Amit's Blog

A seemingly minor succession crisis in Portugal unleashed a century of global warfare, financial revolution, and ecological adaptation—proving that the nation which masters credit, not just cannon, will rule the waves. Between 1580 and 1713, global power shifted from Iberian monopolists to Dutch merchants to English financiers. The Portuguese lost sovereignty to Spain in 1580, creating an opening that Dutch and English raiders exploited. Portugal regained independence in 1668 but had lost its Asian spice empire to the Dutch, pivoting instead to Brazilian gold and African slaves. The Dutch built the world's first truly global market, yet their decentralized republic could not sustain prolonged war. England, protected by the Channel, invented a radical solution: a permanent national debt guaranteed by Parliament and managed by the Bank of England (1694). This fiscal-naval state turned paper into warships, taxes into interest payments, and borrowed money into a standing profes...

From Medieval Forts to Digital Panopticons, How Power Hoards Space Across Centuries and Continents   Delhi is not merely a city of layered histories but a living ledger of spatial conquest. Successive rulers—from medieval sultans to British planners to modern administrators—have treated its landscape as a blank canvas for asserting absolute authority through massive land sequestration. Sovereignty, in this enduring philosophy, is measured by the luxury of wasted space: vast walled citadels, garden tombs, low-density bungalow zones, and today’s fortified administrative corridors. This pattern of elite isolation did not dissolve with Independence. Instead, the post-1947 state inherited colonial and pre-colonial enclaves, expanding them into new frontiers like Noida while consolidating power in redeveloped Central Vista. The result is a fragmented metropolis where prime land remains locked for the few, forcing the many into dense margins. This spatial DNA is hardly unique to...

Six hundred years of data from Florence prove that meritocracy is a lie. The glass floor is real, and your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather’s tax return still predicts your paycheck. The Number That Should Haunt You Let us begin with a number so small that most economists would dismiss it as noise: 0.04 . That is the long-run earnings elasticity between the richest families of Florence in 1427 and their descendants alive today in 2011. It sounds like nothing. A rounding error. A statistical ghost that disappears the moment you adjust for measurement. But here is the thing. Standard economic models predict that number should be zero . Not 0.04. Zero. The reason is pure math. Over twenty generations—roughly six hundred years—every financial advantage should have been diluted into oblivion. Marriages scatter wealth. Children split inheritances. Wars, plagues, expropriations, an...