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An independent authority on economic power

We explain how economic power is created, compounded, and constrained.

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Principles
  • Independent
  • Reader-funded
  • Evidence-led
  • Accountable
Our Story

How strategic advantage shapes economic power

The Power Curve examines where economic power is accumulating, what drives the shift, and how it changes the decisions facing leaders. We focus on developments that reshape the allocation of capital, the terms of competition, and the choices available to governments and businesses.

Our method is structural. We begin with incentives: what institutions and firms are rewarded for doing. We then examine capacity: the resources, capabilities, and constraints that determine what they can deliver. Together, these help explain whether an announced ambition can become a lasting economic advantage.

Each report, memo, and essay identifies the driver that matters most, traces how its effects compound, and assesses where constraints could alter its course. We distinguish durable shifts from temporary movements, observed outcomes from causal explanations, and established evidence from assumptions that remain uncertain.

The objective is to make consequential change legible early enough to act. For capital, that means understanding where returns may concentrate and risks may be mispriced. For policy, it means identifying which interventions can change outcomes and which constraints will limit them. For business, it means deciding where to commit resources, where to preserve flexibility, and what evidence would justify a change in strategy.

Brendan Hart, founder of The Power Curve
About Brendan

Brendan Hart

Brendan Hart is an economist and entrepreneur who studies how economic power is created, compounded, and constrained. He has spent two decades building teams and organizations across industry and government.

As publisher of The Power Curve, Hart analyzes strategic competition, economic infrastructure, and institutional resilience for leaders who run organizations, develop policy, and allocate capital. His work combines an economist’s discipline about incentives and constraints with an operator’s experience founding ventures in defense, technology, and workforce development.

Hart served as a team leader in the U.S. Marine Corps Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team before co-founding BMNT, a defense innovation accelerator that created a commercial bridge between Silicon Valley and Washington. BMNT helped emerging technology companies win government funding, including companies later acquired by Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. He also co-founded Student Veterans of America, which has served more than 750,000 members across 1,500 chapters since founding and helped secure the passage and implementation of the Post-9/11 GI Bill.

Hart participates in global forums such as the Milken Institute Global Conference and the Aspen Security Forum. He was a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress and a member of the Aspen Institute’s Society of Fellows. His work has been featured by ABC News, USA Today, The Boston Globe, and U.S. News & World Report.

Hart holds degrees from Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.

How We Think

  • Systems over snapshots

    We study the structures and feedback loops that drive outcomes.

  • Base rates over narratives

    We ground our views in data, history, and probability.

  • Incentives over intentions

    We focus on what actors are incentivized to do, not what they say.

  • Second-order over first impressions

    We analyze ripple effects, constraints, and unintended consequences.

Editorial Standards

  • Independence

    We are reader-funded and advertiser-free. Our opinions are our own.

  • Evidence

    We cite sources, show our work, and welcome scrutiny.

  • Clarity

    We write plainly and precisely, with the conclusion supported by evidence.

  • Accountability

    We correct errors and update our analysis as the evidence changes.

Independence

The Power Curve is independent by design.

  • No advertising
  • No corporate underwriting
  • No pay-to-play
  • Reader funded

This funding model supports independent editorial judgment.

Start With The Work

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