Can Capitalism Ever Be Ethical?
Every so often, someone suggests that capitalism can be saved if we just give it a good scrubbing. Wash off the grime of corruption, ring it out,…
Making Money
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From Neighbors to Corporations: How We Lost the Directness of Living
I sometimes think we’ve all ended up working for a sort of ghost. Not the rattling-chains, moaning-through-the-wall kind, but something maybe worse: a superior who doesn’t even…
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Could Your Neighborhood Survive on Social Capital Alone? Some Do.
I sometimes imagine what it would be like to live in one of those tiny Alaskan bush towns. Not the postcard version with moose sauntering down Main…
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Marcel Mauss’ “The Gift” – A Summary
Marcel Mauss’ The Gift manages to be both deeply academic and strangely intimate. Initially, it seems like an anthropologist’s survey of exotic rituals in far-off places; potlatches…
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The Weird Trick That Made Me Instantly More Liked (and Happier)
I have taken to playing an interesting sport, though I doubt anyone watching would recognize it as such. It requires no ball, no net, and not even…
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The Rise of Abstract Money: From Coins to Invisible Ledgers
There was a time when money had weight. It clinked when dropped on a table and carried the cold glint of metal or the soft polish of…
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A Look at Lyn Alden’s Book; Broken Money
Reading Lyn Alden’s Broken Money feels a bit like having a long, eye-opening conversation with that one friend who somehow makes complicated topics make sense. She digs…
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Why Great Leaders Don’t Walk Too Far Ahead
another rumination from a conversation with friends. When leading, one must carry both the vision of the horizon and the weight of those who walk beside. The…
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Guide the Fire but Never Dim the Flame
Leadership is guiding the fire of others without ever dimming their flame – River Stephens In my experience, leadership is a delicate art of balance. On one…
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From Birds to Banks: What Nature Can Teach Us About True Wealth
It has always seemed to me that nature, in her quiet dignity, never once conceived of interest rates or compound debt, and yet she manages her affairs…