by Aseem Gupta | Mar 2, 2026 | Technology, AI & Complex Systems
In February 2026, France announced a €30 million effort to attract around 40 top AI researchers. On paper, it sounded like a confident European move. President Emmanuel Macron framed it as a sign that France believed in science, talent, and innovation. In a world...
by Aseem Gupta | Feb 10, 2026 | Political Theory, Governance & Ideology
A photograph can sometimes explain a revolution better than a manifesto. In Nepal, the image was not a speech, a party program, or a policy paper. It was the sight of a minister’s son surrounded by luxury goods in a country where millions of young people were...
by Aseem Gupta | Jan 11, 2026 | Economics, Markets & Money
For generations, New Zealand sold the world a beautiful promise. Clean air. Safe streets. Strong institutions. Spectacular landscapes. A calm, high-trust society at the edge of the world. It was the kind of country people dreamed of moving to, not the kind of country...
by Aseem Gupta | Jan 10, 2026 | Economics, Markets & Money
The easiest tax policy to understand is also one of the hardest to execute. Tax the rich. It sounds obvious. Billionaires own more wealth than entire cities, states, and sometimes small countries. Their fortunes rise with asset prices. Their lifestyles are funded by...
by Aseem Gupta | Dec 27, 2025 | Economics, Markets & Money
In early 2023, France appeared to be fighting over two years. President Emmanuel Macron’s government wanted to raise the minimum legal retirement age from 62 to 64. Millions of people marched against the proposal. Trade unions organised repeated strikes. Trains were...
by Aseem Gupta | Dec 13, 2025 | Technology, AI & Complex Systems
The Trillion-Dollar Question OpenAI earned approximately $13 billion in revenue in 2025. Around the same time, Sam Altman was describing plans for 30 gigawatts of artificial intelligence computing capacity requiring roughly $1.4 trillion of investment. Put those...
by Aseem Gupta | Nov 30, 2025 | Geopolitics, States & Global Power
Donald Trump does not simply claim to be a president who prefers peace. He presents himself as a uniquely effective peacemaker: the leader who can enter conflicts that have defeated conventional diplomats, threaten or charm the participants into agreement, and...
by Aseem Gupta | Nov 15, 2025 | Geopolitics, States & Global Power
Inside many electric vehicles is a motor capable of turning electrical energy into immediate, almost silent acceleration. Buried inside that motor may be a small collection of permanent magnets containing rare-earth elements such as neodymium and praseodymium....
by Aseem Gupta | Nov 2, 2025 | Political Theory, Governance & Ideology
In January 2009, Barack Obama entered the White House promising to change how power worked in Washington. One of his targets was the revolving door between government and private industry. Officials, he argued, should not be able to shape public policy, leave...
by Aseem Gupta | Oct 12, 2025 | Environment, Resources & Physical Geography
When the Sea Disappeared From Moynaq The ships are still there. Their hulls rise from the sand outside Moynaq, rusted and hollow, as though an ocean had withdrawn overnight and forgotten to take them. Seashells lie scattered beneath their keels. Beyond them, the...
