If you’re like me, you’ve been put off from digging deeper into DeFi by the terrible signal-to-noise ratio of anything crypto-related on the interwebs. That’s why I found this DeFi primer (using Maker DAO as a specific example) by ET contributor and banking analyst Marc Rubinstein to be so fantastic.
Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.
Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.
Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.
Modeling Common Knowledge by analyzing Missionary statements and their reverberations works. Except when it doesn’t.
What do you get when you give a Raccoon billions of dollars AND invisibility from regulators? Collusion and insider trading.
Most of us are under the impression that a protracted conflict within China will increase national unity. Not this time.
Recent Notes
The Zeitgeist | 2.14.2019
Today’s Zeitgeist poses a riddle: what is noxious, may not be a catalyst, extends a rally and awaits cues all at the exact same time?
Notes from the Diamond #6: Hittin’ ‘Em Where They Ain’t (Part 1)
In baseball and in investing, how do we distinguish truly great practitioners from merely good ones? Let’s start by looking at two greats who revolutionized how the game is played – Branch Rickey in baseball and David Swensen in investing.
The Zeitgeist | 2.13.2019
In the 8th or extra innings (what about the 9th?), allocations to alternatives, fixed income ETFs, offensive hacking and “markets up on trade deal hopes” (again).
Rabbit Hole – Who’s Being Naive, Kay? Also, DARPA, Ribbon Farm, and Unknown Knowns
ET contributor Neville Crawley is back from time well spent at an amazing library, with thoughts on no-end state architecture, marketing alpha, DOD AI, wonderfully goofy blogs, and a new addition to the Rumsfeld canon: unknown knowns.
The Zeitgeist | 2.12.2019
Maine cashes in, investors cash out, stocks get a lift from trade hopes (version 28), the Brexit pantomime and a shadow over strawberry fields.
They Live!
If you view the world through Clear Eyes, and hold loosely to your convictions, you’ll have an easier time adapting to a dramatic shift in the market regime than your competitors who’ve been lulled into a Narrative-induced fugue state. You’ll make up your own damn mind. You, your clients, and your business will all be better off for it.
In the News | Week of 2.11.2019
Soft drinks, REITs, midstream companies, CROs and video games round out the start to the second half of earnings season.
The Zeitgeist | 2.11.2019
Why VC loves fintech for some reason, populist messages, “optimism over trade talks” take 25, and more popullsm.
But We Need the Eggs
We’re all passengers in the backseat of the State-driven car, and we all suspect that our drivers might be high-functioning lunatics, and we’re all terrified about what they might do next.
But we need the eggs.
Blast from the Past
What the rise and fall of baseball cards can and can’t tell us about bubbles and the turning of markets into utilities.
The Zeitgeist | 2.8.2019
Fawning Tesla press, coming storms, ESG and data, striking a balance between tasteful display of art collections and pay cuts at banks, and post-Yorkshire pudding walks.
The Zeitgeist | 2.7.2019
Today’s specials: Megadevelopments in Chicago, online grocery shopping, slowdowns at Apple, vagueness at Alphabet and Canadian weed.
Pricing Power (pt. 2) – Intellectual Property
Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries … the pricing power found in intellectual property. It’s not as easy as it looks.
The Zeitgeist | 2.6.2019
In today’s edition, it’s captain obvious takes on the ECB, is there anything active funds CAN do?, more Brexit and dead-cat bounces.
All Along the Watchtower
Trust in media is being debased from without and within. The Clear Eyed, Full-Hearted answer? Don’t pick and choose. Set yourself against both threats.
The Zeitgeist | 2.5.2019
In which we hear the term, ‘megadeal hunger’, contemplate a Larry Fink v. Ken Fisher celebrity steel cage match, and boggle at the unironic advocacy of regulation as the solution for lack of trust in blockchain applications.
The Zeitgeist | 2.4.2019
The near-term focus of financial markets coverage seems squarely on M&A in the U.S. Elsewhere, Lord Fink (!) roasts Corbyn and Australian housing has become a media obsession.
In the News | Week of 2.4.2019
In which we see a week full of insurance earnings, continued trade concerns, ‘warming to nuclear’ and a humble request to stop naming things “Exelon.”
Arbitrary Power
There is a paradox – only it isn’t really a paradox – in that to act boldly on and hold loosely to our beliefs requires us to design processes which are subject to an almost opposite standard.
The Zeitgeist | 2.1.2019
Amazon ‘buts’, all sorts of January 1987 comparisons, a grab bag of central banking and politics, and a notable omission from your Brexit Bunker.