Where copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite, and the rare earths come from, who refines them, and why one country controls most of the processing. It covers how a mine works and why one takes nearly eighteen years, each major mineral in turn, the producers' playbook of export bans and quotas, the American answer of price floors, equity stakes, and a strategic reserve, recycling, and the community fights that decide whether mines get built. Brought to October: copper's record year, the Congo's cobalt quota, and China's rare-earth controls and their suspension. Where the field argues, over a copper deficit, price floors and state stakes, and faster permits against community consent, each side makes its case before the evidence. Four worked examples, from a copper mine's economics to the cobalt squeeze from both sides.
Collection 2 — The Physical Economy
The resources, infrastructure, and flows that everything else depends on.
The resource the world built its assumptions on and is now losing the predictability of. It covers groundwater and the changing water cycle, the conflicts over shared rivers, what water costs and what it is priced at, desalination, farming, factories and data centers, contamination, floods, water law and markets, and six regions where the crisis has arrived. Brought to October: the Rhine at Kaub at a record low, the imposed cuts on the Colorado River, the Indus treaty held in abeyance, Thames Water's rescue fight, and the desalination plants struck in the Iran war. Where the field argues, over private ownership, the PFAS rollback, and water markets, each side makes its case before the evidence. Five worked examples, from the Colorado River's arithmetic to the Saudi alfalfa case.
The grains, the oilseeds, the fertilizer, the traders, the meat, and the fish, and why a system that feeds eight billion people is both remarkably efficient and remarkably fragile. It covers the crops and who grows them, the price crises of 2008, 2011, and 2022, fertilizer, the seed and trading companies, livestock and fish, land and climate, subsidies and export bans, hunger, diets, and seven regional food systems. Brought to October: USDA's October harvest estimates, the fertilizer shock from the closed Strait of Hormuz, the strikes that shut Ukraine's deep-water ports, and a strong El Niño forecast for the winter. Where the field argues, over regulating gene editing, 'greedflation', biofuel mandates, and ultra-processed food, each side makes its case before the evidence. Two worked examples: from a gas price to a bread price, and an elevator's hedge.
How the world's goods move, and what happens when the passages close: the ships and their cargoes, the chokepoints and their keepers, the container lines and their rates, dry bulk and tankers, the shadow fleet, ports and shipyards, flags, crews, and insurance, air, rail, and road, what freight costs, the fuels, and the geopolitics of a system that carries most of the world's trade. Brought to October: Hormuz crippled since the Iran war began on February 28, the container lines' return to Suez after nearly three years around Africa, Panama's drought slots, the Rhine at a record low, the port fees on Chinese ships due back on November 10 unless extended, and the vote on a global carbon price for ships on December 4. Where the field argues, over boarding shadow tankers, automating ports, the Jones Act and America's yards, a global carbon price, and how far to separate from China's maritime system, each side makes its case before the evidence. Four worked examples: what it costs to move a television, the economics of a 24,000-TEU ship, what the Red Sea closure cost and earned, and a container of bookcases from Vietnam to Chicago.
How the world gets built, and why building got harder: the industry's 2026 split between a data-center boom and falling housing and factory construction; the history from Roman concrete to the Empire State and China's boom; cement, aggregates, and the companies that own the quarries and kilns; steel, timber, copper, and fuel; the builders and the electrical trades that now lead them; the workforce; the productivity puzzle and the megaprojects that overrun; who pays; and the world's build-out from India to the Gulf. Brought to October: data-center construction up 73% in a year while total spending fell, materials up 8.9% under the metals tariffs and the war's diesel shock, mortgage rates back above 7%, CRH's $8.5 billion purchase of Arcosa, and the stopgap that carried the federal highway program past September 30 to December 11. Where the field argues, over the tariffs on building materials, the labor shortage and the border, why productivity stalled, why American projects cost more, and the federal role, each side makes its case before the evidence. Thirteen worked examples, from where a construction dollar goes to a kilometer of subway built two ways.
The largest manufacturing industry on earth as a system, as of October 2026: who builds the world's 96 million vehicles and where they go; how a car is designed, built, and supplied, and why one missing part can stop a line; why carmakers earn so little; how China came to lead the electric car; Europe's squeeze and America's market; Japan, Korea, India, and the emerging markets; the electric transition; tariffs and the walls against Chinese cars; the rules on emissions, fuel economy, and safety; software and the driverless car; and what a car costs to buy and own. Where the field argues, each side's case comes before the course's reading.** **