The United States keeps running into the same strategic problem.

We say we want to compete with China without going to war.
We say we want to support allies without dominating them.
We say places like Greenland and the Arctic matter strategically.

And yet, when it comes to non-military power, the U.S. has almost nothing credible to offer.

In this solo episode, Daniel Stih breaks down why Greenland exposes a deeper flaw in U.S. strategy — not a failure of leadership, but a failure of available tools. When the only funded options are military force, sanctions, or profit-seeking private investment, even reasonable leaders are forced into bad choices.

This episode introduces a missing alternative:
a Federal Highway Act–style model for allied strategic infrastructure.

Instead of coercion or transactional deals, what if the U.S. built shared, civilian infrastructure as a long-term public good — the same way it once built the interstate highway system at home?

You'll hear:
• Why military power alone can't compete with long-term infrastructure investment
• Why Greenland isn't "broken" — it's underbuilt
• Why private markets can't justify highways, ports, or Arctic resilience
• How the interstate highway system solved a similar problem in 1956
• What a non-war U.S. power model could actually look like
• Why real leadership sometimes means inventing the option that doesn't exist yet

This is not an argument about politics.
It's a conversation about systems, incentives, and missing institutions.

Greenland is not the story.
Greenland is the test case.

If the U.S. wants influence without force, alignment without coercion, and competition without war — it needs a civilian strategic infrastructure model that matches the world we actually live in.

Subscribe for more solo episodes on thinking clearly, systems design, and solving hard problems without noise.

Most people think banks lend money.
They don't. They create it.

I sit down with economist Steve Keen to explain how money, banking, and the Federal Reserve actually work. Our conversation tackles one of the biggest sources of confusion in economics:
where money comes from, what the Federal Reserve was designed to do, and why financial crises keep repeating—even when the tools change.

This episode is about mechanics, incentives, and systems.

• Where money really comes from
• Why banks don't lend existing money
• How money is created when a loan is approved
• How this explains booms, crashes, and sudden financial collapses
• What the Federal Reserve is—and what it isn't
• Is the Federal Reserve public or private?
• Why it wasn't designed as a normal government agency
• What the Fed was never meant to fix
• Why stabilizing panic ≠ fixing incentives
• How boom–bust cycles really work
• Quantitative Easing explained without jargon

SHOW NOTES:

Steve Keen

Substack - Building a New Economics: https://profstevekeen.substack.com/

Website: https://www.stevekeen.com/
Invite-Only: Dr. Steve Keen's Private 7-Week 'Rebel Economist Challenge'

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ProfSteveKeen

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ProfSteveKeen

Books:

Money and Macroeconomics from First Principles for Elon Musk and Other Engineers.: https://www.amazon.com/Money-Macroeconomics-First-Principles-Engineers-ebook/dp/B0FLWJ8LXY

Debunking Economics (Digital Edition - Revised, Expanded and Integrated): The Naked Emperor Dethroned: https://www.amazon.com/Debunking-Economics-Digital-Integrated-Dethroned-ebook/dp/B09LQ9JJYP

• USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FLWJ8LXY
• UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FLWJ8LXY
• Germany: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0FLWJ8LXY
• FR ; ES ; IT ; NL ;JP ; BR ; CA ; MX ; AU

Forbes Articles: https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevekeen/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Most explanations about Venezuela fall into two simple stories:

• "They removed a bad guy."
• "This will lead to cheaper gas."

Both sound plausible. Neither survive with how oil markets, geopolitics, and incentives work. Examine the mechanics underneath the story:

• How "bad actor" narratives simplify a complex structural conflict
• How oil prices are set and why Venezuela's oil won't lower gas prices
• Why strategic alignment, precedent, and rule-setting matter more than bad actor behavior and pump prices

This is not a defense of any government or leader, and it does not minimize real abuses or governance failures. This is an exercise in thinking clearly.