The world of international trade is undergoing a revolution, as new technologies and global events disrupt traditional systems and practices. At the forefront of this change is the role of currencies, and in particular, the status of the US dollar as a global reserve currency and its domination of international trade settlements. Back in 1944, […]
Geoff Colvin wrote “The Upside of the Downturn” in the depths of the Global Financial Crisis. Few people were writing optimistic business books in 2009, so this one stands out. Colvin presents that downturn as “The Greatest Opportunity,” arguing that the most challenging conditions determine winners and losers. “Periods of extreme stress and challenge are […]
For eight years I have studied digital nomadism, the millenial trend for working remotely from anywhere around the world. I am often asked if it is driving gentrification. Before COVID upended the way we work, I would usually tell journalists that the numbers were too small for a definitive answer. Most digital nomads were travelling and working illegally on tourist visas. […]
he shots that rang out on April 19, 1775 in Lexington and Concord are widely considered to be the opening salvo in the US War for Independence. Although we may never know who shot first, there is another mystery that economics may help us unravel: why did the British Redcoats wear red coats? Think about […]
Originally published September 2020. Do Americans “vote with their wallets?” This near-ubiquitous cliche seems at first to pass the test of common sense. Why wouldn’t people vote for the candidates under whom they’ll do the best financially? A wealthy voter should favor the candidate who will lower their taxes. A chronically unemployed voter should support […]
Joe Strummer, lead singer and lyricist for the seminal punk band, The Clash, died 20 years ago this December. Strummer, the son of a British senior civil servant and whose real name was John Graham Mellor, wrote songs that did not shy away from the politics of the Thatcher era or situations affecting society around […]
“Every once in a while a book lands on your desk that changes the way you perceive the world you live in, a book that fundamentally challenges your understanding of human history.” So began the blurb that came with this book. Aha! I thought. The usual advertising hyperbole, a gross exaggeration. Yet Pathogenesis did challenge much of my […]
I went down to the Bowery one night last week to see Aoife O’Donovan sing to a ballroom packed with young people standing for two hours and whooping and yelling — I sat up in the balcony and whooped and yelled too — and what the woman could do with her voice and guitar was […]
During the course of wars, the infrastructure of cities faces destruction. Fighting, regardless of its intentions, destroys roads, bridges, commercial and residential buildings, as well as the architecture they embody. Throughout history and around the globe, calls to stop wars have focused on the value of people’s lives. In recent decades, there has been a […]
Chaotic systems can be described in many ways but the one I remember from my youth was dubbed ‘the butterfly effect,’ Loosely put, it describes the phenomenon that the flapping of a butterfly’s wings on one side of the world can dramatically influence the weather on the other side of the world. The idea, pioneered […]
