I just finished "The Undertaker’s Playbook" by Victor Mateo,(published this year and on amazon) and it completely reframed how I see capitalism. This isn’t your typical dry economic history it’s a raw look at how capitalism grew out of chaos: pirates, alchemists, and con artists, long before it put on a suit and called itself an economic system.
The book argues that capitalism didn’t just create new markets it created a new type of person: cold, calculating, and driven by schemes. It draws a direct line from 17th-century hustlers pitching wild projects to today’s crypto bros and startup founders, and the comparison is unsettling.
What stuck with me is the book’s explanation for why our economy feels both innovative and predatory. It’s not a bug it’s a feature. The system was built by visionaries and exploiters, and that tension has been there from the start.
by m0b1us_alpha