Every evolving natural system follows fractal dynamics, and the most common fit is a power law: A) Ideas Networks; B) Metabolic Networks; C) Economic Networks; D) Bitcoin Network.

Rivers and mountains share fractal geometries, and both exhibit power law regularities in their observable properties. In 1957, John Hack, studying rivers and streams in Virginia and Maryland, measured the length of each stream and the area of land draining into it, known as its drainage basin. He discovered that the length of a stream, from the smallest brook to the mightiest river, is approximately proportional to its drainage area raised to the power of 0.6. There is some variation around that exponent, but, as Hack himself wrote, "the general regularity of the relation is nevertheless remarkable". As a matter of fact, the relationship appeared to hold regardless of the geological or structural characteristics of the terrain. It was later confirmed across a broad set of river networks around the world. Mountains exhibit similar regularities. The relationship between differences in elevation and horizontal distance in a mountain range can also be described by a power law: typical elevation differences increase approximately as distance raised to the power of H, known as the Hurst exponent (or roughness exponent). In real topographies, H often varies between 0.4 and 0.8, depending on the landscape, the spatial scale considered, and the interplay between tectonic forces pushing mountains upward and erosional processes, such as rainfall and glaciers, wearing them down. There are also statistical scaling laws governing the areas of islands and certain mountainous regions, notably Korčák's law, stating that the number of islands or geographical regions with an area greater than a given threshold tends to decrease according to a power law as that threshold increases. Different landscapes, different physical processes, yet remarkably similar mathematical regularities and scale invariance in observables and global geometry. New ideas are needed in this field. [Pic 1: Dry streambeds in Yemen.] [Pic 2: A river network in South Korea, near Seoul.]

I think I can formalize how the political version of the Byzantine Generals Problem is being solved through the coordination game of European nations.

Financial repression is the way to go for central banks now. I find it unlikely that the Fed and the ECB will hike rates this week. Hard times coming for small and fragile currencies.

I find it quite absurd that the US spends more public money per capita on healthcare and education than any other country in the world, while at the same time having the highest number of people heavily indebted because of healthcare and education. The US public sector has been completely captured by lobbying. People are slaves waiting to wake up. This country cannot exist without being extremely wealthy, and it will find itself very weak and with very low resilience as soon as the wealth abundance of the past 150 years is gone. Not around the corner, but still, history is infinite for everybody, and nothing is eternal.

Perhaps this week we will get rid of Vučić, one of the most squalid figures in European politics of the new millennium, who has humiliated his great country and his continent on a daily basis. There's a long way to go for the tortured country of Serbia, and I have no illusions that the next government will solve everything. But I hope it can be the first step towards the future, rather than another step back into an elusive past that is increasingly devoid of dignity.

Roofs and flags in Rome.

People would ignore strategic incentives and facts to listen to Trump and the various puppets of American propaganda. A defeat for the world, the win for the US. We live in the American century. The amplification of their propaganda by foreign analysts is the most humiliating evidence of it.