All Epsilon Theory Content

All Epsilon Theory Content

 

Everything we have published at Epsilon Theory since 2013, an archive of more than 1,000 evergreen notes.

The Drum Major Instinct

By Rusty Guinn | January 20, 2020 | 11 Comments

On MLK, Jr. Day, we present an excerpt from a powerful and under-read sermon about status delivered to the Ebenezer Baptist Church.

The Church of The Long Now

By Ben Hunt | January 17, 2020 | 2 Comments

I know, I know … it’s me being mean to Neel Kashkari again.

Sorry, not sorry. Belittlement and scorn is the only weapon we have against the creeping ensorcellment of the Long Now.

That Which We Call a Law School

By Rusty Guinn | January 16, 2020 | 13 Comments

More from the world of universities-as-guilds and the weird war between the merely rich and ultra-rich.

Shot, Chaser

By Ben Hunt | January 13, 2020 | 9 Comments

So I downloaded and compiled every SEC Form 4 filing that former Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg has ever made, to answer one simple question:

How much money did Dennis Muilenburg suck out of Boeing over the last ten years?

Alpha/Beta Amnesiacs

By Rusty Guinn | January 10, 2020 | 0 Comments

We are emerging from the year end, so the language shared across financial media articles is performance language. How did stocks, markets, benchmarks, funds and strategies perform in 2019?

Frequent readers will recognize Gell-Mann Amnesia as a favorite topic here at Epsilon Theory.

An Experiment

By Rusty Guinn | January 6, 2020 | 83 Comments

There is a chart I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and I want to tell you about it. Before I do, I also wanted…

Normalize This

By Ben Hunt | January 3, 2020 | 13 Comments

I feel like the Billy Crystal character in Analyze This all the time. There’s always some mob boss politician or central banker or CEO or asset manager pinching my cheek and telling me that it’s all gonna be okay, that I’ve just gotta understand how things are.

My god, I am so tired of having my cheek pinched. I am so tired of being nudged in such an artless, heavy-handed way. I am so tired of being told that 2 + 2 = 5.

A Perfect Meme

By Rusty Guinn | December 31, 2019 | 11 Comments

Every day we run The Narrative Machine on the past 24 hours of financial media to generate a list of the most linguistically-connected and narrative-central…

The Long Now, Pt. 4 – Snip!

By Ben Hunt | December 26, 2019 | 22 Comments

The Long Now has severed the tether between taxation and spending – the most important macroeconomic policy relationship in our social lives as both investors and citizens.

Here’s what that means.

And here’s what we’re going to do about it.

Office Hours – 12.19.2019

By Rusty Guinn | December 19, 2019 | Comments Off on Office Hours – 12.19.2019

Join us at 2PM ET on December 19th for the last 2019 edition of Office Hours for a lively – and live – discussion of the narrative intersection of politics and financial markets.

An End to War!

By Rusty Guinn | December 17, 2019 | 5 Comments

The Long Now wouldn’t be complete without the Long War. And as with every other component of the Long Now, its supporting memes are intensely cynical.

It’s Not So Much …

By Ben Hunt | December 16, 2019 | 6 Comments

If you don’t see that there is one set of rules for the very rich and another set of rules for everyone else … if you don’t see that there is an unaccountable political power that accrues to the very rich in both big social ways and in small personal ways … well, you’re just not paying attention.

Epsilon Theory: A 2019 Retrospective

By Rusty Guinn | December 12, 2019 | 11 Comments

It is our second time now to turn the lens we apply to other news sources to our own creative output. Here is a Very Epsilon Theory retrospective on 2019.

One Narrative Keeps on Trucking

By Rusty Guinn | December 9, 2019 | 6 Comments

Trucking is dying and truckers are suffering along with it. The fact that the latter is the framing being chosen for the issue should pique your interest.

Mailbag: By Our Own Petard

By Rusty Guinn | December 7, 2019 | 2 Comments

We’ve gotten a lot of responses and thoughts on By Our Own Petard, so we thought we would talk about some of them in another Mailbag feature.

Presented Without Comment

By Ben Hunt | December 4, 2019 | 1 Comment

Regardless of your personal views pro or con, if you don’t see that a powerful narrative backlash is forming against corporate management enrichment, you’re just not paying attention.

Hyakujos Fox

By Demonetized | December 3, 2019 | 2 Comments

ET contributor Demonetized creates his own koan in this very personal note.

Is morality socially constructed through a process where biological systems are socially conditioned to respond in particular ways to particular stimuli, or is morality an innate moral compass manifested in Kantian ethics?

Yes.

Our Dumb World

By Rusty Guinn | December 2, 2019 | 1 Comment

Sometimes you really have to wonder how on earth an article makes its way into the Zeitgeist. Sometimes it’s best not to know.

A Cycle of Addiction

By Peter Cecchini | November 26, 2019 | 4 Comments

Negative rates create a cycle of addiction to even more negative rates in the future.

Why? Because captive buyers like pension funds require capital appreciation to make up for negative yield, so central banks must guarantee a commitment to still more negative yields.

New from ET contributor Pete Cecchini!

The Rent Is Too Damn Low

By Ben Hunt | November 25, 2019 | 8 Comments

It’s so weird that everyone who would throw an unholy temper tantrum at – gasp! – rent-controlled apartments is just fine with rent-controlled money.

“Yay, crumbs!”