economics
Issue 14: Now With (Even) More Science
How should we predict future tech with the lessons of history? How many times do we pay for our choices?
Issue 13: Blogging in 3D
Better Never-Better than Better-Never, I suppose!
Consumerism in a 250 Year Old Country
There’s a quip from the historian Will Durant, that a nation is born stoic and dies epicurean. (Location 538) What hard work is there to be done in 2023? Has rampant consumerism subsumed our desire to struggle to create a more perfect Union? …over time, this dynamic leads to
The Tragic Irony of Inflation
Inflation = printing money. Period. Prices are measured in dollars. If we create too many dollars, that causes the value of the dollar to fall in terms of goods and services. This “inflation” started 18 months ago. Shortages and supply chain issues are a separate issue. (View Tweet) 3/🧵 INFLATION “When
The Root of All Evil
The general theme of these findings is that the idea of money primes individualism: a reluctance to be involved with others, to depend on others, or to accept demands from others. (Location 891) Whether you are a hippie with a killer business sense 202301092335, or you are a libertarian crypto
Plans Are Best Case Scenarios
“Plans are best-case scenarios. Let’s avoid anchoring on plans when we forecast actual outcomes. Thinking about ways the plan could go wrong is one way to do it.” (Location 2107) Unless you are Sydney Sweeney, in which case make a powerpoint that will come true 202212200240 Something to think
The Principal-Agent Problem
The Principal Agent Problem: Only 1.5 percent of the purchase price goes directly into your agent’s pocket. So on the sale of your $300,000 house, her personal take of the $18,000 commission is $4,500. . . . Not bad, you say. But what if the house was actually
Windfalls Aren't Always a Blessing
But more money will often not solve the problem. In fact, it may compound the problem. Money often makes obvious our tragic human flaws, putting a spotlight on what we don’t know. That is why, all too often, a person who comes into a sudden windfall of cash—let’
Wealth Gaps Kill Empires
Soon there will be such a horrifying gap between the rich and the poor that chaos will break out and another great civilization will collapse. History proves that great civilizations collapse when the gap between the haves and have-nots is too great. Sadly, America is on that same course because
The Price is on the Can Though
The truest sign of inflation in bodegas everywhere 202301071255 we are living in george orwell’s 1984 (View Tweet)