Fearless commentary on finance, economics, politics and power

Part the First: No, This Is Not Another Bell Labs.  Bell Labs was justifiably renowned as the place to do high level physics and engineering.  It also supported Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson in their research that identified the background cosmic microwave radiation that is the remnant of the Big Bang.  But Bell Labs worked […]

With Nigeria, Trump—who calls himself “the most anti-war president in history”—has now bombed more countries than any president in history.

Like human seniors, an old cat or dog will benefit from help with their special needs.

In Venezuela and Honduras, the U.S. demonstrates that political authority in Latin America derives not from democracy, but from U.S. endorsement

Shadow banks, rebranded as anodyne “non-bank financial institutions” are larger than ever and pose a threat in a new financial crisis

Confirmation that Putin has been restraining the execution of the electric war in Ukraine….but might finally be relaxing the choke chain.

The MSM covered the name-calling at TPUSA, but ignored the MAGA vs MIGA subtext driving the conflict between Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson.

On the debate over the life of the historical Jesus.

NATO is trying to have it both ways: escalating against Russia via a naval/tanker campaign while pretending they are not directly at war.

More on a part of the MAHA con, that of regenerative farming, which is simply a rebrand of factory farming.

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday, however you celebrate it!

For more than a century, the Philippines has been afflicted by recurring internal conflict—colonial rebellion, communist insurgency, separatist war, Islamist militancy. This article argues that these episodes are not discrete failures but manifestations of a persistent condition of managed instability, structurally conditioned by the country’s incorporation into U.S. grand strategy beginning in 1898. From counterinsurgency as governance to modern access agreements, the Philippines has been treated less as a sovereign project to be completed than as a strategic position to be held—an approach whose risks are now sharpening under renewed great-power competition.