: when public debt and private leverage become unhealthily locked together, should we keep trying to make the relationship work better, or ask what it would mean to part ways?” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pri...
phenomenalworld.org
Stefano Sgambati | Private Leverage, Public Costs
How hedge fund speculation destabilized the bond market
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Jack Copley analisa os desafios que a indústria do cimento impõe à transição verde, envolvendo uma teia complexa de limites naturais, interesses capitalistas e lutas trabalhistas. phenomenalworld.org/pt-br/analis...
phenomenalworld.org
Jack Copley | A teimosia do cimento
Concorrência acirrada e crises de excesso de capacidade dificultam a descarbonização da produção de cimento.
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
“The cost of deregulation is clear in this moment of rampant load growth, which demands transmission and generation capacity. The country has surrendered what, in times of demand growth, a natural monopoly cannot do without: the ability to build ahead of need.” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/gov...
phenomenalworld.org
Grayson Flood | Governing the Grid
The data center boom has exposed decades of deferred choices about who plans and finances America’s electricity infrastructure
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
“In attempting to take on this more active management role, the options that Bessent and Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh face are constrained by the Treasury market’s entanglement with the world of leveraged speculation from which Bessent himself emerged.” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pri...
phenomenalworld.org
Stefano Sgambati | Private Leverage, Public Costs
How hedge fund speculation destabilized the bond market
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
“The buyback announcement has not ended the bond market turmoil but only exposed the underlying problem facing the Treasury: the market for the world’s benchmark safe asset requires active public management just to remain—or rather appear—orderly.” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/pri...
phenomenalworld.org
Stefano Sgambati | Private Leverage, Public Costs
How hedge fund speculation destabilized the bond market
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Brian Judge @realbrianjudge.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
terrific essay by Stefano Sgambati in @phenomenalworld.bsky.social "...a Trump administration politically aligned with private markets and alternative finance that now finds itself using the state’s fiscal capacities to manage the market for its own liabilities."
phenomenalworld.org
Stefano Sgambati | Private Leverage, Public Costs
How hedge fund speculation destabilized the bond market
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
“Without closing the hole in minimum wage coverage ripped open by rideshare companies’ exploitation of independent contracting, do new sectoral bargaining frameworks simply legitimize the business models of Uber and Lyft?” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/a-f...
phenomenalworld.org
Benjamin Y. Fong | Two Paths for Rideshare Organizing
Can rideshare drivers be successfully organized without being classified as employees?
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ASU Center for Work and Democracy @cwd-asu.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
“Can rideshare drivers be successfully organized without being classified as employees?” Ben Fong tackles this question (and more) in his new article for Labor & Logistics in @phenomenalworld.bsky.social . Check it out:
phenomenalworld.org
Benjamin Y. Fong | Two Paths for Rideshare Organizing
Can rideshare drivers be successfully organized without being classified as employees?
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
“Often framed by platform owners as offering workers self-management, gig work is best understood as an instance of fissuring—part of a broader restructuring of American labor markets towards wage competition and individual bargaining.” NEW by Benjamin Y. Fong phenomenalworld.org/analysis/a-f...
phenomenalworld.org
Benjamin Y. Fong | Two Paths for Rideshare Organizing
Can rideshare drivers be successfully organized without being classified as employees?
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Na Meridional deste mês, Fernando Rugitsky elabora críticas ao modelo econômico de Arthur Lewis, apontando evidências que contrariam sua tese de que o desenvolvimento leva à escassez de mão de obra. phenomenalworld.org/pt-br/analis...
phenomenalworld.org
Fernando Rugitsky | Contra o modelo de Lewis
A previsão de Arthur Lewis de que a acumulação de capital transformaria países abundantes em mão de obra em países com escassez de mão de obra raramente se confirmou na experiência concreta do…
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
“This window of opportunity—created by the confluence of surging load growth, inflation, and widespread distrust of utilities and Big Tech—will not stay open for long.” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/gov...
phenomenalworld.org
Grayson Flood | Governing the Grid
The data center boom has exposed decades of deferred choices about who plans and finances America’s electricity infrastructure
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
“For decades, the grid has been operated by a deregulated patchwork of rent-seeking firms with insufficient incentives to build ahead of demand. Without dramatic changes to grid planning and governance, that status quo will persist.” Grayson Flood on the grid phenomenalworld.org/analysis/gov...
phenomenalworld.org
Grayson Flood | Governing the Grid
The data center boom has exposed decades of deferred choices about who plans and finances America’s electricity infrastructure
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
An illegal war launched in the name of regional stability has achieved the opposite. It has shattered the old energy order. The American Petrostate vs the Chinese Electrostate. What will ppl choose? - US allies, global south, factories, farms, cities? phenomenalworld.org/analysis/daw...
phenomenalworld.org
Dawn of the Electric World Order | The Polycrisis
Global shockwaves from the war on Iran
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
“The story has not been one of a transition from labor abundance to scarcity, but in fact the opposite, from labor scarcity to truly unlimited supplies of labor.” This month's Meridional column: @rugitsky.bsky.social on the Lewis model of developing countries. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/aga...
phenomenalworld.org
Fernando Rugitsky | Against the Lewis Model
Does capital accumulation lead to labor scarcity or labor abundance?
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Fujimori assumiu o governo do Peru em uma fase de profunda instabilidade política e surpreendente estabilidade macroeconômica. Stephen Gruber analisa o "paradoxo peruano", apontando o papel do modelo de crescimento econômico do país na produção de seus conflitos phenomenalworld.org/pt-br/analis...
phenomenalworld.org
Stephan Gruber | O chamado paradoxo peruano
Fujimori e seu partido de direita tiveram papel central na produção do caos político peruano, ao trabalhar sistematicamente para inviabilizar o governo.
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
“Between 2011 and 2013, China used more concrete than the US did in the entire twentieth century. Demand peaked during these years, as waves of urbanization and industrialization crested, and then entered a secular decline. This left chronic cement overcapacity.” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/cem...
phenomenalworld.org
Jack Copley | Cement's Stubborn Emissions
Fierce competition and overcapacity crises are impeding efforts to decarbonize cement production
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 25/04/2025
Three new pieces on the future of the global auto industry and its workers: - Paolo Gerbaudo on BYD's globalization - CUT Bahia head Alfredo Santos interviewed on BYD's operations in Camaçari, Brazil - Jeffrey Hermanson interviewed on labor organizing in Mexico's manufacturing centers.
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
“Trump’s state capitalism infuses the immense capacities of the US state with personalistic ties, while openly advancing outright government ownership beyond what Biden ever attempted. The latter marks a watershed in the trajectory of American statecraft.” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/tru...
phenomenalworld.org
Trumpian State Capitalism | Ilias Alami & Thea Riofrancos
Critical minerals security and US economic interventionism
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
“The most recent wave of Trump tariffs on Canadian auto, which is in deficit with the US, avoided attacking Mexican industry—which does have surpluses with the US. That’s likely because Trump is looking for US companies to shift production from Canada to the US.“ phenomenalworld.org/interviews/s...
phenomenalworld.org
Superdependence - Sam Gindin
The Canadian auto industry is in a state of existential crisis, facing new US tariffs and pressures. What does this mean for organized labor?
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
“The most recent wave of Trump tariffs on Canadian auto, which is in deficit with the US, avoided attacking Mexican industry—which does have surpluses with the US. That’s likely because Trump is looking for US companies to shift production from Canada to the US.“ phenomenalworld.org/interviews/s...
phenomenalworld.org
Superdependence - Sam Gindin
The Canadian auto industry is in a state of existential crisis, facing new US tariffs and pressures. What does this mean for organized labor?
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
What is Canada going to do with US negotiations? Read @andrewelrod.bsky.social's interview with the great Sam Gindin, author of The Canadian Auto Workers (1995) and The Making of Global Capitalism (2012). Fantastic graphics by @yusufimaadkhan.com
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Jack Copley @jackcopley.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
My piece on political economy of decarbonizing cement w/ @phenomenalworld.bsky.social A 'senior industry figure I spoke to said[:] “I mean, how are you going to get somebody to lend you money for the investments required if you aren’t making any money in your core business?”' tinyurl.com/c2f9z35s
phenomenalworld.org
Jack Copley | Cement's Stubborn Emissions
Fierce competition and overcapacity crises are impeding efforts to decarbonize cement production
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
“Fierce competition and overcapacity crises have long depressed profitability in the cement industry, and are now impeding firms’ ability to shoulder the enormous costs required to decarbonize production.” @jackcopley.bsky.social on cement phenomenalworld.org/analysis/cem...
phenomenalworld.org
Jack Copley | Cement's Stubborn Emissions
Fierce competition and overcapacity crises are impeding efforts to decarbonize cement production
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
“Sanctions against the Islamic Republic emerged more or less in tandem with the revolutionary order.” As Scott Bessent declares “economic D-Day for Iran” in the @financialtimes.com, read Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi on the apparatus built to undermine the IR. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/mos...
phenomenalworld.org
Mosaic of Deterrence | Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi
Iranian resilience in the face of US-Israeli assault
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
“Carney set out to forge a domestic coalition to break the country’s dependence on the US, which currently accounts for three quarters of its export revenue.” On the first salvo in the US-Canada trade escalation, by @katemac.bsky.social & @70sbachchan.bsky.social phenomenalworld.org/analysis/con...
phenomenalworld.org
Conscious Uncoupling - Phenomenal World
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has declared a "rupture" in the liberal order. Can US allies organize themselves apart from the US?
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
“In Minskyan terms, when export winds are weak, Peru’s external accounts profile has the form of an unsustainable Ponzi scheme.” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/per...
phenomenalworld.org
Stephan Gruber | Peru's So-Called Paradox
The election of Keiko Fujimori empowers an extractive growth regime
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Pavlos Roufos @proufos.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Great text on Peru’s “paradox” by @stephangruber.bsky.social for the @phenomenalworld.bsky.social phenomenalworld.org/analysis/per...
phenomenalworld.org
Stephan Gruber | Peru's So-Called Paradox
The election of Keiko Fujimori empowers an extractive growth regime
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
“It is in South Korea that the New Cold War has most visibly upset the delicate balance between industry, security, and domestic politics.” From @thepolycrisis.bsky.social archives: a 2023 dispatch from @katemac.bsky.social and @70sbachchan.bsky.social on Korea. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/the...
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
What does that look like?"Take COBCO,a $2 billion factory for lithium-ion battery cathodes opened SW of Morocco’s port of Casablanca in June With capacity to supply 70 GWh of batteries..it will be large enough...to supply about a THIRD of EU’s market at present"
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
New @thepolycrisis.bsky.social essay: two stories of green industrial strategy in Africa—expanding electricity access by leapfrogging fossil and going straight to solar; and growing manufacturing value-added, particularly in North Africa. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/afr...
phenomenalworld.org
Kate Mackenzie & Tim Sahay | Green Strategy in Africa
On the continent’s industrial development agenda for the twenty-first century
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Benjamin Braun @benbraun.social · 15/08/2026
This is a brilliant essay on the political economy of Peru. @stephangruber.bsky.social, shows how inward FDI, central bank independence, foreign reserve accumulation, and extractive industries are connected and reliably stabilize the country’s high-inequality growth model.
phenomenalworld.org
Stephan Gruber | Peru's So-Called Paradox
The election of Keiko Fujimori empowers an extractive growth regime
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Stephan Gruber @stephangruber.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
I wrote this for @phenomenalworld.bsky.social on the politics of Peru's growth model in the wake of Fujimori's election. The "Peruvian Model" is praised for resilient macro stability amid political turmoil — but I focus on its downsides: how it blocks structural change and hollows out democracy.
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
NEW @phenomenalworld.bsky.social @katemac.bsky.social From Morocco’s leveraging trade access for battery factories to Guinea’s strong-arming China with bauxite bans for aluminum smelters, to solar manufacturing, what we call “strategic green industrial diplomacy” has become supercharged in Africa.
phenomenalworld.org
Kate Mackenzie & Tim Sahay | Green Strategy in Africa
On the continent’s industrial development agenda for the twenty-first century
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
“The contrast between political instability and macroeconomic stability is known as the Peruvian ‘paradox.’ But Peru’s democratic decline is intimately related to its economic status quo.” NEW: @stephangruber.bsky.social on Fujimori’s position in Peru’s political economy x.com/phenomenalwo...
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Phenomenal World (@phenomenalworld) on X
“The contrast between political instability and macroeconomic stability is known as the Peruvian ‘paradox.’ But Peru’s democratic decline is intimately related to its economic status quo.” @StephanGr...
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
There are 2 big stories in development happening in Africa @katemac.bsky.social (1) LEAPFROGGING: Africa is buying huge quantities of solar panels. Electricity access is accelerating growth (2) MAKING not just BUYING: some countries are capturing manufacturing phenomenalworld.org/analysis/afr...
phenomenalworld.org
Kate Mackenzie & Tim Sahay | Green Strategy in Africa
On the continent’s industrial development agenda for the twenty-first century
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
“Since the 2000s, Morocco has leveraged its location and phosphate reserves to get free trade agreements with the US, EU, and fifty others. The Kingdom would like Morocco to be to France what Mexico is to the US: an export-base ‘workbench.’” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/afr...
phenomenalworld.org
Kate Mackenzie & Tim Sahay | Green Strategy in Africa
On the continent’s industrial development agenda for the twenty-first century
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JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
I had not realized how far Morocco has come as a late industrialization success story. phenomenalworld.org/analysis/afr...
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
“With the US and China locked into asymmetric power struggles, and middle powers trying to escape from networked interdependence, most African countries have been left to fend for themselves, reliant on a mixture of luck and bargaining ability.” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/afr...
phenomenalworld.org
Kate Mackenzie & Tim Sahay | Green Strategy in Africa
On the continent’s industrial development agenda for the twenty-first century
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Jack Copley @jackcopley.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
'In the US, the only successful election at a Walmart was in 2000, to unionize ten meat cutters at a Supercenter in Jacksonville, Texas. Days later, Walmart responded ... by announcing that it was getting rid of all meat cutting in their Supercenters across the nation'.
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
“As the largest employer in North America and with annual gross profits of $171 billion, Walmart has tremendous resources with which to fight off unions. Yet, in May, Walmart workers in Mississauga won a two-year contract. It is a truly historic victory.” phenomenalworld.org/analysis/wal...
phenomenalworld.org
Benjamin Y. Fong | Walmart Concedes to the Union
North America's largest employer grants a first for its workers: an adversarially-bargained union contract
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Diante de uma nova forma de cercamento, com o capital privado avançando sobre a órbita terrestre, Fulya Apaydin analisa como o arcabouço regulatório do espaço afastou-se da missão de proteger um “patrimônio comum” e possibilitou o domínio de empresas privadas. phenomenalworld.org/pt-br/analis...
phenomenalworld.org
Cercando o espaço sideral | Fulya Apaydin
A longa marcha desregulatória estadunidense que levou a SpaceX a dominar os céus
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Albert Pinto @70sbachchan.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
"Beyond just profiting from war, asset managers, private equity and speculative capital increasingly shape what militaries buy, how fast they buy it, and on whose terms." Must read at PW from @jacktaggart.bsky.social @alfredosaadfilho.bsky.social phenomenalworld.org/analysis/def...
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
Alfredo Saad-Filho e Jack Taggart analisam o avanço de uma militarização financeirizada em meio à corrida armamentista da inteligência artificial, uma importante frente de acumulação de capital que responde ao acirramento da rivalidade imperial e o intensifica. phenomenalworld.org/pt-br/analis...
phenomenalworld.org
Dividendos de defesa | Alfredo Saad-Filho & Jack Taggart
Em junho de 2025, a BlackRock anunciou a criação de um fundo negociado em bolsa (Exchange-Traded Fund, ou ETF) voltado ao setor europeu de defesa. A iniciativa respondeu ao que Jane Sloan, chefe de…
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Phenomenal World @phenomenalworld.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Choques climáticos e disrupções geopolíticas têm evidenciado a alta vulnerabilidade do atual regime alimentar global. Fernando Rugitsky traça um panorama das origens históricas deste regime, dimensionando desafios e condições para superá-los. phenomenalworld.org/pt-br/analis...
phenomenalworld.org
Regime alimentar falido | Fernando Rugitsky
Edição de julho da Meridional, coluna mensal de Fernando Rugitsky
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