Energy Shock Part 2: The Sword of Damocles
According to the Greek parable told by Cicero, Damocles was a flattering courtier in the court of Dionysius II of Syracuse. He constantly praised the king, saying how wonderful it must be to rule—surrounded by luxury, power, and pleasure. Tired of the flattery, Dionysius let Damocles sit on the royal throne for a day and […]
Energy Shock
Consider the scale of the disruption: The human and economic toll is already visible worldwide: petrol and diesel rationing in Sri Lanka, LPG cooking gas restrictions in India, four-day workweeks and mandatory remote work in Pakistan and the Philippines, widespread flight cancellations across Asia, early school and university closures plus energy curfews in Bangladesh, fuel […]
The Game of Risk
The game of Risk is that classic strategic board game from the 1980s that ate up hours of my childhood as my cousins and I waged fictional campaigns for world domination. My kids have zero interest in deep strategy games, so the board hasn’t come out in decades. But recent events keep pulling me back […]
The Ripple Effect
Recent headlines about Venezuela, Iran and Greenland have dominated the media, but an important shift is taking place on the other side of the pacific that will have ripple effects. The Chinese renminbi (RMB) has been steadily climbing, up in 14 of the last 16 weeks. This isn’t some market fluke; it’s a deliberate policy […]
Venezuela After Maduro
It shouldn’t surprise readers that the United States successfully carried out an operation to capture and remove Nicolás Maduro this weekend. I’ve been discussing a U.S. pivot toward South America for some time, and if there were any lingering doubts about the Trump administration’s intentions, they should be dispelled now. From confirmed reports, the operation […]
Energy is the Backbone: Why Power, Not Hype, Defines the AI Era
The most common question I’ve received over the past two months has been: “Is AI a bubble?” Hindsight will eventually provide full clarity, but like everyone else, I have an opinion. All the classic signs are screaming yes (i.e., valuations), which means the next logical question to ask is: What kind of bubble is this—a […]
Gold, Then and Now – Part II
A year ago in Gold, Then and Now, I argued gold was starting to matter again—not as a dollar-destroying machine, but as a way to pass the risk of currency erosion to someone else. I said it wasn’t a reliable inflation hedge. It was insurance against policy mistakes. Back then, gold traded around $2,400. Today, […]
Glass Half Full
Ever since President Donald Trump’s first salvo of tariffs against China in 2018, the relationship between the two countries has turned sour. While tariffs were placed on steel, aluminum, cars and the like, the real impact to China was semiconductors. If China could be cut off from technology advancement, they could be cut off from […]
0’s and 1’s and everything in-between
Gordon Moore, co-founder of Intel, famously predicted that computing power would double roughly every two years as transistors shrank, allowing more to fit on a microchip. This principle, known as Moore’s Law, held true for decades, driving exponential growth in technology. However, in recent years, maintaining this pace has become increasingly challenging due to physical […]
The GENIUS Act: Safeguarding the Dollar
The GENIUS Act was signed into law on July 18, 2025, establishing the first comprehensive US regulatory framework for stablecoins. Two additional cryptocurrency bills are also advancing through Congress: one to clarify which crypto assets fall under securities oversight, and another to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency. To be […]