History and Critical Analysis

Beyond the Flat World 1 Beyond the Flat World - Part 1: The Hidden Geography of Commerce: Why Globalization Is a Myth and Regionalism Is the Reality 2 Beyond the Flat World - Part 2: Shipping Containers, Satellites, and SWIFT: The Paradoxical Technology That Made Neighbors Stronger Than Distant Partners 3 Beyond the Flat World - Part 3: From Coal to Currency: How Europe Engineered a $17 Trillion Neighborhood Economy Through Treaties and Trust 4 Beyond the Flat World - Part 4: Factory Asia: The Invisible Supply Chains Built by Flying Geese, Conglomerates, and Cash (Not Handshakes) 5 Beyond the Flat World - Part 5: The Reluctant Triangle: Why NAFTA Couldn't Fully Integrate the U.S., Canada, and Mexico 6 Beyond the Flat World - Part 6: The Next Battleground: How 5G, Robots, and Digital Consumers Are Deepening Regional Economic Advantage 7 Beyond the Flat World - Part 7: Competing in the Regionalized World: Why Isolation Breeds Stagnation and Partnerships Promise Prosperity ← Series Home The dramatic restructuring of the global economy over the last half-century created three immense regional manufacturing hubs: Europe, North America, and Asia. While Europe built its dominant economic bloc through a dense framework of continuous political treaties and supranational legal institutions, Asia’s integration followed a radically different path: it was achieved primarily “through business.” ...

Key Takeaways The gamble: Germany's Ardennes offensive was explicitly designed around capturing Allied fuel supplies. Without this captured fuel, the operation could not reach its objectives. The failure: American defenders held key fuel depots, denying German forces the resources they needed to sustain the advance. The irony: Some German tank columns stopped within sight of massive Allied fuel dumps they couldn't capture—then abandoned their vehicles and walked back to German lines. The lesson: Operations built on the assumption of capturing enemy resources are inherently fragile. When that single dependency fails, everything fails. The Impossible Plan In December 1944, Adolf Hitler ordered one final offensive in the West. The plan was audacious: a surprise attack through the Ardennes forest—the same route Germany had used to stunning effect in 1940—aimed at splitting American and British forces and capturing the crucial port of Antwerp. ...

Key Takeaways Care work is invisible in GDP: Raising children, caring for the elderly, maintaining households—this work is essential but unmeasured. If it's not bought and sold, it doesn't count. The invisibility is gendered: Women do most unpaid care work. The economic system's blindness to this work systematically undervalues women's contributions. Markets depend on what they don't measure: No one would be available for paid work if someone wasn't doing the unpaid work of raising, feeding, and caring for workers. What we measure shapes what we value: GDP's exclusion of care work isn't neutral—it creates policy blind spots that perpetuate inequality. The Flavor You Can’t Name Anchovies are the secret ingredient in dishes that don’t taste like anchovies. ...

The Poisoned Chalice 1 The Poisoned Chalice – Part 1: The Man Who Inherited the Tsar's Bomb 2 The Poisoned Chalice – Part 2: The Accountant of the Doomed Fleet 3 The Poisoned Chalice – Part 3: The Senator Who Tried to Save the Republic 4 The Poisoned Chalice – Part 4: The General Who Won Every Battle and Lost the War ← Series Home The Poisoned Chalice – Part 4: The General Who Won Every Battle and Lost the War 202 BC Year of Hannibal's final defeat at Zama ...

The Architect of Their Own Demise 1 The Architect of Their Own Demise – Part 1: The Organizer of Chaos 2 The Architect of Their Own Demise – Part 2: The Purist Who Purged Himself 3 The Architect of Their Own Demise – Part 3: The Banker Who Built on Sand 4 The Architect of Their Own Demise – Part 4: The Explorer Who Trusted His Maps ← Series Home 1356 Publication of Mandeville's Travels ...

Capitalism Unmasked 1 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 1: The Myth of the Free Market 2 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 2: The Shareholder Value Myth 3 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 3: The Trickle-Down Delusion 4 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 4: The Myth of the Lazy Poor 5 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 5: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Distrust 6 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 6: The Education Myth 7 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 7: The Myth of Natural Inequality 8 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 8: The Myth of Capital Flight 9 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 9: The Myth of the Rational Consumer 10 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 10: The Hidden Costs of 'Free' Markets 11 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 11: The Myth of the Self-Made Man 12 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 12: The Myth of Efficient Financial Markets 13 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 13: The Myth of Corporate Social Responsibility 14 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 14: The Myth of Growth 15 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 15: Development Institutions - Help or Hindrance? 16 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 16: The Myth of Immigration Harm 17 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 17: The Myth of Flexible Labor Markets 18 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 18: The Myth of Shareholder Primacy 19 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 19: The Myth of Technological Unemployment 20 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 20: The Privatization Illusion 21 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 21: The Myth of Patent Protection 22 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 22: The Myth of Government Debt Crisis 23 Capitalism Unmasked - Part 23: Finance - Economy's Brain or Parasite? ← Series Home What They Tell You Poor people are poor because they don’t work hard enough or make bad choices. Welfare creates dependency and discourages work. If we just cut benefits, people would be forced to find jobs. The market rewards effort and talent. Anyone can succeed if they try hard enough. Poverty is a personal failing, not a systemic problem. ...

The Invisible Army ← Series Home Key Takeaways Paper systems kill: The British Army had supply regulations. They just didn't work in practice. The gap between documented procedures and field reality cost thousands of lives. Bureaucracy can be lethal: Soldiers died because requisition forms weren't filled correctly, because departments wouldn't coordinate, because no one had authority to fix obvious problems. Visibility matters: The Crimea was the first war with embedded journalists. Public outrage at the logistics disaster forced reforms that might never have happened otherwise. Crisis creates reform: The catastrophe produced the modern military supply system�central supply corps, professional logistics officers, and integrated medical services. The War That Broke the System In September 1854, a British army of 27,000 men landed in Crimea to besiege the Russian fortress of Sevastopol. They expected a short campaign�perhaps a few months to capture the fortress and dictate peace. ...

The Kinetic Chain 1 Part 1: Alexander's Invisible Army 2 Part 2: Napoleon's Fatal Calculation 3 Part 3: The Railroad Revolution 4 Part 4: The Crimean Catastrophe 5 Part 5: Barbarossa and the Battle of the Gauges 6 Part 6: The Battle of the Bulge and the Tyranny of Fuel 7 Part 7: Wholesale Distribution and the American Way of 8 Part 8: The Pacific Logistics Challenge 9 Part 9: Victory Through Logistics 10 Part 10: Vietnam and the Tyranny of Terrain 11 Part 11: Giap's Bicycle Brigades 12 Part 12: The Ho Chi Minh Trail 13 Part 13: American Largesse in Vietnam 14 Part 14: The M16 Debacle and Logistics Failure 15 Part 15: The Falklands Logistics Miracle 16 Part 16: Desert Storm and the Logistics Miracle 17 Part 17: The Future of Contested Logistics ← Series Home Key Takeaways Paper systems kill: The British Army had supply regulations. They just didn't work in practice. The gap between documented procedures and field reality cost thousands of lives. Bureaucracy can be lethal: Soldiers died because requisition forms weren't filled correctly, because departments wouldn't coordinate, because no one had authority to fix obvious problems. Visibility matters: The Crimea was the first war with embedded journalists. Public outrage at the logistics disaster forced reforms that might never have happened otherwise. Crisis creates reform: The catastrophe produced the modern military supply system—central supply corps, professional logistics officers, and integrated medical services. The War That Broke the System In September 1854, a British army of 27,000 men landed in Crimea to besiege the Russian fortress of Sevastopol. They expected a short campaign—perhaps a few months to capture the fortress and dictate peace. ...

System's Perfect Victim 1 Part 1: The By-the-Book Admiral 2 Part 2: The Railroad Manager Who Followed Policy 3 Part 3: The Architect Who Obeyed the Emperor 4 Part 4: The Minister Who Balanced the Books ← Series Home The Ledger That Lit the Revolution In February 1781, French Finance Minister Jacques Necker published the Compte rendu au roi (Account to the King), a unprecedented document: the royal treasury’s accounts, available for public purchase. Necker, a Swiss Protestant banker, had been brought in to rescue France from bankruptcy. His report was a masterpiece of political theater. It showed a modest surplus of 10 million livres. The public was dazzled by this transparency. The book sold over 100,000 copies. There was only one problem: the accounts were fiction. Necker had omitted the colossal costs of supporting the American Revolution and hid debt through creative accounting. He hadn’t solved the crisis; he had repackaged it as a success. When he was forced to resign in 1783, the façade cracked. His successors revealed the truth: a deficit of 112 million livres. The public felt betrayed. The trust Necker had built through transparency evaporated, replaced by cynicism. When he was recalled in 1788, it was too late. The Estates-General was convened, the Bastille fell, and the monarchy Necker had tried to save with bookkeeping was destroyed by the very expectations his books had raised. ...

The New Thermal Divide 1 The New Thermal Divide - Part 1: Anatomy of an Invisible Killer 2 The New Thermal Divide - Part 2: From Savanna to City-Humanity's Failed Adaptation 3 The New Thermal Divide - Part 3: Global Collapse: How Heat Scrambles Ecosystems and Food Supplies 4 The New Thermal Divide - Part 4: Accountability and the Future of a Superheated Planet ← Series Home The New Thermal Divide - Part 4: Accountability and the Future of a Superheated Planet Extreme heat operates as an invisible, destructive force that dictates the reality of the growing thermal divide. This heat is not an accident. It is an entirely human artifact. We live beyond the planetary Goldilocks Zone, the temperature range where life historically thrives. The heat propelling us out of this stable zone is deliberate and premeditated. Accountability for this extreme warming rests squarely on decades of reckless fossil fuel consumption. As the world faces accelerating chaos, the critical choice remains: we must roast, flee, or act. ...