Few economists have wielded prose as deftly as John Kenneth Galbraith, whose writing—sharp, erudite, and tinged with dry wit—made macroeconomics palatable for the lay reader. In The New Industrial State (1967), Galbraith turns his attention to the machinery of modern capitalism, arguing that America’s economy is not, as classical economists…
The Paradox of Need and Opportunity: Why Time Banking Struggles to Reach Those Who Need It Most
The concept of time banking should, in theory, be a lifeline for the economically disadvantaged. It provides a way for people to exchange skills and services without the constraints of money, effectively creating a parallel system where effort is the only currency. And yet, the very people who would benefit…
The Last Days of Humanity: a very short story
There is something wrong with the sky. It’s not an obvious thing, not a burning sun or a bruised and swollen moon. The sky is still blue in the day, black at night, but something about the way it stretches overhead, the way it presses down, feels too immense, too…
Exploring the Rise of Techno-feudalism and the Cloudalists by Yanis Varoufakis
Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister and prolific economist, has been vocal about the emergence of a new ruling class he terms “Cloudalists,” who preside over what he describes as a techno-feudal order. In his lecture titled “Cloudalists: The New Ruling Class & how can we confront its techno-feudal…
The Coming Reckoning: Creativity, Complacency, and Collapse
In parts of the world where every meal must be earned through ingenuity, where a broken appliance isn’t replaced but repurposed, and where money is scarce but resourcefulness is abundant, necessity does what it always has—it forces invention. In countries with struggling economies, people do not have the luxury of…
The Art of Holding Fast
It is a curious thing, this modern habit of drifting. Men and women float through their days like autumn leaves upon a river, content to be carried where the current wills, heedless of the shore or the rocks ahead. They speak of luck, of chance, of the winds of fortune,…
“The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It” by Will Storr – a review
Will Storr’s The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It is an incisive, often unsettling, look at one of the most fundamental forces shaping human behavior: our relentless pursuit of status. With a journalist’s sharp eye and a psychologist’s depth of inquiry, Storr makes the case that…
The World of Ends
It is not the end of the world – not in the apocalyptic sense, at least. The oceans haven’t boiled. The stars haven’t blinked out. The earth spins on, indifferent to our tantrums and triumphs. Yet, as we sip lukewarm coffee in dim-lit rooms and scroll through the curated chaos…
From Wall Street to Main Street: How Small Communities Can Harness the Power of Networks
Sandra Navidi’s Superhubs brings us a penetrating look at how financial elites consolidate influence—not through individual power alone, but by embedding themselves in high-value networks. The book’s core insight, rooted in Metcalfe’s Law, is that the value of a network grows exponentially as more participants join. While this dynamic has…
Time Banking Apathy
For more than three decades, time banking has floated on the fringes of economic innovation—a well-intentioned, intellectually rigorous idea championed by the likes of Edgar Cahn and others. Its premise is simple: participants trade hours of service rather than currency, creating a volunteer-based economy of sorts. In theory, it is…