Collaboration is risky. If it fails, if the occupation is wound up prematurely and the bad guys come back to power, you might find yourself in some serious trouble.

I refuse to accept that Western civilization is like some hopeless old version of Microsoft DOS, doomed to freeze, then crash. I still cling to the hope that the United States is the Mac to Europe's PC, and that if one part of the West can successfully update and reboot itself, it's America.

The West may collapse very suddenly. Complex civilizations do that, because they operate, most of the time, on the edge of chaos.

The ascent of money has been essential to the ascent of man.

When bond prices fall, interest rates soar, with painful consequences for all borrowers.

A historian is battling all the time to remember as much as possible.

Collaboration is risky. If it fails, if the occupation is wound up prematurely and the bad guys come back to power, you might find yourself in some serious trouble.