ISR-001 Heparin — now available for exclusive purchase at $55,000. View thesis →

Methodology

The Mutual Threshold Saturation framework.

Every Industrial Spine Research thesis is built on a published academic methodology — one root framework paper, five peer-reviewed sector extensions, and one policy white paper shared with the National Economic Council, Senate Armed Services Committee staff, and the SBA Administrator.

The seven papers.

All open-access at SSRN

Root framework

Root MTS paper

Mapping Critical Supply Chain Dependencies: A Sector-by-Sector Analysis of Single-Source Vulnerabilities in the United States and Major Trading Partners

Establishes the Mutual Threshold Saturation framework, the seven-sector taxonomy, and the cumulative 1,103-dependency ledger. Foundation for every subsequent paper.

SSRN 6454618

Sector extensions

Sector extension

Compound Economic Fragility

A Mutual Threshold Saturation analysis of U.S. domestic resilience. Compound vulnerabilities and structural fragility.

SSRN 6642278

Sector extension

The Irreplaceable Node

Key-person concentration as a compound national security vulnerability. Personnel chokepoints that parallel materiel chokepoints.

SSRN 6695998

Sector extension

The Cost Curve as Deterrent

Compound warfare economics, saturation dynamics, and the structural unaffordability of great-power conflict.

SSRN 6682203

Sector extension

Below the Threshold

Aquifer depletion, compound agricultural cascades, and the econometrics of irreversible resource loss.

SSRN 6667841

Sector extension

The Inflationary Yardstick

A century-scale Mutual Threshold Saturation critique of nominal wage growth as a welfare metric, 1925–2025.

SSRN 6747899

Policy white paper

Rebuilding America's Industrial Spine: A Policy White Paper on Compound Supply Chain Vulnerability and the Case for a CONUS Industrial Capacity Program

The CONUS Industrial Capacity Program (CICP) policy architecture that converts the MTS ledger into commercial reshoring opportunities. The six CICP pillars are the organizing taxonomy for the Industrial Spine Research catalog.

SSRN 6696139 · Shared with NEC, SASC staff, SBA Administrator

The five-axis scoring rubric.

Every Industrial Spine Research thesis carries a five-axis score (1–5 per axis, aggregate out of 25). Cross-thesis comparability is the methodological backbone of the firm.

Axis	1 (Weak)	3 (Neutral)	5 (Strong)
Criticality	Multiple substitutes; no defense use	Single-source but commercial substitutes exist	Sole source; defense use; adversary leverage
Commercializability	TRL < 4; no feedstock	TRL 5–6; partial feedstock	TRL 7–9; domestic feedstock; mature process
Federal funding	No relevant program	1–2 applicable programs	DPA + DOE + IRA + DLA stack
Time to revenue	> 48 months	24–48 months	< 24 months
Demand floor	Discretionary commercial only	Defense or regulated partial	Defense + regulated + IRA-eligible

The six CICP pillars.

The CONUS Industrial Capacity Program organizes the MTS dependency ledger into six pillars. Industrial Spine Research theses are indexed to these pillars.

Pillar	Domain	Sample dependencies
Pillar 1	Energy & Power	Transformer steel, large power transformers, grid-scale storage
Pillar 2	Critical Minerals Processing	Germanium, gallium, rare earth separation, antimony refining
Pillar 3	Pharmaceutical API Synthesis	Heparin (ISR-001), penicillin, vancomycin, contrast media
Pillar 4	Industrial Materials & Metals	Tungsten, niobium oxide, NdFeB magnets, specialty alloys
Pillar 5	Agricultural Inputs	Animal feed vitamin premix, micronutrient amino acids
Pillar 6	Defense Production	Energetic materials, propellants, electronics-grade semiconductors

Three ways to engage.

Every Industrial Spine Research path leads to commercial action — annual access to the methodology, a paid intake call that credits toward your first purchase, or exclusive ownership of a published thesis.