What is Sic Transition Gloria?
It’s been four years since I wrote a newsletter. In that time, like Martin Sheen in the opening moments of Apocalypse Now, I reminded myself too often that “every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker, and every minute Charlie squats in the bush, he gets stronger.” It has been the work of my early 30s to unlearn precarious employment’s cruel trick placing me in Saigon and the jungle simultaneously every day. Once in the throes of pandemic-era joblessness, I measured my days and what value they bestowed by the light of whatever 2-3,000 words I could churn out on Russia, its political economy, commodities, or whatever else relevant caught my eye between 9 am and 2 pm Greenwich Mean Time. It was a labor of love running OGs and OFZs for the meager pecuniary benefit it brought. But the sweat, experiments, mistakes, and moments of accidental clarity led to my forthcoming book with Hurst — Empire of Austerity: Russia and the Breaking of Eurasia.
It falls to me now, in this the year of our Lenin 2026, to once more take up the task of writing into the void and hoping it writes back. Sic Transition Gloria picks up where OGs and OFZs left off. Instead of a daily download, it will be a weekly and ad hoc peek at what’s on my mind, themes from the book and their resonance with our endless trudge of Events, and the world of commodities I inhabit. Come for the slow burn self-harm of Russia’s fiscal politics, the ephemeral power of mineral wealth, desperate guideposts for how to digest uncertainty and horror. Stay for the link between Tom Waits’ lyrics and the lie of Moscow’s military Keynesianism. Though I have been institutionalized by the House of S&P Global Energy, everything included herein reflects my personal views and foibles — I have little patience for fossil idolatry. Much will be available for free, some will require a few coins in my hat. For those who’ve left me a seat at the table like Elijah, I am forever grateful. For those who haven’t, I hope to convince you to pull up a chair.
