Notes on Markets, Systems & Global Commerce

I have toyed around for years with the idea of joining the US foreign service. A chance to work directly on things with global implications while exploring the world as a stranger in a strange land has been a career fantasy of mine since I made the decision to work in supply chain. Around a year ago while studying for the Foreign Service exam, I read Chokepoints by former US diplomat Edward Fishman, a book I recommend to anyone when discussing CNTRAL now. I wanted a better u

Most people still hear “stablecoin” and immediately think “crypto.” That reaction makes sense, but stablecoins should not be thought of in the same way as something like Bitcoin. Stablecoins came from the crypto world, trade on crypto exchanges, and are usually discussed alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, wallets, tokens, and speculation. But I think that framing misses the more important point. The most interesting thing about stablecoins is not that they are crypto; it is that th

Goods, money, people, religion, disease, technology, and power have always moved through routes. The places that mattered most were often the places sitting along those routes or controlling access to what the world needed at the time. This is one of the major themes I took from The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. A review from the London School of Economics describes the book as an attempt to push back against the idea that globalization is only a story of Western expansion,