History and Critical Analysis

Key Takeaways The gauge problem: Soviet railways used a 1,520mm gauge; European railways used 1,435mm. German trains couldn't run on Russian tracks without conversion. The conversion bottleneck: Converting track required enormous labor and materials. At peak efficiency, German engineers converted about 30 km of track per day—far slower than the army's advance. The supply gap: The gap between the advancing front and the end of converted rail created a "supply vacuum" that had to be filled by trucks, which consumed their own fuel and wore out on Russian roads. The cumulative failure: By the time the Wehrmacht reached Moscow's suburbs, its supply system was delivering only 10-20% of required tonnage. The army that arrived was too weak to take the city. The Lesson Not Learned On June 22, 1941—exactly 129 years after Napoleon’s Grande Armée crossed the Niemen River—Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the largest military operation in human history. More than 3 million German and Axis soldiers invaded the Soviet Union along a front stretching 1,800 miles. ...

Key Takeaways Economic models aren't reality: The "desert island" thought experiment beloved by economists strips away everything that makes economies actually work—institutions, power, history, and collective action. Productivity is constructed: What counts as "productive" depends on who's measuring and what they value. Colonial powers called Africans and Asians "lazy" while exploiting their labor. Rational choice is a myth: Humans don't optimize utility functions. We're social beings embedded in institutions, making decisions shaped by culture, habit, and limited information. Simple models serve powerful interests: Stripping economics to "individual choice" conveniently ignores collective action, power dynamics, and structural inequality. The Island Fantasy Every economics student encounters Robinson Crusoe. Stranded alone on an island with coconut palms, he must decide how to allocate his time between gathering coconuts and leisure. ...

The Calculus of Collapse: When Brilliance Meets an Unyielding World 1 The Calculus of Collapse – Part 1: Hannibal's Perfect, Pyrrhic War 2 The Calculus of Collapse – Part 2: Robert E. Lee's Sacred, Tragic Calculus 3 The Calculus of Collapse – Part 3: Napoleon III's Fatal Gamble on Glory ← Series Home The Second Empire’s Gilt-Edged Delusion On July 19, 1870, Emperor Napoleon III of France, nephew of the legendary Bonaparte, declared war on Prussia. His cabinet and public cheered, confident in the invincibility of the French army. Six weeks later, on September 2, he surrendered his sword to Prussian King Wilhelm I at Sedan, a prisoner alongside 104,000 of his men. His empire collapsed within days. This catastrophe was not a sudden failure but the inevitable result of two decades of leadership dedicated to the spectacle of power rather than its substance. Napoleon III ruled not through institutions, but through a constant, destabilizing pursuit of la gloire—glory—to legitimize his authoritarian regime. In the end, he gambled his throne on a single battle and lost everything. ...

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 3: The Senator Who Tried to Save the Republic 46 BC Year of Cato's dramatic suicide ...

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 spring of 1720 Peak of Mississippi Bubble ...

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 Making the rich richer makes us all richer. When the rich get tax cuts, they invest more, creating jobs and growth. High taxes discourage work and investment. Inequality is the price of growth. The pie has to grow before it can be distributed. As President John F. Kennedy said, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” ...

The Invisible Army ← Series Home Key Takeaways Railroads enabled industrial war: Mass armies of 100,000+ men became sustainable because railroads could deliver thousands of tons daily—something impossible with wagons. Rails created new vulnerabilities: Fixed routes made supply lines predictable. A single raid could cripple an army. Dependence on rail tied armies to tracks. The "last mile" problem: Railroads delivered to depots, but the final movement to troops still required wagons and horses—often the system's weakest link. Infrastructure became strategy: Who controlled the rail junctions controlled the war. Destroying enemy railroads became as important as destroying enemy armies. The Promise of the Iron Horse In 1830, the world’s first passenger railroad opened in England. Within thirty years, railroads had transformed civilian logistics so thoroughly that the previous millennia of horse-and-wagon transport seemed primitive. ...

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 Railroads enabled industrial war: Mass armies of 100,000+ men became sustainable because railroads could deliver thousands of tons daily—something impossible with wagons. Rails created new vulnerabilities: Fixed routes made supply lines predictable. A single raid could cripple an army. Dependence on rail tied armies to tracks. The "last mile" problem: Railroads delivered to depots, but the final movement to troops still required wagons and horses—often the system's weakest link. Infrastructure became strategy: Who controlled the rail junctions controlled the war. Destroying enemy railroads became as important as destroying enemy armies. The Promise of the Iron Horse In 1830, the world’s first passenger railroad opened in England. Within thirty years, railroads had transformed civilian logistics so thoroughly that the previous millennia of horse-and-wagon transport seemed primitive. ...

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 Mountain That Was to Be a Man In 334 BC, the architect Dinocrates presented Alexander the Great with the most audacious building proposal in history. He would take Mount Athos—a 6,670-foot mountain peninsula in Greece—and carve it into a colossus. In the statue’s left hand would be an entire city of 10,000 inhabitants. In its right hand, a vast bowl would catch the waters of a diverted river, which would then cascade dramatically into the sea. The statue’s face would be that of Alexander. The conqueror, legend says, was delighted. He asked only one practical question: what would the inhabitants eat? Dinocrates, the visionary, had not considered this. He suggested they would import grain. Alexander, the pragmatist, rejected the plan. The city of Alexandria in Egypt, a practical grid on flat land, was built instead. Dinocrates faded from history, his perfect, impossible vision recorded only as a footnote in the chronicles of architectural hubris. ...

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 3: Global Collapse: How Heat Scrambles Ecosystems and Food Supplies Extreme heat is the prime mover of the climate crisis. It functions as the engine of planetary chaos, amplifying secondary effects like drought, wildfires, and sea-level rise. Heat is a destructive, invisible force that drives entropy and disorder across all natural systems. For all living things, temperatures rising above their specific Goldilocks Zone lead inevitably to death. Humanity is witnessing its technologically advanced world unraveling as heat pushes global food supplies, marine ecosystems, and human health systems toward collapse. ...