Robert Nikic

I wrote a book. Most men were taught one thing about problems: handle it yourself and don't let anyone see you sweat. Nobody taught us to use them. Problems Pay is out now. Every problem has a price, and every problem pays.

Unpopular opinion: the cheapest jobs program in the world is a work permit. CSIS found most Syrian refugees still depend on aid, shut out of formal jobs and buried in debt. I've seen what that wait does to people with real skills. Every month of waiting costs skills, savings and taxes that never get paid. My ask: the right to work and to register a business, early. Not after years of paperwork. SDG 8 says decent work for all. All means all.

I'll keep pushing this one until it sticks: credit is infrastructure. Treat it like roads. When I was starting over in New York, I had no credit history and nothing to put up as collateral. Borrowing wasn't an option, so everything grew on whatever cash came in. That's slow, and it's fragile. Plenty of good founders never get past that stage. Not because the idea is bad, but because the road was never paved for them. Nobody argues about whether a town needs roads. Small businesses need credit the same way: cheap, reliable and everywhere. That's what SDG 9.3 is asking for.

Heads up if you ship small orders into the EU: the €2 handling fee per item is now live, on top of the €3 duty. That's €5 on a single item before VAT. I put the plain-English version, and what I'd do about it, in my Article. Link below.

I've always had a soft spot for this one. Refugees don't arrive with a credit history. They arrive with skills nobody can see on paper. I've seen engineers, nurses and shop owners start over with a thin file and get treated like a bad risk. They weren't. They were just new. A thin file isn't a bad record. It's a missing one.