There was a time—gather round, children—when investors pretended markets were natural ecosystems. Supply met demand. Price discovered value. Central banks gently adjusted interest rates like thermostat managers with graduate degrees. That time is over. We now live in an era where policy doesn’t just influence markets—it inhabits them. It builds scaffolding, erects guardrails, occasionally swings a sledgehammer, and then sends a press release explaining why gravity is optional. Welcome to investing under constraint. This isn’t a doom-and-gloom piece. It’s not a lament for some mythical free-market Eden that never quite existed. It’s an acknowledgment that today’s investing landscape operates inside a policy framework that is tighter, more interventionist, and more politically charged than at any point in recent decades. And if you don’t understand that constraint? You’re not investing. You’re guessing. The Age of Intervention Is Not Temporary Let’s be clear: policy interventi...