Economics and History
This category follows the long arc of how societies rise, trade, adapt, and sometimes fall. I’ve always felt that living in the Pacific Northwest, where old logging towns sit beside modern tech corridors, makes it easier to see how economic forces and historical currents shape each other in real time. Here you’ll find articles that explore economic systems, historical turning points, and the archaeological clues that anchor both. The goal is to connect past and present with clear analysis, so we can understand not just what happened, but why it still matters now.
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Glance and un Coup D’œil
“A blow that bounces off” I live in a corner of the map where conversation veers from espresso foam to avalanche reports without warning, so when I hear two words that seem to point at the same mental move, I… Continue reading
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Charging the Future One Neighborly Question at a Time
One of my recent conversations started the way these things usually do, leaning over a fence with coffee in hand. Our neighbors had just filled their Subaru SUV and were still a little stunned by the receipt. Gas prices do… Continue reading
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The National ID Idea and America’s Ongoing War with Math
I read this question on Threads while sipping a too-hot coffee in a too-cold morning: “Wouldn’t a national ID solve the voting issue?” The phrasing hung in my notifications like a damp sock on a line, not offensive, just odd… Continue reading
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Asherah’s Tree and Israel’s Lamp
A Field‑Trained Reader’s Essay on Continuity, Reform, and Memory I recently read three more pieces on Asherah, the Caananite deity related to Yahweh, with a specific hope: if I set the iconography next to the texts and the archaeology, maybe… Continue reading
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When Gold Falls First: Stress, Liquidity, and Who the Market Serves
I occasionally trade in small scale metals, so I came across a familiar question when watching metals trade through moments of stress: if gold is meant to reflect fear, why does it so often fall when fear arrives? The recent… Continue reading
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Fertility’s Real Fault Line: Money, Not Morals
The “replacement rate” debate isn’t about fate. It’s about who can afford a future. I’m going to be blunt in a Pacific Northwest way: the U.S. birth‑rate slide is not a mystery of culture or a shrug about “life choices.”… Continue reading
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“Those who can, do…”—What Shaw really asked us to do
I live under tall firs and a low cloud ceiling that makes you honest about what matters. When I told a younger organizer your line, “if you are still young… do!”, I recognized the current moving beneath it: a misquoted… Continue reading
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Naming the Politics of Destruction
Why “Efficiency” Keeps Failing People I live in a place where people still talk policy on ferry decks and in trailhead parking lots, so I am going to be plain. The I like Richard J. Murphy as an economist, and… Continue reading
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Merit, Pedigree, and the Distance Between What We Say and What We Do
I live in a place that prefers straight talk and measurable results. When local leaders celebrate a “merit-based” economy, I hear an aspiration that does not line up with what I have watched in hiring rooms, funding meetings, and admissions… Continue reading
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Who Really “Generated” the Most National Debt?
A Short Analytical Essay Inspired by a Facebook Question A Facebook post recently asked which U.S. president saw the largest rise in the national debt during their time in office. Like a lot of political questions online, the wording looks… Continue reading
