Essays, half-formed thoughts, and things I am trying to figure out.
Recent
The Fastener That Ate Two Hundred Million Dollars
How a real Australian invention became a machine for converting shareholders into creditors — 23 years, two convictions, and $47.9m paid to management.
The House Is the State
A $1.8 billion jackpot pays $378 million. Half of Americans play. The ones with least spend most. What the lottery is actually selling, and who pays for it.
The Account That Isn't
Social Security was built as a pay-as-you-go transfer and sold as individual savings — so effectively that America can no longer discuss what it actually built.
The Price of Time
Across the world and within every country, money buys years of life — and the same dollar buys wildly different amounts depending on where, and who, you are.
Singapore: From Maritime Emporium to Global Hub
How a swampy trading post kept reinventing itself into one of the richest nations on earth.
Madagascar: A Continent in Miniature
An island that evolved its own rules — biologically, then politically — right up to the 2025 coup.
Cheap Things, Expensive Life
Everyone agrees the rich got richer. Almost everyone concludes the rest got poorer. The second thing isn't true — and what actually happened is stranger.
How 1621 Survival Became a National Myth
A short audio piece on how a single hard winter got rewritten into the Thanksgiving story.
Essays
all →The Fastener That Ate Two Hundred Million Dollars
How a real Australian invention became a machine for converting shareholders into creditors — 23 years, two convictions, and $47.9m paid to management.
The House Is the State
A $1.8 billion jackpot pays $378 million. Half of Americans play. The ones with least spend most. What the lottery is actually selling, and who pays for it.
The Account That Isn't
Social Security was built as a pay-as-you-go transfer and sold as individual savings — so effectively that America can no longer discuss what it actually built.
The Price of Time
Across the world and within every country, money buys years of life — and the same dollar buys wildly different amounts depending on where, and who, you are.
Notes
all →On keeping a notebook
Why I started writing things down in public, and what I hope it does.
Primers
all →Singapore: From Maritime Emporium to Global Hub
How a swampy trading post kept reinventing itself into one of the richest nations on earth.
Madagascar: A Continent in Miniature
An island that evolved its own rules — biologically, then politically — right up to the 2025 coup.
How 1621 Survival Became a National Myth
A short audio piece on how a single hard winter got rewritten into the Thanksgiving story.
How Ancient Terror Became Modern Candy
A short audio piece on how Halloween's frights got sanded down into sweets.