“Hikmatullah Shadman, an Afghan trucking-company owner, earned more than a hundred and sixty million dollars while contracting for the United States military.” The New Yorker on how U.S. military spending made some people incredibly rich.

+ Inc on government contractors and what it’s like to run a company in the most dangerous places on Earth.

+ Here’s the kind of Middle East money story we spend too little time covering. A company known as Amazon of the Middle East “has raised $275 million in one of the biggest funding rounds for a company in the region.” Economic growth, jobs, and hope will beat airstrikes every time. For more on the growing Middle East start-up scene, check out Chris Schroeder’s excellent book: Startup Rising: The Entrepreneurial Revolution Remaking the Middle East.