Mark Lipse, MBA, is an accounting professional, living in The Netherlands near Amsterdam. He was born in the South American country of Surinam and raised on the Caribbean island of Curaçao. His personal pursuits include, among other things, reading on the subjects of history, politics, economics and philosophy. His driving interest is in the effects on the lives of ordinary citizens, of the political and economic organization of their contemporary society, as shaped in turn by the institutional and legal frameworks in which they exist.