Grey Enlightenment

There is a common narrative, typified by a recent article from UpWorthy “Gen Z is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents,” that young people are universally coddled, incompetent, or lack conscientiousness. Maybe this is true for some, but I would submit for the top tier and the ‘aspirational class’, it’s the opposite.… Continue reading The strivers were right all along

The high-low dichotomy is seen in the MAGA vs Fuentes split. The idea is that in every political movement, there is a split between language and believes that are coded as high status, versus low status. Or how there is a class split between competing factions of the same broad ideology. Although the usual framing… Continue reading ‘America First’ is more about making America like the EU

Item #1: Silver crashes 30%. Notice how I never recommended silver on my blog. Although I mentioned it earlier, I never said to buy it. Also silver has still outperformed Bitcoin, so the ‘anything but Bitcoin trade’ is still intact. All it will take is the usual Iran (or other foreign policy) or tariffs news… Continue reading The Daily View 1/30/2026: Silver Crash, Bitcoin Crash, AGI hedge, Epstein, Iran…

Recreational or emotional eating are commonly cited explanations for obesity. The belief is that people eat to relieve boredom or to fill some emotional void in life, implying that one ought to replace food with some other activity to bring gratification. The concept is somewhat vague, but Mayo CLinic defines emotional eating as: Emotional eating… Continue reading Eating out of boredom isn’t really a thing

Item #1: Silver surges to $100, but also Bitcoin crashes on tariffs despite the QQQ recovering and Trump backing down. Item #2: The “anything but Bitcoin” trade is still going strong. Whether it’s metals, AI valuations, or tech stocks, Everything but Bitcoin keeps going up. The divergence of performance between Bitcoin and QQQ is stark,… Continue reading The daily view: Silver Surges as Bitcoin Keeps Falling , Bad Advice/Bullshit,

Yesterday I was preparing a ‘daily view’ round-up, but then the Alex Pretti killing broke, which is by far the biggest story now. It’s like Groundhog Day, whether it’s ICE, tariffs, AI news, or MN. The meme is ‘nothing ever happens’, but I just want a week where nothing actually happens. Here are my thoughts… Continue reading The Killing of Alex Pretti: We’re Living in Trump’s America

A day does not go by without viral stories about prediction markets, whether it’s about regulatory news or speculators getting rich with prediction markets. The hype almost rivals that of AI: Prediction markets saw a sudden surge of popularity during and after Covid. Although Polymarket is often cited as pioneer of prediction markets, the defunct… Continue reading Prediction markets and insider trading

Speculation about Trump’s mental health, especially armchair diagnoses of dementia, stroke, or other cognitive impairment or illness, has followed him throughout both of his terms. People have been saying this for 10 years now. But everything he’s doing is consistent with his brand/persona. For example, his writing is grammatically correct, or at the very least,… Continue reading Claims of Trump Having Dementia are Unfounded

From @apralky, “Has the economy been more resilient to Trump’s trade policy than anticipated?” I’ve mentioned before that my prior is that the US and global economies have turned out to be broadly more resilient to MAGA trade policy than economists (and markets) had anticipated. I’ve also mentioned that I believe such a prior is… Continue reading Trump tariffs victory lap

Leave it to Scott Alexander to write the most epic Scott Adams obituary. Adding to the confusion, Scott Adams and Alexander share the same first name and initials, and I will leave it to the reader to infer which Scott I am referring to. Scott writes: But it would be insufficiently ambitious to stop there.… Continue reading Scott Alexander on Scott Adams