EW monogram

EW Journal

by ELVEANDER WELFENDORFF

Editorial Terms and Policy

How the essays are made, checked, corrected and cited, and the terms on which I offer them to readers.

Version 1.0. In force from 17 October 2026.

A journal kept by one person needs few rules, and the few it has ought to be short enough to be kept. A ledger with too many columns is a ledger nobody reads. These are mine: how the essays are made, how they are mended when they prove wrong, what you may do with them, and what you may expect of me.

In brief

  • One person, no sponsors. I publish EW Journal alone and answer for every line of it. It carries no advertising and earns nothing.
  • Checked, and mended in the open. The facts are checked before publication. An error of substance is corrected in the text and entered, with its date, beneath the essay, so that nobody who cited the old sentence is left guessing.
  • Machines assist; I answer. Much of the work happened in dialogue with artificial intelligence, and I say so. Every essay is selected, argued, cut and signed by one person, who carries the responsibility for each claim and shares it with no system. The images are rendered by machines to my design.
  • Quote freely, with credit. You may take up to 150 words from an essay, with my name, the title, EW Journal and a link. More than that, and any translation, needs my permission.
  • Search engines and AI systems may read and cite. They may index the essays and cite them in their answers, with credit and a link.
  • No financial advice. The essays are history and reflection. Nothing in them tells you what to buy or sell.

1. Who publishes this

I am Elveander Welfendorff, the author and publisher of EW Journal, a journal of essays on finance as a form of human culture, at ewbyew.com. It is a private intellectual project: it earns nothing, it is not a company and it has no registered office. No other publication that uses the initials EW has any connection with it.

This page has three parts, and it applies to the website, to the Markdown and PDF versions of each essay and to the collected editions in the Publishing section. The first part is the editorial policy (sections 2 to 8), the second the rules for citing, quoting and reusing the essays (sections 9 to 12), and the third the terms on which the site is offered (sections 13 to 17). Personal data has a page of its own, Privacy and Cookies.

2. What the essays are

Each essay opens with something that can be held or seen, a coin, a statute, a vault, a ship’s log, and follows it until the financial idea beneath it shows itself. The aim is understanding. EW Journal publishes no news, no market commentary, no forecasts and no advice.

Five themes hold the essays together: Value (art, price, scarcity, authenticity and collective belief), Capital (money, ownership, enterprise and stewardship), Time (interest, patience, compounding and mortality), Risk (uncertainty, leverage, fragility and survival) and Power (states, institutions, rules and sovereignty). Every essay carries a number in Roman numerals, given in the order of publication, and keeps that number and its web address for good.

They are works of interpretation. They read history, art, literature and law for what each reveals about money, credit, risk, time and power, and the opinions in them are my own. Many begin with a scene, and a scene rests on documented facts. My rule is that no imagined detail may pass for a documented one: where the record falls silent, the text says “perhaps” or “might have”, since a detail invented in silence is a small forgery.

3. Authorship and checking

Nobody else works here. There is no staff and no guest contributor, and I accept no guest posts or unsolicited submissions. Before publication, dates, names, figures and quotations are checked against primary sources or well-established secondary ones. A claim that cannot be confirmed is left out or given with its uncertainty, and a story that rests on legend, tradition or contested evidence is called by that name. An error that survives all this is mended under section 7.

Footnotes and bibliographies are absent by design, so that each essay may read as continuous prose, the way a story is told. The basis of any claim is yours for the asking: write to the address in section 18, name the essay and the passage, and I will tell you what the claim rests on or, if it cannot be supported, correct the essay.

4. Artificial intelligence

As the About page says, much of the work happened in dialogue: with books, with people, and over several hundred hours with artificial intelligence. The machines supplied fluency and breadth of reference, and a tireless willingness to reformulate. Whether a sentence was true to the thing, whether it illuminated finance or only decorated it, they could not judge. That judgement remained mine, exercised badly at first and then a little less badly.

Editorially, therefore, the line falls in one place. Every essay is selected, argued, cut and signed by one person, who carries the responsibility for each claim and each historical reference, misjudgements included, and shares it with no system. The images follow the same arrangement: the allegories, the composition and the decision about what is shown and what is only suggested are mine, while the rendering is the work of machines, and I see no reason to pretend otherwise.

5. Money and independence

Funding comes from me alone. EW Journal carries no advertising, no sponsored content, no paid placements and no affiliate links, and there will be none. I accept no payment, gift or favour in exchange for coverage.

No essay recommends buying, selling or holding any security, currency, asset or product. Where I have a financial or personal interest in something an essay discusses, and a reader would want to know of it, the essay says so. The opinions are mine alone and speak for no one else, including any employer, past or present.

6. Comments

Where comments are open, they are welcome, since an essay is half of a conversation and the other half belongs to the reader. They are moderated, and each speaks for its writer alone. I may hold, edit or remove a comment that is abusive, unlawful, defamatory, promotional, off topic or sent by a script; I may strip personal data from a comment; and I may close comments on any essay. Please do not post personal information about other people.

By posting a comment you confirm that the words are yours or that you have the right to post them, and you give me a free, non-exclusive licence to publish them on this site. You may ask at any time for a comment to be removed. How comment data is handled is described in Privacy and Cookies.

7. When an essay is wrong

Silence about a change would be a poor sort of honesty, because a text that alters itself unseen cannot be trusted by anyone who has cited it. Slips of spelling are mended quietly, and everything else is recorded. The rules are these:

  • Typographical and formatting slips, such as a misspelt word, a missing comma or a broken link, are mended without a note.
  • Errors of fact, including a wrong name, date, figure or quotation and any statement that misleads, are corrected in the text and recorded under the essay in a dated note headed “Corrections and updates”. The note says what was wrong and what the text now says.
  • Updates are added as a dated note when a later development changes how an essay reads. The original text stays as it was.

Correction leaves an essay’s number, web address and date of publication untouched. If I have to withdraw an essay, a notice remains at its address and says why. The same rules govern the PDF and Markdown versions. A collected edition shows the text as it stood on the day of the edition, and if an essay is corrected afterwards, the online version is the current one.

8. Errors, complaints and notices

Readers who find a mistake do the journal a service, and I would sooner hear of it than not. To report an error, write to info@ewbyew.com with the title or number of the essay, the passage and, if you can, the source that shows the mistake. I read every message, aim to reply within a week, and correct what is confirmed as soon as I can, in the manner of section 7.

If you are named in an essay and believe that a statement of fact about you is wrong, or if you wish to complain about any other part of EW Journal, use the same address. There is no appeals panel. I am the editor, I take the final decision, and I will explain it.

Notices of infringement belong at the same address. If you believe that an essay or an image infringes your rights, describe the work you say is infringed and give the web address of the material and your own name and contact details. Add a statement that you act in good faith and that the notice is accurate. I will look into it promptly and, where the claim is well founded, remove or change the material.

9. How to cite

Beneath each essay sits a “Cite this essay” button that produces a ready citation in APA, MLA, Chicago and plain style, and a “Download PDF” button for a typeset copy. A citation gives the author, the title and subtitle, the issue number, the date and the permanent web address, and reference managers such as Zotero can read the same data from the page.

Here, for the essay “The Fish Knife” (No. XXXIX, published on 12 October 2026), are the four forms.

APA
Welfendorff, E. (2026, October 12). The fish knife: When taste becomes power. EW Journal. https://ewbyew.com/the-fish-knife/

MLA
Welfendorff, Elveander. “The Fish Knife: When Taste Becomes Power.” EW Journal, no. XXXIX, 12 Oct. 2026, https://ewbyew.com/the-fish-knife/.

Chicago
Welfendorff, Elveander. “The Fish Knife: When Taste Becomes Power.” EW Journal, no. XXXIX, October 12, 2026. https://ewbyew.com/the-fish-knife/.

Plain
Elveander Welfendorff, “The Fish Knife: When Taste Becomes Power”, EW Journal, No. XXXIX, 12 October 2026, https://ewbyew.com/the-fish-knife/

Please cite the essay at its own address, where it is kept current. A collected edition is cited as an edition, with its title, its date and any identifiers, such as an ISSN or ISBN, printed on its title page.

10. Quotation, sharing and printing

Essays travel by quotation, and I am glad of it. You may quote from EW Journal, in print or online, without asking, on these terms:

  • Take no more than 150 words from any one essay.
  • Be exact: mark omissions with an ellipsis and leave the wording alone.
  • Give credit: my name, the title of the essay, EW Journal and, online, a link to the essay.
  • Do not attach a quotation to a claim the essay does not make, and do not use it to suggest that I endorse a person, product or cause.

That allowance is a courtesy. It takes nothing from any right of quotation that the law gives you, and it does not reach the images, the EW monogram or the design of the site.

Links to any essay are welcome and need no permission. You may print an essay, or print or save its PDF, for your own reading. You may also give copies, in print or by private message, to students, colleagues or a reading group, free of charge, unaltered and with the credit line intact. Posting a copy on a website, or distributing copies for payment, needs permission under section 11.

11. Reuse, translation and permission

Ask first, in writing, before you:

  • reproduce a whole essay, or more than 150 words from one, in any form, except as section 10 allows;
  • translate an essay into any language;
  • include an essay in an anthology, a course pack, a book, a newsletter, a report or any other collection;
  • publish an essay, or a recording of it read aloud by a person or by a synthetic voice, on another website, platform, podcast or video service;
  • adapt an essay for the stage, the screen, audio or any other medium;
  • use an essay or its text in a product or service offered for sale;
  • reuse an illustration, the EW monogram or any part of the design of EW Journal.

Write to info@ewbyew.com and tell me which essays you mean, what you intend to do with them, where and in what language the result will appear, who will read it, whether the use is commercial, and when. Permission is usually given for non-commercial and educational use, often without a fee. Commercial use is considered case by case and may carry one. Permission is given in writing, for the use described, and transfers no ownership.

Translations. A translation is an adaptation and needs permission. An approved translation says plainly that it is a translation, names me and EW Journal, links to the original at the top of the page and notes that the original may be more current. I may withdraw permission if these conditions are not kept.

Mirrors and feeds. Copying the site, by hand or by software, in order to republish its essays elsewhere is not allowed. The RSS feed is offered for reading in a feed reader and may not be used to republish essays.

Credit line. Unless I agree otherwise, reproduced text carries a credit line in the form of the plain citation shown in section 9, followed by the words “Reproduced with permission.”

12. Search engines and AI systems

Search engines and AI systems are welcome to read the essays. They may index them, show excerpts and summaries in results, and cite them in answers. Wherever they show, quote, summarise or cite an essay, they must credit me and EW Journal and link to the essay.

For accurate citation, the site publishes a plain-text index of the essays at ewbyew.com/llms.txt and a Markdown version of every essay (for example, ewbyew.com/the-fish-knife.md). The Markdown version is the same text, and these terms apply to it in full.

13. Using this site

Use of this website implies acceptance of these terms. If you do not accept them, please do not use it.

  • Licence to read. You may read the site, and print or download its essays and PDFs, for personal and non-commercial use, subject to sections 10 to 12.
  • Ownership. The essays, their titles and subtitles, the illustrations, the texts of the collected editions and the design and layout of the site are my work, and I claim for them every right that the law gives to their author, and nothing beyond it. Third-party works and quotations remain the property of their owners. Except as sections 10 to 12 provide, all rights are reserved.
  • Names and marks. You may not use the name EW Journal, the EW monogram or my name in a way that suggests that a publication, product, service or opinion is connected with, or endorsed by, EW Journal or me.
  • Acceptable use. Please do not interfere with the operation or security of the site, use automated means to submit comments or forms, copy the site in order to republish it, or impersonate me or anyone else. I may block access for conduct that breaks these terms.

14. No financial advice

EW Journal offers general information and cultural reflection, and nothing in it is financial, investment, legal, tax or accounting advice, or a recommendation, offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security, currency, asset or product. The essays discuss history, art and ideas; they take no account of your circumstances, and they predict nothing. Please do not rely on them for decisions about money, and if you need advice, consult a qualified professional.

15. Accuracy and liability

Accuracy is the aim, and section 7 describes what happens when I fall short. The essays are works of interpretation, and the site is provided “as is” and “as available”, without any promise that its content is complete, current or free of error, or that the site will run without interruption.

Within the limits of the law, I am not liable for any loss or damage, including financial loss, arising from use of the site or from reliance on its content. Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law, including liability for fraud and for death or personal injury caused by negligence, and nothing in them affects your statutory rights as a consumer.

Other websites are linked from the site. I do not control them, I do not endorse them and I am not responsible for their content or practices. Personal data, analytics and cookies are covered in Privacy and Cookies and in the choices offered by the cookie banner. If these terms and Privacy and Cookies differ on the handling of personal data, Privacy and Cookies prevails.

17. Changes and general terms

Changes may come at any time: this page may be revised, and I may change, suspend or withdraw the site or any part of it. The version and date at the top show which text is in force, and the version history at the foot lists the changes. A change applies from the day it is published, and by using the site after that day you accept it.

These terms are governed by European Union law and by the law of the Member State in which I am established, without prejudice to any mandatory rights you have as a consumer. If any part of these terms proves unenforceable, the rest remains in force. A failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of it. These terms, together with Privacy and Cookies and any permission I give you in writing, are the whole agreement between us about the use of the site.

18. Contact

Editorial enquiries, corrections, permissions, notices and any other question may go to info@ewbyew.com. Please put the title or number of the essay in the subject line.

EW Journal by Elveander Welfendorff · ewbyew.com

Version history

  • Version 1.0, 17 October 2026: first publication.