Cycles of Change

A common question arises regarding neutrality: If an observer holds values, do they not inevitably take a side? The answer is yes. Holding values requires taking a side. The distinction lies in what the observer takes a side against. Most definitions of "taking a side" involve choosing a Tribe. [...]

The functionality of a society depends upon the structural integrity of the oversight layers that maintain the boundary between state power and the citizen. These tiers incorporate statutory frameworks, judicial oversight, and specialized institutions that monitor the internal operations of the [...]

California sits at the center of a massive financial and human crisis. Between 2018 and 2023, the state spent around twenty-four billion dollars to help homeless people. Even with this large amount of money, the number of people on the streets grew by fifty-three percent. This shows a deep system [...]

The Chinese Communist Party is currently pushing a strict and comprehensive policy called the Sinicization of Religion, which requires all religious groups to follow the state's secular ideas instead of their own spiritual beliefs. Under President Xi Jinping, the government has intensified efforts [...]

The stability of modern life is ruled by the power to navigate two types of risk. The first involves low-probability, high-impact (LPHI) events, often called "Black Swans." These are rare events with extreme results. The second involves high-probability, slow-moving (HPSM) crises, known as "Grey [...]

The stability of a pluralistic society depends upon the maintenance of a "sacred canopy," which is a shared system of meaning that provides a sense of cosmic order and social security. A primary threat to this canopy is the institutional encouragement of religious mockery. This converts satire from [...]

The architecture of global reserves is reverting to physical settlement. For decades, the US Treasury bond served as the primary instrument of sovereign savings. This era is concluding. In 2024, central banks acquired one thousand and forty-five metric tons of gold. This marks the third consecutive [...]

Efficiency is the gold standard for most machines. A car engine is designed to minimize heat loss; a computer processor is built to execute calculations in nanoseconds. In the world of mechanics and commerce, friction is the enemy. It wastes energy and slows progress. However, when designing a [...]

National borders are a critical to national security, and they are the valves of a nation's economy. Since 2020, the United States has operated under a policy of high-volume entry that has changed the social fabric. While encounters at the southwest border dropped by seventy-seven per cent in late [...]

Economic history is defined by the expansion and contraction of credit. This sequence forms a multi-decade debt super cycle. The process typically unfolds over seventy to one hundred years. It moves from a period of sound money and low debt to a terminal phase of catastrophic liability. The system [...]

A structural divergence is redefining the global financial hierarchy. The traditional model of a synchronized economic cycle is being replaced by a bifurcated system. This K-shaped economy separates participants into two distinct trajectories based on their proximity to asset-backed wealth. One [...]

A structural transition is occurring within the global financial system. This shift is visible in how nations allocate their capital to ensure survival in a bifurcated world. Why are central banks moving away from the surface-level stability of the established order? The answer lies in the changing [...]