I have lived long enough to watch the soil of the Midwest turn from something we plowed into something we paved over for data centers. I see the world through a window pane that is cold, clean, and increasingly expensive. Being a man of quiet habits and a fair amount of book-learning, I spend long Read More …
Tag: mark twain
A Dream Deferred by a Dollar Sign
There is a peculiar kind of weather in America today. It is a season where the rain falls only on the pavement, leaving the gardens of the ordinary man to bone-dry dust, while the glass towers of corporate high-rises are washed clean every morning by the sweat of people they never see. If we look Read More …
The Gospel According to San Jose
There was a time when the architectures of greed were at least pleasantly straightforward. One could stroll down to the riverfront, observe the soot-choked brick factories, and point a gloved finger directly at the man with the loudest watch and know exactly who was shortening his lifespan for a nickel. It was a dreadful arrangement, Read More …
The Prison Boom Nobody Talks About Enough
There’s a story hiding in plain sight in America, and it’s one we should probably be talking about a lot more. Start with some numbers. In 1972, around 330,000 people were behind bars in the United States. By 2008, that figure had ballooned to 2.3 million, an increase of over 700 percent. Even today, in Read More …
The Captains of Phantom Industry
It has been brought to my attention through the standard digital pipelines, which I understand are powered by invisible currents and the tireless labor of folks sitting in cubicles under dimly lit fluorescent lights (to save on the electric bill, Bob Cratchit) , that we are on the precipice of welcoming our very first trillionaire. Read More …
A View from the Pavement
They still shout about the Dream, you know. They shout it from the floors of Congress, which has fast become the most lucrative country club in the modern world, a place where a slick tongue and a reliance on campaign money can secure a lifetime of wealth and comfort. Don’t forget the pension and free Read More …
The Golden Calf in the Cloud
It has always been a theory of mine that if you want to know what the Lord God thinks of money, you have only to look at those to whom He gives it. But these days, one doesn’t even have to look very hard; the details are delivered directly to the glowing little glass bricks Read More …
A Dream Deferred on Capitol Hill
I have always been a man who watches the avenues, who listens to the rhythm of the feet on the concrete. If I were standing on the corner of 125th Street or State Street today, I wouldn’t just be leaning against a lamppost with a notebook; I’d be watching the blue light of the smartphone Read More …
A Modern Simple Gospel
I look out from my window at a world that claims to be moving forward at the speed of fiber-optics, yet seems stuck in the mud of ancient greed. We have shiny boxes in our pockets with these “Large Language Models” that can attempt to mimic a soul, and yet the heart of our nation Read More …
The Ubiquitous Portfolio
There is something profoundly modern about a man who can manage to be entirely missing and yet universally present, provided the territory in question is the New York Stock Exchange. Consider the curious case of New Jersey Representative Tom Kean Jr., a gentleman who has elevated the art of the French exit to a federal Read More …