Expanding the Legacy
The Man, The Myth, The Charisma, The Appeal
It remains an enduring mystery why about half of American voters idolise a convicted felon, philanderer, pathological liar, and failed businessman. Liberals struggle to comprehend the mood in the mythical ‘American heartland’ - more of a cultural entity than a landmass and usually defined as comprising the twelve landlocked states of the Midwest plus eastern portions of the Mountain States and bits of the Southern States up to West Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Urbanite liberals cannot make sense of the apparent disconnect between the well-documented misconduct of Donald Trump and the traditional ethical values espoused with great devotion by heartland conservatives.
Deep-Sea Miners Ogling Strategic Minerals
“There’s gold in them thar depths.” Millions upon untold millions of potato-sized rocks lay scattered across 4.5 million square kilometres of seafloor between the Hawaiian archipelago and Clipperton, an uninhabited atoll some 1,300 kms southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico. This ultimate of desert islands belongs to France. Last year, the industrial...
S&M: When Adam Met Karl
Standing on the cusp of the fourth industrial revolution which promises to fuse the physical, biological, and virtual (digital) worlds, the capitalism that Karl Marx dissected and analysed seems to be running out of steam – at least in its present form. Though corporate earnings reach into the stratosphere, Adam Smith had already observed in the eighteenth century that the ‘rate of profit is always highest in the countries which are going fastest to ruin’.
The End of Cheap Money?
It had to happen and it just did. The untold joys of expansive monetary policy as the engine of growth in lean times are, of course, always of a temporary nature. As the global economy emerges with a vengeance from years of lacklustre growth, the need to keep interest rates...
Wheel of Fortune: In Search of the Golden Decade
Download a PDF of this essay A golden decade is all it takes for a nation to progress from basket case to powerhouse and erect a solid foundation for lasting economic success. The 1980s were such a decade for South Korea which tripled its per capita annual income to almost...
Rich Man, Poor Man: A Clash Foretold
The embarrassment of riches is mostly lost on today’s billionaires. The phrase was originally coined by British historian Simon Schama to denote public morals in the 17th century Dutch Republic. While the rich were widely admired for their accomplishments, any public display of wealth met with sharp disapproval. This Calvinistic take on the behavioural responsibilities of the well-heeled has been replaced by shameless voyeurism in which the have-nots drown their own misery gaping at the profligate haves as they play with expensive toys and dwell in palatial mansions whilst showcasing both material excess and intellectual dearth.
