Pedro Zubieta-Funes

Regime collapse A new paradigm

I wrote about Venezuela www.northsouthnotes.org/p/regime-col...

Adam Smith may have won the intellectual battle of ideas, but mercantilism has survived, and sometimes to good effects, from Dani Rodrik www.nber.org/papers/w34353

Trump’s Argentine gamble benefits almost no one Propping up the peso is unlikely to lead to a sustainable improvement in the country’s economy

The “almost no one” is doing a lot of work here—acknowledging that Trump's lifeline serves asset managers and hedge funds, including Bessent’s former colleagues Druckenmiller and Citrone, deeply exposed to 🇦🇷 bonds. This is global financial corruption, pure and simple.

And success itself: by lifting millions out of poverty, the MAS lost sway over many citizens no longer moved by its plebeian, pro-indigenous, anti-oligarchic message. This also happened in Brazil and Argentina.

Three forces drove the MAS’s collapse: the economic and BoP crisis from collapsing gas revenues—the perennial curse of extractivism in South America; internal factionalism that paralyzed government and fractured society and the bases of the party...

Rodrigo Paz can be defined as a centre-right politician, associated with moderate, market-oriented policies. He is seen as a 'pragmatic' leader, emphasizing institutional stability, fiscal 'responsibility', and consensus-building. Previously he dismissed libertarianism and Milei-style politics.

Resultados de las elecciones en Bolivia, en vivo | Inicia el conteo de votos para decidir el próximo presidente entre Rodrigo Paz y Tuto Quiroga Por primera vez en 20 años, las papeletas no tienen a un candidato del Movimiento al Socialismo de Evo Morales

End of an era in Bolivia. After 20 years, the MAS (Movement Towards Socialism) leaves govt — Latin America’s most radical political experiment winds down. Happily, the far right has been blocked: Tuto Quiroga, a protégé of 1970s dictator Hugo Banzer, won't govern. The presidency goes to Rodrigo Paz.

Well, ok. But if you have Mokyr then Bob Allen should be there too.

Remember when dense networks of strategic cross-shareholdings among firms, native to coordinated market economies, went the way of the dodo?

The Rhenish model, Germany, Inc. undone by Anglo institutional investors?

Well, the dodo is back. Say hello to USA, Inc.
www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

Gutted. Diane Keaton’s smile made the world feel a little freer.

The Nobel goes to María Corina Machado—not Trump, but a loyal disciple of his causes: backing Netanyahu, cheering Latin America’s far right, calling for a U.S. invasion of Venezuela, and dreaming of privatizing its oil. Maduro is a dictator, but this isn’t peace.

YouTube video by FREE – Forum for Real Economic Emancipation Rebuilding Gaza — For Profit | Adam Tooze

"In Gaza, destruction is rewarded with contracts and the “peace plan” is property development.

Historian @adam_tooze & economist @ClaraEMattei
trace how capitalism profits through ruin: war, austerity, and reconstruction form one system of control. "
youtu.be/0iIEgp1LPpA

If profits shape the energy transition we need to understand the biggest profit event this century: the 2022 oil and gas price spike.

Very happy our paper is now out in Energy Research & Social Science. Thread by lead-author @gregorsemieniuk.bsky.social 👇

BBC Laura Kuenssberg Show Accused of Anti-Green Bias After Cancelling Zack Polanski Interview The new Green Party leader was the only major party leader not to have been granted a conference interview on the flagship BBC show

🔴BBC Laura Kuenssberg Show Accused of Anti-Green Bias After Cancelling Zack Polanski Interview

The new Green leader was the only major party leader not to have been granted an interview on the flagship BBC show after being elected, or during his party conference

bylinetimes.com/2025/10/06/b...

Carbon offsets fail to cut global heating due to ‘intractable’ systemic problems, study says Analysis of 25 years of evidence shows most schemes are poor quality and fail to lower emissions

News that shocks no one: Carbon offsets do nothing for climate.

Argentines are losing patience with Milei’s economy Libertarian leader has slashed inflation but austerity and strong peso have stalled activity

Argentina is truly suffering under the man Farage and Badenoch admire most on.ft.com/3KFBl3K

MI primer acto político fue dejar de comer carne. El segundo, manifestarme por Miguel Angel Blanco. Pero no entendí lo que significa poner el cuerpo por una causa hasta hoy. Mi columna de hoy es un homenaje a los que me lo enseñaron: David Adler y @mushon.bsky.social elpais.com/opinion/2025...

Free Radicals | Sammy Feldblum Though José Mujica did not publish much writing, his views on life and politics live on through the corpus of interviews.

“The conversations are most touching when exploring questions of how to live, which Chomsky and Mujica tether to, though never fully reduce to, the political.”

How polarised is Britain? Behind media perceptions of a sharpening political divide is a more complicated picture

Terrific weekend essay by @henrymance.bsky.social

Ayer leía a alguien decir que por qué Bluesky no se centraba en hacer una red social guay y se dejaba de mierdas de protocolos y descentralización. Es tremendo que ni con dos de las redes más importantes del mundo cayendo en manos de la ultraderecha seamos capaces de tomarnos en serio este tema.

Japan’s biggest threat is demographic decline, but the LDP still thinks immigration is the real problem.

Fair enough: opening up to foreigners once brought Japan plenty of trouble — like kanji, Zen, and chopsticks.

Argentina’s wily currency traders drain Javier Milei’s dollars Labyrinthine restrictions and chronic instability spawn strategies to profit from foreign exchange policies

Austeritarianism, $20bn of illegitimate IMF debt, interest rates that reached 80%, a $20bn U.S. bailout, political backing from Bessent, and capital controls—and still the peso fell 7% in the last seven days.

Milei’s predatory casino is backfiring, and Argentina’s economy remains in free fall.

Western ‘leaders’ once paraded Greta as a symbol of moral clarity—until she condemned Israel’s genocide. Now they don’t even care about her safety

Against Money A powerful deconstruction of humanity’s most influential invention, from the acclaimed economists J. W. Mason and Arjun Jayadev.   Money is unavoidably fundamental to our daily lives. It lurks behind ...

Coming this spring. press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

RIP Claus Offe 😔 He wrote a lot but this is by far one of the best texts written about trade unions, their structural position and limitations. www.hwiesenthal.de/publik/hw/2l...

How tech lords and populists changed the rules of power Digital moguls and strongman leaders are more than disrupters of the old liberal order. Together they seek to sweep it away, writes Giuliano da Empoli

Da Empoli is becoming a must-read for the EU political class. Yet in his latest piece he writes about an idea that’s been obvious for years: digital moguls and the far right converge structurally and will tolerate no democratic limits. Are those in Brussels only just noticing?

Starmer to end asylum ‘golden ticket’ of resettlement and family reunion rights People granted asylum will have to earn right to invite family in plan charities call ‘straight from populist playbook’

Many people desperately wanted to see Starmer's LPC speech as a new direction on immigration and asylum. Yet, we clearly see a continuation of an approach that basically says Farage is right on policy but morally wrong. Others have tried it, it won't work.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

My heartbreak and horror at the killing and starvation of Gazans does not negate my total support and solidarity with my fellow jewish citizens across the UK against terror. The conflation on display by some politicians and media outlets over the last 24 hours is sickening.

Migration is Britain’s superpower. Our future depends on embracing that truth, not denying it | Zack Polanski Labour has lost its nerve. At our party conference this weekend, we’re gathering to set things right, says Green party leader Zack Polanski

"I'm here to talk about what others won’t. To tell the truth about what makes our country great and what makes it not so great. While others thrive on creating scapegoats, I am here to tell you a different story."

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...