One thing I never anticipated about being a parent was how many conversations would revolve around school. What are the schools like near our neighborhood? How much should I contribute to a 529 plan? Right now the answer is a little unclear, but I’m leaning towards “I don’t
Basis, a cryptocurrency project trying to build a token with a stable exchange rate against the US dollar, is shutting down. Basis was one of the smarter projects attempting to build a post-dollar currency exchangeable 1:1 for dollars, so if they couldn’t pull it off, it must be
Public policy is a powerful tool, but the two things policy can’t beat are technology and demographics. We’re used to thinking about technology, because the benefits are distributed according to whoever understands it best. Demographics are different: the edge from understanding them isn’t big, except perhaps for
Every so often, you see somebody try to summarize somebody else’s worldview in a way that accidentally perfectly encapsulates their own. Here’s an example I keep coming back to: last year, Lyft launched a shuttle bus service that offered fixed-price, fixed-route transportation during commuting hours. The predictable response:
I’ve been looking forward to reading Ray Dalio’s Big Debt Crises ever since I slowly gave up on Principles. Dalio runs Bridgewater Associates, a hedge fund notable for two things: 1. It’s an extraordinarily large fund with a track record that’s either solid (in terms of
One of the things I struggle with as a parent is instilling kids with the right values, as opposed to the values that are popular right now. Weirdly, I hear parents talk about their concerns in the opposite direction: that their kids won’t be quite socialized enough to believe
Attention conservation notice. This jeremiad is all about financial policy, which I know is not a topic all of my readers are interested in. This piece is only relevant to you if you own a home in the US (because mortgage rates matter) if you rent in the US (because
The Alchian-Allen Effect is one of my favorite economics party tricks. The theory is that whenever there are two versions of a product, one of which is more expensive, any increase in the fixed cost of the products will cause consumers to substitute for the most expensive one. To take
It’s the last day of the year, so it’s time for the tradition of trying not to think about how you failed at your New Years resolutions. The making of New Years resolutions is a durable tradition, but not because it works at its stated goal: New Years
M. King Hubbert has a rare distinction among prophets: first they ignored him, then they laughed at him, then they fought him, then he won. And then he lost. From 1860 through the mid-50s, US oil production followed a smooth exponential curve. (I don’t mean “exponential” as in “growing
“Don’t immanentize the eschaton!” I felt a tinge of envy every time I heard this catchphrase. It’s a double-barreled term — you’ve got your fussy Latinate “Immanetize” and your stately Greek “eskhatos,” and you get to dismiss something as both woolly utopianism and a threat to civilization as
Buybacks by quarter, courtesy of S&P by way of Yardeni Research. One of the classic tropes of lazy financial journalists goes like this: XYZ Co spent half of their free cash flow on buybacks this year, but the stock dropped! They lost their shareholders billions of dollars! What morons.