Edifice of Trust

In a recent tweet, President Trump not only accused China of currency manipulation but also pressured the Federal Reserve to lower interest rate in order to weaken the dollar. But tariffs and currency manipulation are just part of the mercantilist tool kit that the president is using to create an import substitution regime in the United States. In the weeks episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Vict...

What is the American Dream? Americans want the opportunity to achieve it. Foreigners clamber over our borders to get it. Politicians promise to give it. But what is the American Dream? In this week's episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discuss what the American Dream really is. And it may not be what you think.

Two black economic professors are advising several of the Democratic presidential aspirants about how to close the affluence gap between black and white Americans which they ascribe to the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow segregation. But will these costly progressive programs do any better than the War on Poverty to solve this intractable problem? In this week's commentary the Edifice of Trust host...

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses Stanford Neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky who in his 2017 book, Behave, writes that human behavior is a reaction to chemicals and hormones produced by the human body in response to external stimuli and goes further to state that a number of neurobiologists believe that free will is an illusion. He is joined by other scientists who...

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, asks Is crime due to evil? Or is it the result of stunted neural development, an enlarged amygdala or excessive glucocorticoids in criminals, as Neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky believes? And if crime is just neural reactions and organic chemistry, what is justice and what is the role of punishment? Ultimately, how does neurobiology impact t...

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, observes that the debates of the presidential candidates have already begun 494 days before the 2020 elections and the candidates are offering trillions of dollars in new programs as enticements for voters. President John F. Kennedy had a different idea. In this commentary we take a look had what he said 57 years ago and see how it is stil...

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, delves further into Behave, the book written by Dr. Robert Sapolsky, in order to investigate the neurobiology of US-vs-Them and discover if neurobiology can give us insights into how to cure the seemingly unsolvable division that separates us in America?  

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses how low socio-economic status and poverty affects the brain development in children and what to do about it.

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses if social democracy is the right political system for America. An analysis of why social democracy has been so successful in the Nordic Countries and an investigation if this success could be recreated in the United States.

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses how President Trump believes that the threat of tariffs is a powerful tool that can force other countries to do what he wants. His most recent threat to impose tariffs is aimed at Mexico not because of the imbalance of trade, but because he believes that Mexico is not doing enough to stop illegal immigrants passing though Mexican...

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses the recent book by Dr. Robert Sapolsky, Behave, The Biology of Humans at our Best and Worst and how it is important for our understanding of how economics and politics function.

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses how the current debate on abortion has been captured by the extreme wings of the left and right, leaving most of the American public on the sidelines.

At the request of a listener, in this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, explores more deeply the proposals presented by Ray Dalio to improve economic conditions and reduce income inequality that were discussed in my previous podcast, the Missing Element (May 2, 2019).

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses how Ray Dalio and Jamie Dimon have both written recently about our fraying society and how to reform capitalism to work for everybody. What they get right/what they miss.

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses about how many Democratic presidential candidates  are proposing changes the US Constitution that they say will improve American democracy but what they are actually doing is eroding the checks and balances that the Founders created in order to insure the liberty of the American people.

In this episode the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses that there are reasons that human activities result in undesirable outcomes but no one wants to put in the hard work to create real change by addressing the underlying reasons for the outcome. Instead, laws mandating the preferred outcomes are passed based on ideology and preconceived notions. But papering over problems instead of...

A news article from El Salvador that points out how the political party of the leftist government is blocking the smooth transition of power after recent elections causes the hist, Victor Bolles, to reflect on the failures of socialism.

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, reflects that the Mueller Report is out but the Democrats remain outraged because it is a confidential report to the Attorney General, the full report has not yet been made public. But it appears that this scandal has just about run its course.

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, reflects on the possible candidacy of former Vice President Joe Biden for the 2020 presidential election and the what such a candidacy would mean. ​ "Right now, we face a Hobson's choice between populist extremes on the left and the right. Joe could provide us with a cooling off period allowing the political forces in our country to realiz...

The various Democratic candidates for president are coming up with often outrageous  proposals on how to tax the rich. Andrew Ross Sorkin wrote in the New York Times, Tax The Rich? Here's how to do it (Sensibly). In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses whether or not his proposals actually do make sense.

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses how the progressive left attempts to isolate and alienate minorities through identity politics to keep them from assimilating into the American mainstream culture.

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses how an interview with Liam Neeson caused him to ruminate about Western Civilization and the internal and external forces seeking to destroy it.

On Sunday, January 27, 2019, billionaire Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, announced that he was running for president of the United States as an independent centrist. The Edifice of Trust podcast host wonders If he is just another money addled billionaire or do we need to sit up and listen?

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses how it takes a combination of heart and mind to run a country and why that is not happening in the United States.

In this episode, the Edifice of Trust host, Victor Bolles, discusses how America's addiction to entitlements not only makes people financially dependent on government but also makes them psychologically dependent on government aid.