Recent Posts
- Daylight Saving Time: A Century of Moving the Hands and Getting Nowhere
- Take the Extra Minute to Rest: The World, Upside-Down
- Bologna: The Meat That Sounds Like a Lie
- The AI Gold Rush: What Happens When Everyone Strikes the Same Claim?
- Why Are the Oceans Salty? Because People Have Been Peeing for 10,000 Years, Obviously.
Recent Comments
Category Archives: Economy
The AI Gold Rush: What Happens When Everyone Strikes the Same Claim?
I hear a lot of people talk about AI. It is constant at work. My friends are fascinated by it. I hear people talking about it in line at the grocery store and at social events. It is on the … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Investing, Money, Technology
Tagged AI, bear market, boom, bust, COVID, data center, David Gardner, Dot-Com, freemium, gold rush, infrastructure, investing, Mark Twain, overinvestment, pandemic, revenue, snap test, stock market, Warren Buffett
Leave a comment
The Two Elephants in the Room
In response to my SMR article, I received a one word message from a reader: “Fusion?” Okay. That’s fair. When we talk about nuclear energy, there are really two elephants wandering around the room. One is fission, where we split … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Energy, Technology
Tagged Arthur Eddington, Big Bang, Chicago Pile-1, cold fusion, Enrico Fermi, fission, Fritz Strassmann, fusion, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lise Meitner, magnetic confinement, Martin Fleischmann, National Ignition Facility, nuclear energy, nuclear waste, Otto Frisch, Otto Hahn, physics, plasma, science, Stanley Pons, stellarator, tokamak, University of Chicago, University of Utah
Leave a comment
My Social Security Day: We Know the Cliff Is Coming, So Why are We Still Arguing About the Guardrail?
August 14, 2026, is the 91st anniversary of Social Security. On August 14, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law. It was an ambitious idea for its time to create a national system that would … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Leadership, Society
Tagged AARP, Alan Greenspan, August 14, COLA, Consumer Price Index, Disability Insurance, Franklin D. Roosevelt, My Social Security Day, OASI, Old Age and Survivors Insurance, payroll taxes, pension, retirement, Ronald Reagan, Social Security, taxes, Tip O’Neill
Leave a comment
The Power Plant That Comes to You: Why Small Modular Reactors Could Change Everything
When we think about electricity, we tend to think in one direction. Power plants stay put. Electricity travels. For more than a century, that’s how we’ve built civilization. We construct enormous coal plants, hydroelectric dams, natural gas stations, wind farms, … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Energy, Technology
Tagged coal, electricity, energy, HALEU, nuclear energy, Power as a Service, power grid, power plant, small modular reactors, SMR, uranium
Leave a comment
The High-Altitude Hangover: When Hype Meets the Weighing Machine
A coworker of mine is furious at Elon Musk. It isn’t about electric cars, social media algorithms or controversial tweets. It’s about space. It’s been about six weeks since SpaceX went public. The IPO was priced at $135 per share. … Continue reading
Laying Track in the Cloud: Why AI is the Railroad Mania of Our Time
Two centuries ago, the world was intoxicated by the smell of burning coal and the screech of iron wheels. It was the dawn of the railroad era. A blinding convergence of new technology and aggressive westward expansion that forged the … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Science, Technology
Tagged AI, artificial intelligence, economy, future, gold rush, innovation, railroads
Leave a comment
The Curious Case of Gold: A Brick Looking for a Greater Fool
A friend of mine told me something dubiously profound the other day. We were talking about the state of the world, which is always a dangerous conversational trailhead, and he leaned in with the intense, hushed tone usually reserved for … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Economy
Tagged business, civilization, economy, finance, gold, greater fool theory, investing, prepper, society, speculation, survivalist, valuation
Leave a comment
Juneteenth and the Dangerous Lie
There are holidays that celebrate victories. There are holidays that celebrate sacrifices. And then there are holidays that exist because humanity made a terrible mistake. Juneteenth belongs to that last category. But for many, Juneteenth has already been neatly packaged … Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Economy, Society
Tagged African Americans, America, Civil War, emancipation, farming, freedom, history, industry, institutions, Juneteenth, oppression, religion, serfdom, slavery
Leave a comment
The Brutal Sport of Business
It is early February 2026 and while the rest of the world is arguing over point spreads and whether the halftime show is “too much” or “not enough”, a different kind of draft is taking place in the glass towers … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Leadership, Society
Tagged Black Monday, Brookfield, business, CEO, Disney, gallows, game day, growth, leadership, NFL, PayPal, revolving door, strategic reset, Target, Up or Out, Wall Street, Walmart, Washington Post
Leave a comment