Wars. Waste. Wall Street. Welfare. “The economy doesn’t work for you — it works to extract from you.” —Michael Hudson Financialization is a word you have probably heard in economic news, but its true meaning is rarely explained. The popular media treats it as the natural growth of finance in…
How the Law of Reversal Is Remaking the Middle East “The Middle East is no more. Welcome to West Asia.” —Mohammed Soliman The post-Cold War regional order has entered a period of systemic collapse. That’s the verdict from Mohammed Soliman, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute and one…
“The difficulty lies not in the new ideas, but in escaping the old ones.” — John Maynard Keynes If you have a 401(k), buy gas, or wonder why your grocery and utility bills keep rising, look no further than the invisible machine running our global economy. For most of the…
Gold, yuan, and the end of dollar rule “He who owns the gold makes the rules.” — Anonymous A reader on Sunday’s post mentioned The Wizard of Oz. That single word—Oz—sent me back to an essay I wrote over two years ago called The Land of Ounces. I went back…
A Three-Part Mini-Series — Part Two “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens.” — Genesis 11:4 Every tower begins with a promise. People surrender tangible wealth—time, money, labor, health—in exchange for the promise of something greater. This essay traces one of…
From 2018 to the present “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.” — Winston Churchill Sometimes it pays to go back and read things I’ve written before. It sheds new light. In my post Things Are Not as They Appear, I traced the long…
Three Forces & the 1983 Pattern That Explain It All “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” — Winston Churchill If you follow markets, you’ve probably seen the headlines: Gold down nearly 20% in two months. Bombs are falling in the Middle East. Oil is above $100 a…
“Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” — Albert Einstein My oldest son graduated with honors in mechanical engineering in May 2025—and still doesn’t have a full-time job. He moved back home and spends his days sending out applications between rebuilding…
Parallels Between 1929 and Today’s Financial Fragility “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933 In the final months of 1929, America looked unstoppable. Cities glowed with electric light. Streets swarmed with automobiles. Radios carried jazz, ball scores, and a steady stream of…
“In the end, money is just a belief system — and when that belief falters, people reach for what’s real.” — Ray Dalio If you’ve been following the precious-metals world lately, you’ve probably noticed a growing sense of unease — and for good reason. Gold and silver have been rising…
“Outstanding, sophisticated, and mesmerizing…a spiritual intrigue similar to Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code.” —ForeWord Reviews