Author: smartistone

The financial media was predicting the end of capitalism, the demise of America, etc. I remember it as a great buying opportunity, and in retrospect, despite their unpopularity, the bailouts were a success. The S&P 500 peaked at 1560 in 2007. Now, just 11 years later, it’s at 2900, so even if you purchased right… Continue reading Lehman crisis-10 years later

A question that comes up on personal finance subs is, how is it possible for people in their late 20’s or early 30’s to have a lot of money, and especially given the media narrative that millennials are broke and struggling under the weight of student loans? Studies that purport negative net-worth for millennials are… Continue reading Student Loan Misconceptions, Student Loan Debt, and How Young People Make Money

It’s amazing how everyone knows about Griggs v. Duke Power. It comes up frequently in online discussion despite being a topic that is not taught in college unless you are studying employment law, yet everyone seems to know about it, even on Reddit subs that have nothing to do with law. It’s also misunderstood, and… Continue reading Getting Griggs Wrong

Economists are at it again predicting doom and gloom from Trump’s latest round of tariffs: Trump’s latest tariffs are about to hit you where it really hurts However the stock market isn’t losing sleep, and the S&P 500 up around 1% since the tariffs were announced: My money is on Wall Street. The media and… Continue reading Economists predicting doom again

Alex Garland’s cult novel The Beach, 20 years on This story went viral, but also interestingly it went viral on Hacker News, a site that is heavily focused on topics pertaining to STEM, with a lot of praise for the book and nostalgia for the period which it was published, the late 90’s–back when good-paying… Continue reading The millennial search for meaning in a meaningless world

Jonathan Haidt has a new book out, the hugely anticipated The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, with co-author Greg Lukianoff. On Reddit and related communities, a lot people are talking about this book. I plan to read it, and I think Scott… Continue reading The Coddling of the American Mind, as a precursor to the IDW

Vox Day may be a genius at many things, but I think he’s wrong regarding the post Darkstream: Trade war is good for the U.S. economy, in which he writes: Instead what happened is what anti-free trade people like myself predicted would happen, and what proper economic theory, conventional economic theory, predicts would happen –… Continue reading Vox Day wrong about trade, GDP

I’ve written extensively about Elon Musk and Tesla, mostly regarding Tesla’s financials, and how, contrary to the doom and gloom by the media, Tesla is not at risk of bankruptcy and predicting that the stock will do well. Although I’m not usually one to entertain conspiracy theories, I believe there is a concerted effort by… Continue reading Debunking the media’s smear campaign against Elon Musk

Trump set to press ahead new tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods despite talks The Journal’s report dovetailed with a report from Bloomberg on Friday, in which the president is said to have directed his aides to proceed with plans to hit China’s imports again — even as both sides prepare to meet… Continue reading Not worried about Trump tariffs, part 2

excellent video One is between a rock and a hard place. Is it worse to set up a slow kid for failure by pushing him too hard, or telling someone that they are not smart enough to do something? Both kinda suck. The second is better, but parents and kids don’t want their feelings hurt,… Continue reading Wrong About IQ? | Russell Warne and Stefan Molyneux