1. A country’s economy does not exist in isolation, even if the country does.

2. People use subjective narratives to interpret what they don’t understand. Those narratives often have more to do with the values of the narrator than reality.

3. Political systems are a buffer for emotional responses. When they fail to do that, we call it a “political crisis”.

4. Stock markets depend on psychology more than economics.

5. There are only so many words to forecast impending doom; you then have to recycle.

6. Economic partnerships are connected by convenience and necessity; they can quickly become alliances of mutual exploitation.

7. World-changing decisions can be down to no more than human fatigue.

8. Negotiation is a natural lubricant for human interfacing; between countries, it’s shear stress.

9. “Union” is a fickle term.

10. There are different kinds of wars because there are different kinds of weapons.