Cycles of Change

Engineering practical systems and exploring the physical world.

Walk into any grocery store today and you will feel the sharp pain of prices rising at the checkout counter. A dozen eggs costs more paper money now than it did five years ago. Ground beef costs more. Bread costs more. The receipt at the bottom of the bag carries a number that climbs higher every [...]
For over 2,500 years, gold defined money. From the Lydian croeseid coin to the Bretton Woods system, gold anchored trust, trade, and sovereignty. Within a single century, it became labeled a “barbarous relic” and dismissed as a “pet rock.” In January 2026, gold surged past $5,500 per ounce, [...]
David Collum, Cornell Professor and financial critic, provides a sobering study of the 2025 economic landscape. The core idea shows a state of recursive decay where primary systems feed on their own outputs. This process results in a decoupling from reality. This cycle, called recursive slop, [...]
Modern market economies operate along recurrent waves of debt boom followed by sharp bust. During the boom phase, central banks lower interest rates and commercial banks extend easy loans to eager borrowers. Businesses expand operations, consumers finance real estate purchases, and stock prices [...]
The growing move toward trade pacts outside the dollar network is reshaping the rules of world trade finance. When nations trade crude oil, grains, and factory tools in regional monies, trade gaps demand settling in hard assets. Neither trade partner wants to hold deep piles of foreign paper money [...]