If you’re like me, you’ve been put off from digging deeper into DeFi by the terrible signal-to-noise ratio of anything crypto-related on the interwebs. That’s why I found this DeFi primer (using Maker DAO as a specific example) by ET contributor and banking analyst Marc Rubinstein to be so fantastic.
Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.
Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.
Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.
Recent major media stories that feel to us like they’re part of a larger narrative campaign.
Modeling Common Knowledge by analyzing Missionary statements and their reverberations works. Except when it doesn’t.
What do you get when you give a Raccoon billions of dollars AND invisibility from regulators? Collusion and insider trading.
Most of us are under the impression that a protracted conflict within China will increase national unity. Not this time.
Recent Notes
Hey Spike
The strong do what they can, while the weak suffer what they must. — Thucydides, “The History of the Peloponnesian War” (395 BC) Global growth…
Going Gray
Everything under the sun is in chaos. The situation is excellent. – Mao Zedong (1893 – 1976) Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown. – Chinatown (1974)…
Best of List
I’ll have a new full-length Epsilon Theory note out early next week (“Going Gray”), but wanted to pass along two background points. First, a replay…
Finest Worksong
Take your instinct by the reinsYou’d better best to rearrangeWhat we want and what we needHas been confused, been confused– REM, “Finest Worksong” (1987) The…
The Game of Thrones and the Game of Markets
Two items for the mid-week. First, an invitation to attend a Salient Webinar I’ll be presenting next Thursday, September 18th at 2pm ET, titled: “The Game…
The Ministry of Markets
– Actual conversation as I left a client meeting with a Salient colleague last Friday and we checked our phones… Colleague: Wow, looks like the…
The Name of the Rose
If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things. ― Confucius, “The Analects of Confucius” (551 – 479 BC)…
An Ice Bucket Dilemma
Something on the lighter side from Epsilon Theory today, as summer winds downs here in the last week of August. Most of us have seen videos galore…
One Little Old Russian Convoy
You know what I’ve noticed? Nobody panics when things go “according to plan”. Even if the plan is horrifying. If, tomorrow, I tell the press…
Here We Go Again
From an Epsilon Theory perspective, the scariest, most market risk-creating event of the past 48 hours had nothing to do with Iraq, nothing to do…
Fear and Loathing on the Marketing Trail, 2014
I shared a dark suspicion that the life we were leading was a lost cause, that we were all actors, kidding ourselves along on a…
Watching the Narratives
You think you’re alone until you realize you’re in it. Now fear is here to stay. Love is here for a visit. – Elvis Costello,…
Stalking Horse
[Jeremiah and Bear Claw hunt elk] Jeremiah: Wind’s right, but he’ll just run soon as we step out of these trees. Bear Claw: Trick to…
The Red King
“He’s dreaming now,” said Tweedledee, “and what do you think he’s dreaming about?” Alice said, “Nobody can guess that.” “Why, about you!” Tweedledee exclaimed, clapping…
The Donkey of Guizhou
There were no donkeys in Guizhou until an eccentric took one there by boat; but finding no use for it he set it loose in…
The Dude Abides: China in the Golden Age of Central Bankers
Today, however, the Chinese State faces two existential threats, each stemming from or accelerated by the Great Recession and Western policy responses to that crisis of market confidence.
First, QE and other “emergency” Western monetary policies of the past five years threaten the grand political unification of Deng Xiaoping from without.
Second, massive wealth inequality and concentration driven largely by those same monetary policies threaten it from within.
Long Term Parking
And I don’t want to hear about the freaking economy, either! Sil, break it down for ’em. What two businesses have traditionally been recession-proof since time immemorial?
Certain aspects of show business … and our thing.
Risk Analysis in the Golden Age of Central Bankers
When I was a little kid we had a sand box. It was a quicksand box. I was an only child … eventually. – Steven…
The Minsky Moment Meme
That’s not how it works. That’s not how any of this works. – Esurance “Beatrice” commercial There’s a wonderful commercial in heavy rotation on American television,…
When Does the Story Break?
Margaret Bourke-White took this photo of the Garment District in 1930. Every single person on the street is wearing a hat. How did THAT behavior change over time? How did the common knowledge that All Men Wear Hats change?
Answer: the Common Knowledge Game.