Author Archives: Sean Patrick Hazlett

About Sean Patrick Hazlett

Finance executive, engineer, former military officer, and science fiction and horror writer. Editor of the Weird World War III anthology.

Conflict Correlated with Climate

Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

Several months ago, I published the following chart to describe my theory on the underlying causes of instability. I confidently asserted that instability is “a positive feedback loop driven by weather, energy and food prices, currency fluctuations, repression, and demography.” … Continue reading →

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Posted in Climate Change, Defense, Food Security, International Security | Tagged Adaptation, Climate change, El Niño, La Niña, Solomon Hsiang, The Economist | 2 Comments

Rising Inequality and Associative Mating

Posted on Friday, August 26, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

One theory I have dabbled with about rising inequality in the United States is related to the concept of natural selection. Smart people marry other smart people and have smart children. One might argue that this pattern has been constant … Continue reading →

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Posted in Business, Education, Finance and Economics, Mathematics, Policy, Politics | Tagged Asperger's Syndrome, Austism, Income inequality, Simon Baron-Cohen | 14 Comments

Leadership Is Not for the Lazy

Posted on Thursday, August 25, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

In 2003 or 2004, recently retired Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki held a breakfast for Harvard students who participated in MIT’s ROTC program and military veterans at the Kennedy School of Government. At the time, the situation in Iraq was at one of … Continue reading →

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Posted in Defense, Leadership, Policy, Politics, War | Tagged Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, General Eric Shinseki, General Petraeus, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government, Kursk, Leadership, von Manstein's Matrix | 3 Comments

Is the Libyan War Over? Not By a Long Shot

Posted on Sunday, August 21, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

Al Jazeera reported today that Libyan opposition fighters just seized Tripoli’s Green Square and are celebrating a military victory over Qaddafi’s regime. Now that rebel forces appear to have defeated Qaddafi’s loyalists, the next hurdle will be avoiding further bloodshed amongst themselves.

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Posted in Defense, Energy Security, International Security, Middle East, Policy, Politics, Terrorism, War | Tagged Abdel Fatah Younis, al Qaeda, Libya, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, Muammar Qaddafi, Tripoli | 2 Comments

Are Conservatives More Patriotic Than Liberals?

Posted on Sunday, August 21, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

In May of 2011, Gallup published poll results on active duty military personnel / veteran, and non-veteran approval of President Obama’s job performance. Not surprisingly, the job approval rating for President Obama was lower across all age groups for active military / veterans … Continue reading →

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Posted in Defense, International Security, Policy, Politics, War | Tagged Active military, Democrats, Gallup, Patriotism, President Obama, Republicans, Veterans | 25 Comments

Strife in the Sinai: Is Egypt’s and Israel’s Peace at an End?

Posted on Saturday, August 20, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

“The Egyptians do not accept what has happened, and it means that Israel should take care. If they continue their behavior toward the Palestinians and the peace process, it means that the situation will escalate more.” — Mohamed Bassiouni, a … Continue reading →

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Posted in Defense, Energy Security, International Security, Media, Middle East, Peak Oil, Policy, Politics, War | Tagged Egypt, Gaza, Hamas, Hosni Mubarak, Israel, The New York Times | 11 Comments

Bush vs. Obama: Failed Banks

Posted on Friday, August 19, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

Yesterday, I compared the number of bankruptcy filings under the Bush and Obama administrations. Because of a significant change in bankruptcy law in 2005, I concluded that it would be very difficult to do an adequate apples-to-apples comparison. Today, I decided to … Continue reading →

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Posted in Business, Finance and Economics, Policy, Politics, Taxes | Tagged Bush vs. Obama, Failed banks, FDIC, President George W. Bush, President Obama | 4 Comments

Bush vs. Obama: Bankruptcies

Posted on Thursday, August 18, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

Since comparisons between Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama appear to be very popular these days, I have added another chart to the mix. I was curious if there were any major differences between the number of bankruptcy filings … Continue reading →

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Posted in Business, Finance and Economics, Policy, Politics, Taxes | Tagged Bankruptcies, Bush vs. Obama, President George W. Bush, President Obama, United States Courts | 2 Comments

Another Strike from Unionized Employees in a Declining Industry

Posted on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

“You can deal with the name calling, you can deal with the picket lines, but it’s crazy when they’re an inch from your face screaming that they’re going to kill you and your family.” —Verizon manager, who refused to provide … Continue reading →

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Posted in Business, Finance and Economics, Media, Policy, Politics, Socialism, Unions | Tagged Al-Mahdi Army, Communications Workers of America, CWA, FBI, Hoover Institution, Megan McArdle, Richard A. Epstein, Stanford University, Thugs, Unions, Verizon | 16 Comments

Regulatory Uncertainty in the Obama Administration: Part III

Posted on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 by Sean Patrick Hazlett

So far, I have published two articles showing examples of how the Obama administration’s policy uncertainty has had a negative effect on the economic recovery. In the first piece, I showed four high level examples of how Obama administration policies have negatively impacted the economic recovery. … Continue reading →