Money & Power · Human agency
When the Many Pay and the Few Profit
Bailouts, tax policy, engineered attention and war move costs downward while protecting the few.
Read today's essayThe governing argument
The search for human agency.
In an era of concentrated power, broken government and artificial intelligence.
Today's Essay
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Today’s Stories
Today’s Six Picks
Selected and published daily.
01 · Money & PowerReuters
KKR charged with misleading EU regulators over Telecom Italia network deal
The European Commission issued KKR a formal statement of objections over information it says the firm supplied during review of its €22 billion acquisition of Telecom Italia’s fixed-line network.
Read the selection02 · Government & ReformReuters
What you need to know about the 2026 US midterm elections
The November 3 midterms will determine control of Congress and numerous state offices.
Read the selection03 · AI & TechnologyReuters
AI limiting European workers’ bargaining power, ECB’s Lane says
European Central Bank chief economist Philip Lane said expectations that AI could replace some tasks may already weaken workers’ leverage in wage negotiations, even before widespread employment displacement is visible.
Read the selection04 · Media & AttentionPew Research Center
1 in 5 Americans Regularly Get News on TikTok
Pew reports that one-fifth of U.S.
Read the selection05 · Lives & PlacesReuters
US homebuilder sentiment tumbles to near 14-1/2-year low in October
The monthly builder-confidence index fell to a near 14½-year low amid high mortgage rates and affordability concerns.
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 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 YouTubeInflation is the currency collapse and bond default - redirected at the non-super rich.
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
0118 essays
Money & Power
How money moves, who owns it and how concentrated capital shapes public life.
Begin with: When the Many Pay and the Few Profit0215 essaysGovernment & Reform
How institutions are captured—and what can restore accountability, competition and trust.
Begin with: When the Cost of Policy Reaches the Street038 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?055 essaysMeaning & Belonging
Identity, impermanence, spirit and the inner conditions of human agency.
Begin with: Don’t Drown Five Feet from the Beach065 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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