Issue 2
Issue 2 Digital MagazineIssue 2 features ten student articles and ten interviews with academics and public figures, covering topics such as Ukraine’s resistance to Russia, Canada’s carbon tax, the effects of AI on jobs, and global poverty. Many of the pieces look at how political and economic decisions affect people’s lives and who ends up paying the costs.
‘I need ammunition, not a ride.'
Covers the five factors behind Ukraine's resistance and finds that leadership and the ability to adapt in the field mattered more than firepower alone.
Unenforced, not Unsolvable
Thirty years of climate treaties have produced agreement without compliance, because international law has no way to force a country to follow through.
From Oil Rigs to Climate Tech
An engineer who once built offshore drilling rigs now works on a platform that connects Korean and Southeast Asian green-tech firms, and rates its impact at five out of ten.
Conditional Fragility
Looks at what happens when AI trading programs for oil, wheat, and other goods act alike during a crisis, and whether the usual safety rules target the problem.
Who Pays for Intelligence?
AI is straining electricity grids built for another economy, so the question is who pays for the power and who carries the risk if the boom falls short.
Universal Capital, Not Income
A Greek MP argues basic income won't be enough once AI displaces labour, proposing housing, dividend-paying capital, and a personal AI agent for everyone instead.
A Country-less Currency, and a Country Drowning in Its Currency
Why the dollar is used to price trade between other countries, and how demand for the Swiss franc left Switzerland's central bank with the world's largest balance sheet relative to its economy.
The End of the Sticker Price
Big data and algorithmic pricing may be eroding the privacy that kept consumers from paying exactly what they were willing to, though the article says how far this has gone is contested.
What States and Deeds Can’t Do
An Egyptian political economist explains how Middle Eastern states can be both authoritarian and weak, and why formal property titles won't fix it.
Built to Fail
Lebanon's power-sharing system, designed to stop any one sect from dominating, has made reform very difficult and is a major part of the country's problems.
“Axe the Tax”
Explains why Canadian voters rejected a carbon tax that returned most households more money than it cost them.
When Votes Don't Matter
An Icelandic economist ties the stalled rollout of a constitution backed by two-thirds of voters fourteen years ago to the resource curse playing out inside a wealthy democracy.
Your Attention, Priced
Human attention has quietly become a raw material bought and sold at scale, with costs landing even on services marketed as free.
Your Attention, Spent
A philosopher who builds mathematical models of human behaviour maps the attention economy through three character types.
What AI Doesn't Destroy
AI is wiping out some job tasks and leaving others alone, and the ones left standing are becoming more valuable.
Economic Models Can’t Vote
What an economic model tells a government to do and what that government can get away with before an election are often two different things.
The Kindest Lies
Compares deontology and utilitarianism with care ethics and concludes that white lies may be excusable but are rarely the right choice, since tactful honesty protects both feelings and trust.
The Lottery You Cannot Leave
Argues that rich countries owe the world's poor justice, because the trade and finance rules that decide a child's chances from birth were written without them.
What We “Shouldn't” Love
A philosopher on why patriotism feels good but falls apart once you try to defend it logically.
Bent by Hand
History has a shape but no built-in destination, so any justice that arrives will be bent there by what people choose to do.