Author: smartistone

Bitcoin plunged on the aforenoted job report, erasing yesterday’s gain. (Disclosure: I remain short Bitcoin.) This is why shorting Bitcoin is the best hedge, as was originally my idea. Bitcoin has much more beta/sensitivity to the downside, whether it’s inflation due to too many jobs, or crisis due to deflation and job loss. Or bad… Continue reading Buying tech and shorting Bitcoin as a play on “power dynamics”

This Andrew Yang tweet was going viral: Heard about a small college in the Midwest that has lost 50% of its enrollment in the last 10 years. Hundreds of colleges are going to close in the next decade and it’s going to be devastating for many communities. — Andrew Yang🧢⬆️🇺🇸 (@AndrewYang) August 30, 2026 Whether… Continue reading The Cope of Predicting Higher Ed’s Death

Item #1: Trump, Who Has Amassed Enormous Wealth in Crypto, Hosts Industry Leaders. Bitcoin recovered from around $63,000 to $77,000 on renewed optimism about the Clarity Act. Or for no reason at all. It doesn’t matter. The gains will not hold. Nothing changed between now and 3 weeks ago. The media keep pushing this narrative… Continue reading The daily view: 8/31/2026: Bitcoin recovery, Pangram, Polymarkat & Iran, and elite colleges

There was hardly any enthusiasm online, even by right-wing accounts I follow, about the Canadian tariffs. Tariffs were tried in 2025, and it’s clear they failed on all counts: they didn’t create jobs, but at the same time, they created significant disruptions for small businesses. Large businesses such as Walmart and Target have enough pricing… Continue reading Tax windfalls are not wealth: debunking a myth

Richard Hanania is usually on the mark, but misfires in his recent post, “Why Socialism Isn’t Coming to America.” Beneath the paywall, he parrots tired arguments about the national debt and spending: “We’re already running a $1.9 trillion deficit. In other words, we have less money coming in than going out, and the problem is… Continue reading Richard Hanania and the Myth of the Inevitable Debt Crisis

I saw this going viral, “Andrew Tate exaggerates and did not own supercars in photos, his lawyers say.” This is the biggest nothing-burger ever. The media are so desperate to paint him as bankrupt or his success as illusory. The envy couldn’t be more obvious in the coverage. I correctly predicted in 2022 in the… Continue reading Andrew Tate’s sports cars are rented–so what?

A week ago it came to light that UC Berkeley math professor Zvezdelina Stankova, who went viral in an August 15th essay deploring the poor preparedness of some of her students, actually used AI for her essay. The article was flagged by the AI detector Pangram as 33% AI-generated or AI-assisted writing. A similar result… Continue reading AI-assisted writing is common because writing is hard

“Mathematicians have to grapple with being replaced by AI.” This has become a constant refrain among the media and concerned mathematicians alike. For example, the article “THE CRISIS OF AI-GENERATED MATHEMATICS” (all caps) went viral, as further evidence of how we’re living in an “everything crisis.” Even arXiv, once known only for scientific preprints, has… Continue reading There Is No AI Math Crisis

Todays big story, from Time, “Promising Results for mRNA Cancer Vaccine from Moderna and Merck:” In a release, the two companies report that people with melanoma who received intismeran, jointly developed by Moderna and Merck, and Merck’s pembrolizumab (Keytruda), lived longer without any recurrence of their cancer, as well as had fewer incidences of their… Continue reading It’s time to quit the “war on cancer”

I saw this going viral, “AI;DR (AI; Didn’t Read):” I’ve been thinking about it ever since. Why? Because there is growing grumbling among everyone about AI writing. And it’s not just others; it’s me! I am getting to the point where I physically flinch (sometimes dropping my shoulders and hunching, or having a slight eye… Continue reading AI-generated writing: it’s still bad