World
January 9, 2026
AnalysisEnforcement Regime
Immigration hardliners in the US state
Trump’s immigration crackdown marks a dramatic change in the domestic security apparatus. Its origins lie in longstanding bipartisan consensus on immigration enforcement itself. Unconstrained budgets have enabled the growth of far-right power centers, and set the conditions for the current surge.
Longform
Meridional
A new monthly newsletter on Latin America’s political economy
A new monthly newsletter on Latin America’s political economy. In 2020, the late Bruno Latour remarked that “Brazil is today what Spain was in 1936, during the civil war: it is where everything that will be important in the next…
The Big Ten
How to define a “logistics cluster”
Finding and defining “logistics clusters” across the United States
December 5, 2025
AnalysisMissed Opportunities
Lithium and green extractivism in Argentina
Vast lithium deposits offer Argentina a chance to pursue development and reindustrialization—but the Milei government is letting it go to waste.
December 4, 2025
AnalysisLithium Experiments
Chile’s mineral strategy and geopolitical realignment in the global energy transition
Gabriel Boric’s government has revived industrial policy to upgrade Chile’s role in the green transition. Yet serious obstacles remain.
December 3, 2025
AnalysisCareless Profit
Spain’s nursing homes in crisis
As elder care in Spain has expanded, it has also become a lucrative and financialized industry, putting returns before the needs of residents. How might it be reformed?
November 28, 2025
InterviewsBrazil and the World System
An interview with Brazil’s Minister of Finance
As the world’s seventh largest economy, poised between Western and Eastern power blocs, Brazil is at the forefront of contemporary debates on geopolitics, development, and the green transition. Its political landscape remains dominated by the clash between the left-pragmatism of…
November 28, 2025
AnalysisAfter Boric
Assessing four years of Chile’s state-led development agenda
In his first year of government, Gabriel Boric positioned lithium, copper, and green hydrogen as catalysts for economic transformation. But the recent victory of right-wing presidential candidate José Antonio Kast places the fate of this developmentalist turn into peril.
November 22, 2025
AnalysisBetween Capitalism and the State-System
Great powers and the making of international relations
The relation between states and markets underpins nearly every major challenge of our time, from climate change, to war, to austerity and sovereign debt.
November 13, 2025
AnalysisMamdani’s First Budget
Image and reality of New York City’s finances
New York City lends itself to superlatives. The largest local government in the US by a wide margin, the City spends more each year than the next ten largest city governments combined; its $121 billion dwarfs Los Angeles’s $19 billion,…
October 30, 2025
AnalysisMexico’s Big Green State
Claudia Sheinbaum plans to repurpose the country’s state-owned enterprises towards decarbonization
AMLO’s government emphasized the importance of state-owned enterprises for reviving Mexico’s energy sector. With her announced regulatory reforms, President Claudia Sheinbaum is reorienting these enterprises towards an even more ambitious purpose: decarbonization. Sheinbaum’s proposals not only have the potential to…
Shortform
Labor & Logistics
A new monthly newsletter on the logistics industry in the United States
The largest private-sector employers in the United States today are a mix of retail and parcel companies that have all built out sophisticated logistical operations. In the post-war era, the largest employers were all in manufacturing, and warehousing and distribution…
December 19, 2025
AnalysisTransformation without Taxation
Mexico’s fiscal orthodoxy
AMLO and Sheinbaum have reorganized political power in Mexico, but they have refused to push through progressive tax reform. Is this balancing act sustainable?
A Global Euro
How to internationalize the European currency
A roadmap for internationalizing the European currency
COP30 Without the USA
Climate cooperation, forest funds, and the tentative move toward green industrialization
Climate cooperation, forest funds, and the tentative move toward green industries
November 20, 2025
AnalysisThe Chainsaw and the Miracle
Milei’s structural adjustment program.
Argentina’s midterm elections have given Milei a renewed mandate to slash the state, working in concert with the IMF and US Treasury.
Plastic Planet
Stalled negotiations and accelerating accumulation in the global petrochemicals industry
The Polycrisis has always taken an interest in fossil fuels. We have written about how the industry has shaped international climate diplomacy and liberal politics. We’ve looked at the dynamics of the mid-transition, where fossil-fuel interests are fighting a desperate rear-guard struggle to secure future demand, even…
November 7, 2025
AnalysisNew Dilemmas
Agriculture, inflation, and dependence in Brazil
With food prices sparking unrest in the so-called “breadbasket of the world,” what are the structural trends behind their perpetual rise?
October 24, 2025
AnalysisEconomic Resilience
Iran’s economy in the aftermath of the June bombing
Years of international isolation and sanctions have prompted Iran to structure its economy to survive various kinds of onslaught. Though it remains exposed to further interruption, Iran’s economy has proven itself resilient in the face of Israel’s campaign. What explains…
September 19, 2025
InterviewsThe Belt and Road 2.0
An interview with Mathias Larsen on China’s overseas clean-tech manufacturing investments
Chinese firms are going out. As the US withdraws from green tech industries and pressures its allies to follow suit, Chinese companies are stepping in to power the developing world’s green transition—at a staggering scale.
September 11, 2025
AnalysisLoosening the Markets
Los Angeles housing in the age of incentive-driven development
Rather than new housing driving down market rents, development in the “affordable housing” market replaces below-market units with market-rate rentals. With market rents unchanged, “filtering” tenants by price most reliably excludes them from the city altogether.
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The United States’s dramatic and illegal abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, now imprisoned in federal jail in New York City, has drawn the world’s attention onto the heavily sanctioned country and ignited debates over the true aims of Trump’s imperial overreach. Three pieces from the archive explore: the history of Venezuela’s oil firm PDVSA, the latest transformations of the OPEC cartel, and the oil majors’ recent designs on Guyanese deposits—which, until Trump’s escalation, had been the latest source of resource conflict in the region.
Transformations in Petróleos de Venezuela and geopolitical realignments
Editor’s Note: Written before Trump assumed office for his second term, Víctor Mijares introduces the history of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) and its central role in Venezuelan development. From the oil boom of 1922, to nationalization, to Chavismo, Western sanctions, and Maduro’s strategy for geopolitical realignment.
Economics and politics in an expanding exporters organization
Editor’s Note: Historian of the 1973 oil crisis Giuliano Garavini and former Venezuelan Minister of Oil Rafael Ramirez examine the shifting political tides within the expanding Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
ExxonMobil, Venezuela, and the battle for Guyana’s oil
Editor’s Note: A territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana begun in the late nineteenth century escalated towards the end of 2023. Within the conflict lay vast oil reserves, uncovered in the mid 2010s and largely licensed to ExxonMobil, which have turned the Caribbean nation into “a battleground for geopolitical ambitions.”
Series
Series are collections of works published by Phenomenal World on a single subject or area of research. Series are commissioned to analyze particular issues or historical moments, and are either ongoing projects or collected as one-time volumes.
The Polycrisis is a monthly newsletter on geopolitics and climate, by Tim Sahay and Kate Mackenzie. Follow us on Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
A Global Euro
How to internationalize the European currency
A roadmap for internationalizing the European currency
COP30 Without the USA
Climate cooperation, forest funds, and the tentative move toward green industrialization
Climate cooperation, forest funds, and the tentative move toward green industries