Zachary Karabell

New York

Investor, Commentator, Consultant at Freelance

Author of various books, most recently "Inside Money," investor, commentator, consultant, host of the podcast “What Could Go Right?” + founder of @progressntwrk

Featured in: Favicon

theprogressnetwork.org

linkedin.com Favicon

msn.com

theguardian.com Favicon

nytimes.com Favicon

businessinsider.com Favicon

washingtonpost.com Favicon

reuters.com Favicon

wsj.com

time.com + 56 more

Articles

Déjà vu All Over Again

2 weeks ago | edgyoptimist.substack.com | Zachary Karabell

What bothers me the most about the "this is unprecedented" reaction is that it's deeply disrespectful to the Americans who suffered at the hands of the state in the past. What about Fannie Lou Hamer, who was dragged off a bus and beaten in jail when she was on her way back from a voter registration event in Jim Crow Mississippi in 1963? What about Jonathan Daniels, the activist murdered by a sheriff in Alabama as he shielded other activists in 1965?
Déjà vu All Over Again

2 weeks ago | edgyoptimist.substack.com | Zachary Karabell

“I want to assure you that we’re going to employ every force of law…because federal property was burned and destroyed…And these people [who did it]…will be turned over to the federal government…We’re going to put a stop to this…the [protestors] only have one thing in mind, that is to destroy…to set fires to buildings… And when they start taking over communities, this is when we’re going to use every part of the law enforcement [and] we were very fortunate we had the National Guard in this...
There’s A Lot Of Money Out There

3 weeks ago | edgyoptimist.substack.com | Zachary Karabell

This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts
There’s A Lot Of Money Out There

3 weeks ago | edgyoptimist.substack.com | Zachary Karabell

The latest episodes of the Second Season of the Trump revolve around how much power the executive branch has and how much it should have. The story line —epitomized by the government vendetta against Harvard University (my graduate alma mater) — was then eclipsed by the spectacular, sudden and utterly predictable falling out between Trump and Elon Musk, a marriage never made in heaven and always destined for a bad breakup.
It's Not About The Plane

1 month ago | edgyoptimist.substack.com | Zachary Karabell

This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts
It's Not About The Plane

1 month ago | edgyoptimist.substack.com | Zachary Karabell

Far too often, the stories that dominate our discussions are not the ones that will matter most over the arc of time. The drama of “if it bleeds, it leads” remains the most dominant driver of news and social media, which means that larger forces remain under-examined. Bad news often happens quickly; positive news often evolves slowly. Take the events of last week.
Comments - Ailing States - by Zachary Karabell

1 month ago | edgyoptimist.substack.com | Zachary Karabell

This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts
Ailing States

1 month ago | edgyoptimist.substack.com | Zachary Karabell

Whilst the Second Season of the Trump Show continues to break ratings records, elsewhere in the world two events of lasting import are unfolding: one is the election of a new pope to head the 1.4-billion-person Catholic Church, and the other is the war dance between India and Pakistan, two of the largest countries in the world, both capable of deploying nuclear weapons.
One Hundred Days of Solitude

1 month ago | edgyoptimist.substack.com | Zachary Karabell

"The infrastructure of the state was dismantled."When the state is a hellish totalitarian tyranny, dismantling the infrastructure of the state is a good thing. People used to understand that. People used to believe in freedom. People used to read 1984, and take it as a cautionary tale about the horrors of totalitarianism.
One Hundred Days of Solitude

1 month ago | edgyoptimist.substack.com | Zachary Karabell

It’s been said that it’s lonely at the top. It should now be said of the first 100 days of the Second Season of the Trump Show that, after all the drama, what’s left is a series of hollow and pyrrhic victories. Where others have built, this administration has torn down. And for sure, sometimes destruction can be constructive; trees and plants need pruning or else they will die. There is creative destruction, where eliminating the old gives way—often painfully—to the new.