Economics - Intellectual Prestige

The Dollar as a Trireme: Why Financial Hegemony Is Just Naval Power by Another Name

When Thucydides sat down to write about the Peloponnesian War, he was not really writing about war. He was writing about power. Specifically, he was writing about what happens when one state accumulates so much of it that every other state must orient itself in relation to that gravity. Athens did not rule the Aegean […]

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Why We Experience “Price Pain” for Bread but Not for $1,000 Tech Upgrades

Economics, Contemporary

You will haggle over the price of bread. You will compare three stores to save forty cents on a loaf. You will feel genuine irritation when the price jumps from $3.50 to $4.20. Then you will walk into an Apple Store and spend $1,000 on a phone that is barely different from the one in

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The Secret Reason Behind Rising Divorce Rates: It’s Not Values, It’s Incentives

Culture, Contemporary, Economics

Everyone has a theory about why divorce rates climbed so dramatically in the second half of the twentieth century. The usual suspects get rounded up every time: declining moral values, the sexual revolution, secularism, feminism, social media, dating apps. Pick your villain. The story practically writes itself, and it always ends with a nostalgic sigh

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Economics Without Romance: A Brutal Guide to How the World Actually Works

Contemporary, Economics

Most economists in the mid twentieth century were busy drawing elegant diagrams on chalkboards and explaining how markets reach beautiful equilibria. Stigler walked into the room and asked a different question. Not how things should work. How they actually work. The answer, it turns out, is far less flattering to everyone involved. George Stigler won

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The Credential Graveyard: Why a Master’s Degree is “Supply without Demand” in 2026

Economics, Enlightenment

There is a quiet cemetery growing in the modern economy. It is not filled with companies or currencies. It is filled with credentials. Specifically, master’s degrees. Millions of them, printed on heavy cardstock, tucked into frames, and hung on walls where they slowly become decorative rather than functional. In 1803, a French economist named Jean-Baptiste

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Your Savings Account Is a Crime Scene: Why Jean-Baptiste Say Hated Idle Capital

Economics, Enlightenment, Entrepreneurship

Most people think of a savings account as responsible. Prudent. The grown up thing to do. You put money away for a rainy day, watch the balance grow, and feel a small glow of virtue every time you check the number. Jean-Baptiste Say would have looked at your savings account the way a detective looks

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Why You Should Stop Trying to Improve Your Weaknesses

Enlightenment, Economics, Entrepreneurship

There is a particular kind of moral comfort in working on what you are bad at. It feels responsible. It feels mature. Your parents probably told you to do it. Your teachers almost certainly did. The entire self improvement industry has built a cathedral on the foundation of this single idea: find your weaknesses, then

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Is Crime Just a Bad Business Decision? Re-evaluating Modern Justice with Becker’s Calculus

Contemporary, Economics

Once, Gary Becker was running late to a student’s oral exam. He needed to park. The legal lot was far away. The illegal spot was right there. So he did what any rational person might do. He weighed the fine, the probability of getting caught, and the time he would save. Then he parked illegally.

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Thucydides for CEOs: The High Cost of Corporate Hubris

Classical, Economics

There is a book written 2,400 years ago that most business leaders have never read. It is not about business. It contains no frameworks, no case studies, no actionable takeaways. And yet it remains the most accurate diagnosis of why powerful organizations destroy themselves ever put to paper. The book is The History of the

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Is Modern Finance a Branch of Metaphysics? Alfred North Whitehead Makes the Case

Contemporary, Economics

There is a strange moment in every finance textbook where the author quietly asks you to believe in something you cannot see, touch, or verify. It usually arrives around chapter three. You are told that markets are efficient, that prices reflect all available information, and that rational agents make optimal decisions under uncertainty. No evidence

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