Substack Library

Glossary

China’s “Maskirovka”

I cannot sleep.

What’s Next

Yet something alerted him; he pricked up his ears and stopped, rooted to the spot, feeling a vague sense of unease.

Europe Held Hostage

“The EU faces structurally higher energy and raw material costs.”

The Downdraft

Have you always been crazy?

The Global Scan

My desire to reconcile my family’s communist background with my own capitalist ambitions had brought me to Russia, but, naively, I never imagined that this pursuit would result in a human tragedy.

Immoral Markets

In the government quarter of Berlin during the course of 17 April, nobody really knew what to do except draft strong declarations combined with further threats of execution.

Party Logic

It seems to me the quality that makes any book, music paining worthwhile is life, just that. Books, music, painting are not life, can never be as full, rich, complex, surprising or beautiful, but the best of them can catch an echo of that, can turn you back to look out the window, go out the door aware that you’ve been enriched, that you have been in the company of something alive that has caused you to realize once again how astonishing life is, and you leave the book, gallery or concert hall with that illumination, which feels I’m going to say holy, by which I mean human raptness.

The Degrees Matter

After victory, we must at once put forward a new task. In this way, cadres and the masses will forever be filled with revolutionary fervour, instead of conceit.

Wealth, War& Rates

Readers, I was a guest on the Market Huddle podcast this week. Here is a recording if that’s of interest. I will also release a new podcast this weekend, a conversation with writer David McCloskey, once a spy, now a spy writer. Finally, while I wish I could give away the material for free, I can’t. The paywall compensates me and my team for the effort.

The Swing to Center

“Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women.” Ataturk.