There is a book by Wall Street Journal reporter Zuckerman, The Man Who Solved the Market: How Jim Simons Launched the Quant Revolution, about James Harris Simons–a former mathematician, physicist, and code breaker–who launched arguably the most successful hedge fund ever, Renaissance Technologies, which for decades has posted annual returns in excess of 40%, making… Continue reading How /r/WallStreetBets ‘Solved’ Wall Street

The delamination of the stock market and the tech sector from the rest of the America continues, as Tesla and the stock market continues to relentlessly push  higher in spite of Covid, protests, and the outward appearance of total unrest and dissolution and breakdown of civic trust. As I said last week, the Covid deaths… Continue reading Two correct predictions for 2021

To say the past few days have been overwhelming is an understatement. I am still trying to wrap my mind around the events that have transpired. It feels like after 911 , but even more intense, in part due to the role of social media. In some ways it is worse because at least after… Continue reading Trump Twitter Suspension

The past 12 hours have been surreal. It feels like an action movie or something, yet in real life. I cannot believe or still fully fathom what has happened, but it is not too surprising that it happened. This was 12 years in the making, starting with the tea party and the Obama presidency, the… Continue reading Capitol Hill Protests

Moldbug/Yarvin has been on a publishing and media frenzy over the past year, itinerantly appearing on at least a couple dozen podcasts and serializing his forthcoming book on the blogging platform Substack (graymirror.substack.com). He has been everywhere: I saw a episode featuring Moldbug on a podcast that I had chosen seemingly at random that had… Continue reading Moldbug and Covid

In short, I predict 2021 will be a continuation of 2020, with preexisting trends accelerating or remaining intact. Some people get annoyed if your predictions are not extreme enough, but this is prediction list, not a wish list. Many people may wish or hope to see unrest that upsets the status quo, but that does… Continue reading 2021 forecasts and predictions

Cheating and dishonesty are often framed as ethnically and morally indefensible. Either someone is honest or dishonest, without any ‘grey area’ in-between, or without taking into account the context of the situation. But rather than having to choose between what I believe to be a false dichotomy, I think, instead, many of the prevailing notions… Continue reading In defense of (some) dishonesty

Browsing various message boards and communities, such as on Reddit and Hacker News, several common questions and concerns keep coming up regarding Covid stimulus, inflation, etc. I will try to address some of these topics. Will there be hyperinflation due to Covid stimulus? Why hasn’t there been much inflation? In spite of trillions of dollars… Continue reading Answering and Addressing Covid-related Economic Questions and Concerns

Saw this from Moldbug Vae victis   Over the past few weeks I have been seeing this narrative by the dissident/alt-right (but also some on the left, too) that the widespread belief among Trump voters of election fraud is societally destabilizing and poses systemic risks.  I take the opposite stance that it is not destabilizing.… Continue reading Election Fraud, Unrest, and the Legacy of Trump

I believe it is possible to understand, categorize, and delineate social phenomena and human behavior with almost the same rigor as scientific and physical phenomena. It is time to put the science back in political science. The internet is vast, and society and human behavior is varied and complicated, but it can be done. With… Continue reading High-status, low-status conservatism