I have been observing with breathless awe the latest triumph of our grand Republic’s economic engine. We are told by the public prints that the government has appointed its first Chief Design Officer, a gentleman of immense private fortune and impeccable aesthetic taste, whose solemn patriotic duty is to “modernize the internet-facing portions” of our Read More …
Tag: USA
The Gospel of the Crumbs
I was sitting in a diner off the Ike recently, watching a man in a grease-stained union jacket argue with a fellow in a crisp button down. They weren’t arguing about the score of the game or the price of a ham sandwich. They were arguing about “identity”, who’s taking whose “spot,” who’s “woke,” and Read More …
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 of Gold and Gadgets
There is a particular brand of comedy being staged in the higher echelons of our society, and though I am told it is a drama, I simply cannot stop laughing through the tears. We find ourselves trapped in an era dominated by a “Technological Totalitarian State”, a delightfully sterile phrase for what is essentially a 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 …
The Altar of the New Gilded Age
The algorithms hum in the deep neon of the Chicago evening, ticking away like a million little telegraphs from a future we didn’t ask for. Down on LaSalle Street, the margins are up. Goldman Sachs reports that corporate markups have doubled since the late eighties, a cold ten percent of pure extraction built on the 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 …
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 …
The Gospel According to the Garment District
There is a distinct, suffocating modern aroma that smells remarkably like a blend of freshly minted crypto, expensive cologne, and the distinct, stale scent of a Sunday pew that hasn’t seen an honest tear since the Eisenhower administration. We are currently expected to bow our heads to a rather peculiar trinity: Capitalism, Christianity, and Patriotism. Read More …
The Neon Jungle and the Shrinking Ballot
Listen, I’ve seen the seasons turn from the red clay of Kansas to the steel-grey skies of Harlem, and I have maybe at least learned one thing in my life: Today the song of liberty sounds a lot like a cash register if you listen close enough. Today, we’re living in a high-speed, digital age Read More …