Articles (General)
Long-Term Friends
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December 2016 Ivan Obolensky If you feel sick with cold-like symptoms, the question asked most often is, do I have a viral or bacterial infection? If it is a viral infection, you know you’re out of luck in terms of antibiotics, and unless the illness is caught early, there is nothing to be done other than persevere and hope that …
Read MoreThe Parable of the Bus
November 2016 Ivan Obolensky Imagine you are on a bus. You are a passenger and the bus travels over a mountain range. You have a window seat a few rows back from the driver. The bus is full of other passengers. You look out the window and marvel at the shifting landscape. Fields give way to foothills. Foothills give way …
Read MoreDemographic Changes
October 2016 Ivan Obolensky Shifting demographics are not just a modern phenomenon. The Roman Empire had a similar problem. Demographic change formed the backdrop against which the exile of one of Rome’s most scandalous and widely read poets played out. In the year 8 CE, Publius Ovidius Naso was exiled by the Emperor Augustus to Tomis, Romania. Tomis, modern Constanta, …
Read MoreMerit
September 2016 Ivan Obolensky Merit is defined as the quality of being particularly good or worthy. The original sense from Middle English was “deserved reward or punishment”.1 A meritocracy is a government or organizational system where those holding power or authority are selected for those positions based on ability alone.2 History shows that only a few have ever existed, but …
Read MoreLetter to RL
August 2016 Ivan Obolensky Note from Mary Jo: This month’s article is unusual, as it is a response to one of our readers, who wrote Ivan with questions and a request after last month’s article. The comprehensive response also addresses current events in the framework of history. We thought other readers might enjoy it. Letter from RL: Ivan… Your article …
Read MoreBalance
July 2016 Ivan Obolensky Profit is defined as financial gain, or the difference between the amount earned and the amount spent in buying, operating, or producing something. The term has been vilified or lauded throughout history depending on the time period and the author. It is a contentious subject, yet profit and the profit motive, when put in more abstract …
Read MoreA Power Story
June 2016 Ivan Obolensky How a technology develops and takes root is instructive on many levels. It is not necessarily dependent on the vision of those who conceived it. Technological success seems to follow a different path altogether. It is a process, with cost-effectiveness as the primary driver over the long term. In this, it follows nature, because nature is …
Read MoreNegative Interest Rates and Deflationary Banking
May 2016 Ivan Obolensky Many readers have heard of negative interest rates, but few are familiar with them, understand what they mean, and know their ramifications going forward. How is it possible to have negative interest rates on a mortgage, or even a credit card? The bank would pay me money? How is that even possible? The short answer is …
Read MorePolarization and the Battle for Our Minds
April 2016 Ivan Obolensky Many, including a surprising number of its citizens, consider the USA to be a democracy. Strictly speaking, it is not. It is a republic. A republic is defined as a form of government in which the citizens elect representatives who do the actual governing according to a set of laws as laid out in a constitution.1 …
Read MoreCoincidence and Meaning
March 2016 Ivan Obolensky Human beings are born with an innate instinct to see patterns in the world. It is part of our nature to find them. One pattern is the coincidence. It is defined as a remarkable occurrence of events without apparent causal connection. Coincidences, when they occur, seem peculiarly significant. They give us reason to wonder. How should …
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