Governance Cybernetics

Governance Cybernetics

South Korea's Birth Rate One Of the Lowest on Earth. The Missing Piece Might Be Better Urbanism
The macro shocks are coming. The local environment may decide who has children
 • Dave Deek
It Doesn't Matter Whether Your Mayor Is a Democrat or a Republican. Your City Still Won't Build Enough Housing
Four decades of data show that the party in charge doesn't determine how much gets built. The real obstacle is closer to home.
 • Dave Deek
Wall Street Killed the Wildcatters: $100+ Oil Now Means Bigger Buybacks With Fewer Jobs and Babies Than Ever Before
The last time oil hit $100, Houston built families. Now booms became a buyback — and the demographic bill comes due decades later.
 • Dave Deek
Mamdani's (Possible) 9.5% Property Tax Hike While Red States Are Abolishing Property Tax Entirely
On snow shoveling, fiscal architecture, and what red states are getting wrong about the property tax
 • Dave Deek

February 2026

A Small Hokkaido Town Just Announced the Prefecture's Biggest Baby Bonus. Can It Actually Work?
Yoichi Town will pay families ¥1 million (~$6,600) per child from the third birth onward, the highest municipal birth bonus in all of Hokkaido.
Published on population.news • 
What Los Angeles Permitting Actually Costs in Housing Development
A new paper measures the cost of building permits in Los Angeles. Permitting adds a dollar for every three spent on construction.
 • Dave Deek
Penguins Are Solar Geoengineers
All-Natural Geoengineering with Frank Herbert's Dune & Penguins. What penguins, sandworms, and a century of ship pollution reveal about cooling the…
 • Dave Deek
4B Doesn't Matter: Young Men's Job Market Is Why Korea's Birth Rate Fell to 0.72 and Japan's Didn't
The variable that separates a 0.72 birth rate from a 1.20 isn't gender politics. It's whether young men can get hired
 • Dave Deek
How in the Hell Did Joann Fabrics Die While Best Buy Survived? It Wasn't Amazon
A debt-free retailer with 850 stores got a leveraged buyout. A failing electronics chain got a CEO. Thirteen years later, only one is still standing
 • Dave Deek
America vs. Singapore: You Can’t Save Your Way out of Economic Shocks
Saving regret has less to do with procrastination than we thought, and more to do with whether your country absorbs economic shocks or lets them hit…
 • Dave Deek
America's Pensions Can't Beat a Vanguard Account Or Finance a Transmission Line, But They Can Close Your Hospital
$6 trillion in patient capital, $60+ billion in annual fees, and the infrastructure that never gets built
 • Dave Deek
The Cheapest Pro-Natalist Policy Nobody Wants, Least of All Nigel Farage
Alarmists & Technocrats agree on two things: birth rates are too low, & workers (who've had it far too good for too long) shouldn't allowed to work from…
 • Dave Deek
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