Government & Reform · Human agency
The Courage to Make American Mythology True
America’s promise is human agency. The question is whether we have the courage to make that promise true.
Read today's essayThe governing argument
The search for human agency.
In an era of concentrated power, broken government and artificial intelligence.
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Editorial selections
Today's Six Picks
Six picks. Updated daily.
01 · Money & PowerReuters
In the US, a wealth boom and a price shock collide
Reuters reports that household wealth in the United States rose 16.5 percent, or roughly $26 trillion, from the end of the Biden administration through the second quarter of 2026, but the least wealthy half of households received less than $500 billion of that gain.
Read the selection02 · Government & ReformAssociated Press
Supreme Court agrees to hear watchdog lawsuit seeking records on Elon Musk's DOGE
The Supreme Court agreed to hear a Freedom of Information Act dispute over whether the Department of Government Efficiency functioned as a federal agency or merely as a presidential advisory body.
Read the selection03 · AI & TechnologyReuters
IMF says AI investment keeps global growth around 3% but brings massive disruption
IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said AI infrastructure investment is helping keep global growth near 3 percent and could raise growth in advanced Asian economies by 0.5 to 1 percentage point and in emerging Asian economies by 0.2 to 0.8 point.
Read the selection04 · Media & AttentionSocial Market Foundation
No news is bad news: The hidden threat of unchecked local misinformation
The Social Market Foundation analyzed more than 125,000 posts from local Facebook groups, X searches, and Nextdoor locations in Britain.
Read the selection05 · Meaning & BelongingThe Atlantic
The Anti-Social Century
Thompson argues that rising solitude—not simply self-reported loneliness—is a defining social fact.
Read the selection06 · Lives & PlacesReuters
Fed survey shows price pressures intensifying as fuel costs rise
The Federal Reserve's Beige Book found intensifying price pressure across its 12 districts, with 21 references to high diesel costs compared with two in the previous report.
Read the selectionLatest video
Thoughts Along the Way.
Short observations on the forces shaping our lives—and the choices still available to us.
View all on YouTubeInflation is the currency collapse and bond default - redirected at the non-super rich.
Watch on YouTube“Longest way round is the shortest home.”—James Joyce
Watch on YouTubeThe tax code is the most honest document in America. Honestly corrupt..
Watch on YouTubeWe’ve been here before. We found our way through. We’ll do so again.
Watch on YouTubeWithout AI, Are We Already in Recession?
Watch on YouTubeYour phone screen is biologically optimized to capture your attention using dopamine science 
Watch on YouTubeNo one knows the future of AI.
Watch on YouTubeIt’s all for sale - a government Contractor revealed just how corrupt the US government is.
Watch on YouTubeThe definition of insanity is trying to do the same thing again and expecting a different result 
Watch on YouTube5 things our politicians will never do - unless we force them.
Watch on YouTubeWhat if America is the problem in the Middle East not the solution?
Watch on YouTubeThe stock market is measuring the Monopoly squeeze on all of us.
Watch on YouTubeSeptember 23, 2026
Watch on YouTubeWe are being technologically engineered into isolation
Watch on YouTubeThe essence of America. You can change your life.
Watch on YouTubeAnti/trust. Anticorruption. Radical transparency.
Watch on YouTubePhones are an isolation machine
Watch on YouTubeSubscribe free
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All Writing & Essays
The Dylan Ratigan Essay Bank
0117 essays
Money & Power
How money moves, who owns it and how concentrated capital shapes public life.
Begin with: Monopoly Is the Enemy of Capitalism0214 essaysGovernment & Reform
How institutions are captured—and what can restore accountability, competition and trust.
Begin with: The Courage to Make American Mythology True038 essaysAI & Technology
Who owns the machine, who benefits and whether technology expands human capability.
Begin with: AI Is the World’s Most Powerful Utility and We Need to Treat It as Such042 essaysMedia & Attention
How questions, incentives and platforms decide what enters public life.
Begin with: Who Does the Media Work For?054 essaysMeaning & Belonging
Identity, impermanence, spirit and the inner conditions of human agency.
Begin with: Me. We.065 essaysLives & Places
People, journeys, work and the lived experiences that make large systems visible.
Begin with: America & The House Next DoorThe throughline
Inside the systems. Focused on the people.
For thirty years, Dylan has followed money, power and the choices institutions make from inside the rooms where decisions are made. The work now asks how people retain the freedom to shape their own lives.
01 / 1995
Bloomberg
One of the organization's first reporters, beginning in its training program. Established the mergers and acquisitions coverage, created and hosted Bloomberg Television's flagship morning show. Later Global Managing Editor for Corporate Finance.
02 / CNBC · MSNBC
Fast Money & The Dylan Ratigan Show
Co-creator and founding host of Fast Money, one of the most successful financial television shows in US history, opening the conversation among Wall Street traders to the public. Led CNBC's coverage of the financial crisis, becoming the most outspoken critic of the government response before resigning in March 2009 to question the government directly as the host of The Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC, which became the most-watched daytime show on the network.
03 / Reform
Politics
After a viral clip protesting government corruption in 2011, he created Get Money Out, accumulating nearly 300,000 petitioners in a matter of weeks. Dylan then left television to found Helical Holdings. For five years, he worked with returning combat veterans from Camp Pendleton, California, to design and build a system of resilient distributed grid resource hubs that could establish a small piece of civilization anywhere in the world, producing three acres of agriculture, power, clean water and Wi-Fi. He then ran for Congress in 2018 on an anti-corruption political reform platform.
04 / Enterprise
Business
Dylan is the president of Reservations.ai, the CEO of Euforia Group, which designs, produces and sells Italian-made sneakers, bags and travel accessories. He is also the Chairman of Samba Biologics, which develops regenerative tissue therapies for heart attack and stroke. He offers advisory services on a selective basis in industrial development, hospitality, entertainment and biotechnology.
05 / Global perspective
Travel
Dylan has traveled through more than 75 countries and lived in four, from Myanmar, China and Japan to Russia, Peru, Bolivia, the Middle East and Europe. He works today from Milan and New York. Those experiences inform his work in travel and his commentary on global affairs.
06 / Today
Human Capital
Essays and a book in progress about capitalism, concentrated power and the human spirit. Dylan's first book, Greedy Bastards, was published by Simon & Schuster in January 2012 and spent six weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. It diagnosed deeply misaligned interests extracting from America while exposing abundant solutions that remain available but ignored.
Speaking · Media · Advisory
In the room.
Clear conversations about the incentives shaping our institutions and the choices still available to people.
Dylan connects financial journalism, public debate and operating experience to the people living inside larger systems.
- Artificial intelligence and human agency
- Capitalism, competition and human value
- Money and political power
- Trust, accountability and institutional reform
- Media, attention and the extraction economy
Keynotes · Moderated conversations · Panels · Interviews
Explore speaking and media
The New York Times bestseller
Greedy Bastards
A book about complex systems with misaligned interests—and the terrible outcomes those systems produce. It follows the incentives through banking, education, healthcare, politics, trade and energy.
The question running through it still drives Dylan's work: Who benefits from the rules, and what happens to everyone living with the result?
BankingEducationHealthcarePoliticsTradeEnergy
Buy the book on AmazonAbout Dylan
Dylan Ratigan.
Journalist, author, executive and explorer. Following money, power and technology back to the people living with the result.
Read Dylan's storyFollow the work
What do we build when the old bargains break?
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