This section gathers short essays and analysis on the global agenda—especially the changing global economic and financial order, monetary and financial transformations, and technology-driven change. Recurring topics include the evolution of the monetary system since 1971, the role of the FED and central banks, systemic fragilities, and how shocks transmit across markets.
A second pillar is digital transformation: Bitcoin and crypto-market dynamics, Web3 and DeFi, and how new infrastructures may reshape money, credit, and power. I also write about the metaverse and the broader digital economy as part of a wider techno-economic shift.
The petrodollar is dying. Everyone can see it now. Saudi Arabia prices oil in yuan. Russia sells gas in rubles. India pays for Iranian crude in rupees. The dollar’s share of global reserves has fallen to 57%, down from over 70% two decades ago. But something strange is happening. Just as one pillar of dollar demand crumbles, another is being…
Something profound is happening in the vaults of the world’s central banks. And almost nobody is talking about it. In June 2026, the World Gold Council released survey results that should have made front-page news everywhere. Here is the number that matters: 45% of the world’s central banks plan to increase their gold holdings in the next twelve months. That…
Imagine two friends looking at the same road ahead. One friend is screaming “DANGER! STOP!” while the other friend is dancing and saying “Everything is wonderful! Let’s go faster!” This is exactly what’s happening in financial markets right now, in May 2026. And it’s one of the strangest, most dangerous moments in modern economic history. The bond market—which…
There is a number that most people never think about. It is small, technical, tucked away in the footnotes of International Monetary Fund reports. For more than fifty years, this number was positive. It meant the world was willing to pay a premium to accept a lower return just to hold U.S. government debt. It was the financial signature of…
Something very unusual is happening with silver. For the first time in modern history, the world is using up more silver than it can dig out of the ground. This has been going on for six years straight. And it’s getting worse. Imagine if your favorite bakery made 100 cookies every day, but 120 people showed up to buy…
A System Built on Confidence. Confidence Is Fading. May 1, 2026 arrived quietly. No alarms. No headlines in the morning screaming that something fundamental had shifted. But on that date, the United Arab Emirates officially left OPEC and OPEC+, ending nearly 60 years of membership in a cartel that had quietly shaped global power and money since the 1970s. This…
Gold, sanctions, central banks, and the quiet politics of access Arzu Alvan | arzualvan.com | May 2026 Gold is no longer only a safe place for frightened investors. It is becoming a strategic asset inside a changing world order. Central banks are buying it. Some countries are bringing it home. Regulators are watching physical flows more closely. This article argues…
Japan’s Yen Defense and Russia’s Shadow Fleet as Two Faces of the Same Struggle There is a strange symmetry between a central banker in Tokyo selling dollars to save the yen and a rusting tanker switching off its transponder in the Baltic Sea. One operates in the clean, digital world of foreign exchange. The other moves through fog…