Economics, rebuilt from first principles

The four laws of value

Every market, career, and currency obeys the same four forces. Select one to trace how it moves through the system.

• 01 Value follows scarcity

  Anything abundant trends toward zero worth; anything genuinely scarce holds a floor. Supply is the first lever, not demand.

• 02 Value flows toward attention

  Worth is assigned wherever collective attention settles. Move the attention and the value moves with it, often before the fundamentals do.

• 03 Value compounds through trust

  Trusted systems let value stack over time; untrusted ones force it to be re-earned every cycle. Trust is the interest rate on everything else.

• 04 Value decays without renewal

  Left alone, worth erodes — skills go stale, currencies inflate, goodwill fades. Renewal is the only thing that resets the clock.