Schools, roads, courts, elections, and technology do not automatically reform a society. Without the underlying habits of truth, trust, conscience, and self-command, imported institutions are captured by the culture beneath them.
I examine why irrationality cannot simply be reasoned away when beliefs are embedded in identity, loyalty, fear, shame and the subconscious—and why reforming a society is harder still.
Outsourcing Indian consular services is supposed to improve efficiency. My experience with BLS suggests that it can instead add another layer of cost, delay, bureaucracy and diffused responsibility.
Love, respect, truth and self-respect require distinctions that do not arise automatically from instinct. I examine the civilizational origins of moral emotions and moral concepts.
Jayant Bhandari examines why China works more effectively than India, with investment notes on Cygnus Metals, European Lithium, Silver47, and Aztec Minerals.
I join David Oualaalou to discuss BRICS, India’s foreign policy, China, the yuan, UPI, India’s economy, Manipur, Kashmir and Asia’s changing balance of power.
Cheap wages can conceal enormous hidden costs. I examine how productivity, quality, supervision, reliability, and cultural attitudes toward work determine the real cost of labor.
Why does China work while India so often does not? I examine the deeper habits of competence, responsibility, quality, and social order that distinguish the two societies.
A reflection on the family as a source of morality—or predation—followed by investment notes on Nameson Holdings, Aztec Minerals, Cygnus Metals and European Lithium.
I join Farzin Irani on Connecting the Dots to discuss democracy, Western decline, India and China, East Asia, capitalism, natural-resource investing, and the preservation of wealth.