All Epsilon Theory Content

All Epsilon Theory Content

 

Everything we have published at Epsilon Theory since 2013, an archive of more than 1,000 evergreen notes.

Mailbag: Mind the Gap!

By Ben Hunt | September 9, 2018 | 0 Comments

How much richer are we than we “should” be in the Great Financial Asset Bubble? Not you, I mean, you’re just as rich as you should be, of course. I mean everyone else.

19th Century White Papers

By Ben Hunt | September 9, 2018 | 0 Comments
Glenmutchkin

Two short stories from the 19th century that teach us more about investing than any white paper. Although I suppose that isn’t saying much. What I’m saying is they’re good and you should read them. And this.

They Don’t Think It Be Like It Is, But It Do

By Rusty Guinn | September 7, 2018 | 1 Comment
Oscar Gamble

In baseball and in investing and in life, we often miss the obvious truths that are staring us in the face. Sometimes that delusion is willful and sometimes it is accidental.

Cartoons Against Humanity

By Ben Hunt | September 6, 2018 | 0 Comments
Bugs Bunny the Barber

Nowhere is the cartoonification of data more obvious than in the construction and publishing of labor reports, and nowhere is it more influential on markets and politics.

Things Fall Apart (Part 2)

By Ben Hunt | September 4, 2018 | 0 Comments

Part 2 of a three-part series on what it means to have a polarized electorate and a monolithic market. Today’s note: How do things fall apart in a monolithic market? Not with a bang but a whimper.

What Is Wrong With You?

By Ben Hunt | September 3, 2018 | 0 Comments

So many words and ideas are effectively unusable today, because it’s impossible to use them without triggering readers. It’s a whirlwind brief of centrifugal…I mean, centripetal force.

We're on Number 9

By Ben Hunt | September 1, 2018 | 0 Comments
Number 9

Friedrich Hayek was a keen observer of the human condition, particular in the era of the Strong Man. He was an even keener observer of the use of Narratives to exploit that human condition.

Hot Rocks

By Ben Hunt | August 30, 2018 | 0 Comments

A portfolio is, after all, a vessel. It is a container for our financial investments, and what we leave OUT of that container is every bit as important as what we put IN.

Mailbag: Letter From a Birmingham Museum

By Ben Hunt | August 29, 2018 | 0 Comments

Catching up on correspondence with some notable reader emails. In this edition, we take a look at some reader responses to the recent note ‘Letters from a Birmingham Museum.’

Mailbag: Wall of Worry

By Ben Hunt | August 28, 2018 | 0 Comments

Climbing a wall of worry is the least understood and most powerful crowd behavior of a bull market. When there’s no real information, we create it by conquering artificial hurdles and challenges.

Epsilon Theory Core Curriculum, Vol. 1

By Ben Hunt | August 27, 2018 | 0 Comments

The OG Epsilon Theory reading list, now 4 years old. Luckily the classics never change. (Ed. Note: This is true, Ben, but not an excuse to keep quoting The Godfather) (Ed. Ed. Note: Got any more LOTR quotes, Rusty?)

Men Who Wear Hats

By Ben Hunt | August 25, 2018 | 0 Comments

Teaser: What do Tesla, crypto, and men-who-wear-hats all have in common? They’re all driven by fashion, which is another word for the Common Knowledge game.

The Pension Cartoon

By Ben Hunt | August 24, 2018 | 0 Comments

Nowhere is the cartoonification of politics and investing more prominent than in PensionWorld, where the need to appear to do something is often more powerful than our ability to do so.

Second Foundation

By Ben Hunt | August 23, 2018 | 0 Comments
Hari

Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy isn’t just science fiction. It’s a blueprint. It’s a blueprint for how civilization falls, or a culture fails, and what it takes to rebuild it as quickly as possible.

The Next Slide

By Ben Hunt | August 23, 2018 | 0 Comments
Nerves

The true face of Futurism is one part technological dependence, and two parts obsession with the technologies we create, instead of the people they were designed to help.

Death in the Afternoon

By Ben Hunt | August 22, 2018 | 0 Comments

In which Ben discovers that losing a hive of bees, like losing sociopathic sheep, industrially inefficient chickens, or really any farm animal, teaches its own lessons.

Mailbag: One Ring to Rule Them All

By Ben Hunt | August 22, 2018 | Comments Off on Mailbag: One Ring to Rule Them All

In which readers ask how to apportion the market effects of Fed jawboning and Fed asset purchases and sales (to the extent that the latter is not just part of the former’s cartoon).

Michael Cohen’s Flip Is a Big Narrative Deal

By Ben Hunt | August 21, 2018 | Comments Off on Michael Cohen’s Flip Is a Big Narrative Deal

In tangible terms, I’m not sure that Michael Cohen’s flip on DJT has done much to change anything, as much as the left would like it do. From a Narrative perspective, however, it is a big deal.

Mailbag: Rural vs. Urban Divide

By Ben Hunt | August 20, 2018 | Comments Off on Mailbag: Rural vs. Urban Divide

In which we reference an interesting article from Colin Woodward arguing against Common Knowledge of the rural/urban divide in the United States.

Tesla Rekt

By Ben Hunt | August 20, 2018 | Comments Off on Tesla Rekt

We write about the Common Knowledge Game a lot in Epsilon Theory, because it’s the central game of crowds and narratives.

Common knowledge is something that we all believe everyone else believes.