How to Overcome Big Challenges?

While working on significant technical, economic, and geopolitical projects over the years, I’ve developed several mental frameworks that help to create clarity whenever I’m confronting a significant challenge. Most challenges in life are magnified by irrational fear and self-consciousness, but those are just symptoms of a deeper issue: Lacking the ability to visualize a goal […]

We Are Paying the Price for Realpolitik

Many American political scientists and commentators seem to be oblivious to the long history of American intervention in Syria since the late 1940s. They also seem to ignore western exploitation in the Middle East since at least 1908 when the British Petroleum Corporation sabotaged and exploited Iranian and Iraqi political and economic systems for generations.[1] […]

What Is Our “National Interest”?

I was recently asked, “Why is the U.S. Government involved in Afghanistan?” Aside from the idiotic “War on Terror” justification given by the Bush, Obama, and Trump Administrations since 2001, many people still believe that American “interests” are served by nation-building in every nook and cranny of our planet. So, let’s briefly explore the concept […]

When the Media Fails, Countries Fail

It’s amusing to see how the U.S. Government’s fiscal policies are covered by the mainstream press. For example, in headlines like “Rand Paul delays budget vote as shutdown looms hours away” and “Rand Paul was holding up the Senate’s vote on a massive budget deal” (CNBC example here), even many people with fiscally conservative instincts […]

What Would the USA’s Founders Do in the Middle East Today?

I was asked that question recently. Here was my response: For the first 123 years of the USA’s existence, the U.S. Founding Fathers and all U.S. presidents were committed to: “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.” (Thomas Jefferson 1801). President James Monroe in 1823: In the wars of the […]

Are We in a Propaganda Bubble?

Paths to Truth or Fiction? There can be many paths to truth, but truth only exists when it’s supported by verifiable facts. When a given path (e.g., in alphabetical order, Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN, Fox News, RT, Wikileaks, Wikipedia, or a book, article, corporate memo, direct life experience, etc.) leads us to a given fact, that fact […]

Is Capitalism Sustainable?

Angry Humans. I often see well-intending, angry humans talking about the problems in our world today. Many of them blame Capitalism. Some of them seek a revolution at any cost. I understand their anger, but it’s easy to say something is broken; it’s much harder to present and persuasively defend specific, nonpartisan, and realistic solutions. […]

Are You Possessed by the Demon of Political Correctness?

Praise Feels Good . . . My book, Broken Capitalism: This Is How We Fix It, has received almost universally positive praise from humans across the socioeconomic spectrum. In fact, some of the most glowing reviews have come from “non-white” readers. Non-white humans have literally hugged me on the streets of New York City after […]

Should We Blame Rich People?

The Evolution of Blame. It’s human nature to seek scapegoats to blame when things break. The reasons for this are deeply rooted in the evolutionary development of group behavior. In prehistoric times, when an individual in a tribe did something that hurt the tribe, they were punished with a brutal beating that often resulted in […]

Justice, Power & Wisdom

We All Lose from Systemic Injustice. I have a good friend who is a founder of a multibillion-dollar company who has been thoroughly eviscerated by a biased judge in a protracted court battle. In fact, I know several people who have been on the receiving end of court decisions that were substantially corrupted by institutional […]