Author: smartistone

Last week Elon Musk shook the world of crypto and investing by announcing that Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin. In terms of coverage and newsworthiness, this matched even stories about Biden in significance. Consequently, Bitcoin and Tesla fell, and this prompted debate and talk about Elon Musk having too much influence, and how much… Continue reading Elon Musk and the Fall of Institutions

Over the past week there has been endless teeth-gnashing by the financial media and political hacks about ‘8 million unfilled jobs’ or ‘businesses being unable to fill jobs’, as if this is a crisis or abnormal. The common narrative is that stimulus spending or laziness is to blame for unfilled jobs, instead of another major… Continue reading The 8 million jobs openings, hype vs. reality

Microstrategy down 6% to $488, down $300 since I predicted that it could go bankrupt (or at least be forced to raise a ton of capital at very unfavorable rates) if bitcoin falls to $10k, destroying considerable shareholder equity. The cards are falling. Despite Bitcoin being down 28% from its highs, MSTR is down over… Continue reading Microstrategy’s Macro-Sized Losses

A few days ago Elon Musk changed his mind about Bitcoin, discontinuing it as a payment method for Tesla after suddenly becoming aware of the environmental impact of Bitcoin. Consequently, Bitcoin crashed on the news falling from $57k to $49k. That seems to be a recurring pattern for Bitcoin: big, frequent drops..it sure seems to… Continue reading Why Stocks Beat Crypto

Krugman Wonks Out: Return of the Monetary Cockroaches Krugman is both right and wrong. I agree 100% that there will be no hyperinflation. All this doom and gloom about inflation will keep being wrong. These alarmists like Peter Schiff and others have been wrong about everything for the past decade, so there is no reason… Continue reading Krugman right but for the wrong reason

Scott reminisces about the rise and fall of the online culture wars The whole process was a very clear example of a respectability cascade. There’s some position which is relatively commonly held, but considered beyond the pale for respectable people. In the beginning, the only people who will say it openly are extremely non-respectable people… Continue reading The Culture Wars Online, Revisited

In trying to explain the enduring success or Dr. Jordan Peterson in spite of concerted efforts by his detractors, the answer, I believe, is that many young people are seeking authentic voices, advice, and stories, that modernity, social media, and popular culture are unable to provide. Videos of old people telling their stories often go… Continue reading The Return to Tradition

Came across two interesting papers which pertain to and agree with some of my earlier posts. The first: The role of verbal intelligence in becoming a successful criminal: Results from a longitudinal sample. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a free version of this paper. From the abstract: Intelligence has been linked with success across… Continue reading Two Interesting Studies

Not a whole lot going on now. I sense that discourse is becoming angrier and more contentious online, after a brief one-month reprieve following the inauguration of Biden. The Critical Race Theory (CRT) meme/debate, which has erupted over the past month and in the headlines everywhere, has to some extent pulled apart old wounds and… Continue reading The CRT Debate

Scott discusses rationalism. If anyone is an expert on rationalism, it would be him, but I disagree with some parts. It’s easy to find people who are especially bad on all these axes. For example, Alex Jones – the conspiracy theory guy who says school shootings are fake – is “irrational”. I strongly believe this.… Continue reading Whose rationality