Anthony J. Pennings, PhD

WRITINGS ON AI POLICY, DIGITAL ECONOMICS, ENERGY STRATEGIES, AND GLOBAL E-COMMERCE

Silver, Anchored by Spreadsheet Logic

In spreadsheet capitalism, silver remains valuable precisely because it is material, scarce, and physically constrained. Yet its power and price are determined less by where it is mined than by how it is calculated. Silver stands as a rare bridge between the physical world and the abstract financial architectures that now coordinate global political economies.

The SACT Attack: How Spreadsheet Capitalism Conquered the World

Once Substitution is complete, the other layers of SACT can take over. You cannot apply Abstraction (comparing unlike things), Symbolic Computing (formulas), or Telecommunications (speed) to a physical house. But you can apply all of them to the token of the house sitting in a spreadsheet cell.

Spreadsheet Knowledge and Production of the “Modern Fact”

Poovey’s book provides a critical background and framework for understanding how certain forms of knowledge became authoritative and seemingly “objective.” She argued that the rise of double-entry bookkeeping and statistical sciences in the early modern period was not merely a technical advancement but a profound epistemological shift. These systems created a new way of seeing and organizing the world through numerical representation, presenting complex realities as quantifiable and manageable facts.

Will BRICS Effectively Tokenize Rare Earth Elements to Back a New Currency?

Rose Mason in Medium makes a compelling plea for the tokenization of Rare Earth Elements (REEs) currently in high demand around the world. From another angle, Cyrus Janssen presents an intriguing but ultimately flawed argument that the BRICS+ countries will use REEs to back a new currency to challenge the US dollar.[1] This post examines […]

USD Centrality and Network Effects in the Global Economy

When we say the USD/eurodollar is a cell at the center of the global spreadsheet, we mean every balance sheet in the world, whether in New York, London, Shanghai, or São Paulo, has at least one column denominated in USD. A loan in yen, a bond in euros, or a derivative in pesos ultimately references the USD cell through conversions, swaps, or collateral rules.

Peirce and Derrida on the Logic and Power of Spreadsheets and Dashboards

The growing ubiquity of spreadsheets, dashboards, and AI models across organizational life marks a shift in how meaning, decision-making, and authority are structured. These systems do not simply reflect reality or suggest more than an increase in computational capability. These techniques construct reality symbolically, substituting formulas, predictions, and metrics for presence, memory, and deliberation. This […]

LSEG Workspace as the Central Spreadsheet Grid for Eurodollars

LSEG Workspace is a giant live spreadsheet that organizes the eurodollar system into cells and formulas. Treasuries and Fed rates are the anchor cells. Repo, FX swaps, and offshore deposits are formula-driven references.

Markets and Prices: Pros, Cons

This post looks a how the notion of markets emerged and what is useful and determental about them. It discusses the underlying economic understanding of markets and includes several critiques of this term and our allegiance to them.

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  • About Me

    Professor (full) at State University of New York (SUNY) Korea since 2016. Research Professor for Stony Brook University. Moved to Austin, Texas in August 2012 to join the Digital Media Management program at St. Edwards University. Spent the previous decade on the faculty at New York University teaching and researching information systems, digital economics, and global political economy

    You can reach me at:

    anthony.pennings@gmail.com
    apennings70@gmail.com
    anthony.pennings@sunykorea.ac.kr

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    The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of my employers, past or present. Articles are not meant as financial advice.

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