This piece draws together ideas emerging from recent conversations with some of the most compelling monetary thinkers around — most prominently Brent Johnson and Michael Every. What I find particularly striking is that the USD stablecoin thesis explored here isn't confined to one corner of the ideological map. Thinkers like Yanis Varoufakis, coming from a … Continue reading The Imperial Circle Returns: Are USD Stablecoins America’s Next Monetary Weapon?
Category: Reflections
Copernicus, Wittgenstein, Gold, and The Dollar
In my previous post, I described how the Bretton Woods agreement placed the U.S. dollar at the center of the global financial system; how that embeddedness deepened over decades; and how the structural mechanics of that arrangement generated the imbalances we now experience as geopolitical strain, excessive financialization, and social fragmentation. Running quietly beneath that … Continue reading Copernicus, Wittgenstein, Gold, and The Dollar
The Axis Mundi; How an Ancient Symbol Still Reveals Integrity, Meaning, and What Endures
At the foundation of premodern symbolic thought lies a simple but profound intuition: reality is experienced as the meeting of heaven and earth. This claim is easily misunderstood by modern readers, who are accustomed to treating such language as a primitive attempt at cosmology. But symbolic language was never primarily an explanation of physical mechanisms. … Continue reading The Axis Mundi; How an Ancient Symbol Still Reveals Integrity, Meaning, and What Endures
13 Things I Simultaneously (and Provisionally) Believe to Be True
Reflections in the wake of the Alex Pretti shooting Because the sovereign person is the highest-resolution unit of society—and because the state possesses an inherently asymmetric capacity for coercion—the default posture should always favor empowering the person and restraining the state. I strongly affirm both First and Second Amendment rights of the sovereign person (citizen) … Continue reading 13 Things I Simultaneously (and Provisionally) Believe to Be True
The Accuser and the Embracer; Two deaths, two spirits, and the deepest story ever told
As the Orthodox Christian artist and thinker Jonathan Pageau is wont to say, “Symbolism happens!” Symbolism, he explains, “is not so much an arbitrary allegorical representation of something, but rather the very pattern by which we notice meaning.” Sitting by the fire in the predawn pall of this bitter Minnesota winter, I found myself gazing … Continue reading The Accuser and the Embracer; Two deaths, two spirits, and the deepest story ever told
Between Federal Scylla and Local Charybdis; State Coercion, Civic Abdication, and the Fragility of Freedom
UPDATE: 12:53 p.m., Sunday, January 25, 2026 I originally published this piece just before 8:00 p.m. on Friday, January 23, 2026. Barely thirteen hours later—just after 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 24—37-year-old U.S. citizen and ICU nurse, Alex Jeffrey Pretti, was shot to death by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent near the intersection of … Continue reading Between Federal Scylla and Local Charybdis; State Coercion, Civic Abdication, and the Fragility of Freedom
The Sacred Hierarchy of Value: A Portal of Renewal in a Disenchanted Age
Listen: Speechify Audio Link Introduction In this post, I am going to attempt to articulate a perspective that, over the last eight years, has matured from a tiny seed to a deeply rooted, life-changing, and still vigorously growing personal reality. I remember vividly the first faint tremor—the prelude to the quake that would upend a … Continue reading The Sacred Hierarchy of Value: A Portal of Renewal in a Disenchanted Age
The Free Speech Principle
One of the cornerstones of my approach to navigating these fraught and destabilizing times is the near-daily habit of compiling, refining, reflecting on, and ever more fully embodying a collection of Foundational Axioms, Principles and Practices. One of these reads, "Free speech and free thought are the only correctives to human error. Think and speak … Continue reading The Free Speech Principle
I am Spartacus; An Unequivocal Recommitment to Free Speech
An “I am Spartacus” declaration, offered in memory of Charlie Kirk—who bore himself with steadfast courage and grace in defense of these sacred principles, and who, for his fidelity, just paid the ultimate price. I pledge: To think and speak my conscience—freely, fearlessly, and without equivocation. To defend your right to think and speak your … Continue reading I am Spartacus; An Unequivocal Recommitment to Free Speech
My Thinking Toolbox (2022)
The Thinker, Rodin I published the original version of this post in December 2018 as a loose collection of first principles, heuristics and bits and pieces of wisdom that serve to anchor my thinking. Like a treasured tree, I returned to it recently, and was delighted to both recognize an old friend, and discover abundant … Continue reading My Thinking Toolbox (2022)
Deliberative Dad 