GUEST POST: Dispatch from Texas, or a Case Study in Systems Failure
Editor’s note: Howard Gerwin, a classmate from Rice University back in the day, sent me this note on Thursday, February…
Browsing: The Horn
Gray Rhino Theory and the Texas Deep Freeze
The deep freeze that has held Texas in its grip this week brought back memories –definitely not “warm” ones—of the…
The Top Gray Rhinos of 2020: A Review and Peek Ahead at 2021
At the risk of gross understatement: What a year 2020 has been. And yet… Even with the enormous human cost…
Life-or-Death Pandemic Choices: 1918 and Today
My paternal great-grandfather, Josef Franz Bílek, died on November 13, 1918, in the second wave of the Great Flu Pandemic.…
Debt and Society: Newly Timely Historical Perspectives
“Two new books about the historical roots of debt could hardly be more timely,” I wrote for The Washington Post Bookworld in…
The Coming Sovereign Debt Crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a double challenge: First, an increased sense of urgency to deal with the ravages of…
Will the Stock Market Burn Down the Real Economy?
Riding a liquidity fueled mega-rally, the S&P 500 is back comfortably above 3000, having recovered more than 70 percent of what…
COVID-19 Requires a Mindset Shift on Inequality
How often do you or those around you recognize that a problem exists but come up with any number of…
The Climate-COVID19 Nexus
Will the COVID-19 pandemic make it easier or harder to combat climate change? Many articles have appeared in recent weeks…
The Top Gray Rhino Risks of 2020
This is a strange year for my fifth annual round-up of the things that keep the world’s risk observers up…