Category: Note
The Narrative Machine
Crisis Actors and a Reichstag Fire
Man in Bar: Tomorrow, I’m gonna be a hero. Gideon: I’m sorry? Man in Bar: You may just be a patsy, but you’re an important…
Financial “Innovation” Returns to ABS Market
On Monday, Verizon Wireless successfully securitized more than $1 billion in cellphone contracts and sold the notes into the Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) market. Here’s the…
When Narratives Go Bad
How many things served us yesterday as articles of faith, which today are fables for us? – Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays (1580) That…
Waiting for Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together…
Cat’s Cradle
“No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat’s cradle is nothing but a bunch of X’s between somebody’s hands, and little kids look and look…
Pressure and Time
Red: [narrating] In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of…
Who’s Being Naïve, Kay?
Optical Illusion / Optical Truth
Portion of original dot map by Dr. John Snow, the founding father of epidemiology, showing the clusters of cholera cases in the London epidemic of…
The Placebo Effect
BOTOX® is the only FDA-approved, preventive treatment that is injected by a doctor every 12 weeks for adults with Chronic Migraine (15 or more headache…
My Passion is Puppetry
Campaign Company Launch Date “Flo” Progressive Insurance 2008 “Rhetorical Question” “Happier Than A … ” “Did You Know?” “It’s What You Do” GEICO 2009 2012…
There for the Right Reasons
A quick follow-up to “Hobson’s Choice”, the most widely-read note in the Epsilon Theory canon to date (thank you!). First, I’ll be hosting a one…
Hobson’s Choice
The Narrative Fix Is In
A quick email to Epsilon Theory readers on what’s happening in Europe, because we’ve seen this movie before. On August 2, 2012 Mario Draghi gave…
Welcome to the Jungle
Zero-sum, Elliot. You’re playing a game you already lost. You know I’m right. – “Mr. Robot” (2015) You can have anything you want But you…
The Silver Age of the Central Banker
We all sing along But the notes are wrong – Matt & Kim, “Get It” (2015) The strong do what they will, and the weak…
Snikt
As longtime Epsilon Theory readers know, I’m a big comic book fan. One of the joys of a comic done well is the effective representation…
Rewardless Risk
Faramir: Then farewell! But if I should return, think better of me. Denethor: That depends on the manner of your return. – J.R.R. Tolkien “The…
You Can Either Surf, or You Can Fight
Kilgore: Smell that? You smell that? Lance: What? Kilgore: Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. – Apocalypse Now (1979) Hello, hello, hello,…