If you were a smart guy like MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor and you thought a stagflationary tsunami of enormous proportion was going to wash over the US economy regardless of who wins in November, what would you be doing right now?
I think you might be doing whatever you can to get liquid in the global reserve currency without spooking the marks.
Our kids are being rewired.
The data implicating the smartphone-based childhood are compelling but not conclusive – and may never be.
So how should governments, communities, schools and families decide what to do?
City of God / City of Man
An AI in the City of God
The City of Man always wins.
The Visigoths always sack Rome. The Vandals always sack Hippo. Augustine always dies in the siege. Bad things always happen to good people … at scale.
Here’s how we use generative AI to flip the script.
Men of God in the City of Man, Part 1: Virus
This is a story about a virus and the gain-of-function research that produced it.
It’s not what you think.
Men of God in the City of Man, Part 2: Carriers
Every virus needs carriers to spread. Even a Narrative virus.
We can learn a lot from what they have in common.
Men of God in the City of Man, Part 3: Memetics
In the same way that genetics governs how physical viruses reproduce within a host, memetics governs how narrative viruses reproduce within a culture.
And the memes which govern our narrative virus are powerful.
Men of God in the City of Man, Part 4: Epimemetics
Every narrative is built on memes that have evolved and adapted to human culture over centuries.
But some environments change the way that those memes are expressed. The effects can be explosive.
Men of God in the City of Man, Pt. 5: Epidemic
Men of God prophesied as early as 2007 that God would make Donald Trump the President of the United States.
Our narrative virus gave these predictions fertile ground to take root.
Men of God in the City of Man, Pt. 6: Pandemic
Surprising outcomes in reality world that seem to confirm a narrative often produce explosive growth in its scale.
But also in its scope.
Men of God in the City of Man, Pt. 7: Mutation
Narrative viruses are not immune to events in reality world – especially when we have made those narratives part of our identity.
And when a narrative becomes part of our identity, it changes what we need to be true.
Men of God in the City of Man, Part 8: Zoonosis
Physical viruses sometimes jump from one species to another.
Narrative viruses sometimes jump from one culture to another.
All it takes is the right virus and a susceptible host.
Men of God in the City of Man is a nine part series about a narrative virus that infected the charismatic and Pentecostal churches in the United States. It isn't a story about Christian Nationalism. It isn't a story about January 6th. It isn't a story about why people voted for Trump. It is a story about a story. It is a story about the language that created a self-sustaining movement defined by its unwavering belief in a fundamentally corrupt electoral system.
Recent Notes
Mailbag! Hollow Men Edition
The Epsilon Theory commentariat is the best thing on the Internet today. Watch from a distance if you like, but when you’re ready … join us!
Hollow Men, Hollow Markets, Hollow World
Over the past 25 years, our leaders have intentionally constructed an Apocalypse Now world of proclamation and fiat, where our wealth has grown much faster than our economy.
The bill is due for their hubris, and inflation is here to collect it.
How to Succeed as a Sell Side Trader
ET contributor Brent Donnelly has some advice that’s ostensibly for sell-side traders, but is actually for everyone in markets. And everyone who isn’t.
Being Human in a LARPing World
The cure for the cancer of gun culture and police culture is not to be found in reform laws around guns and police, but in reform ideas around culture, ideas that create a new dimension of American society that rejects LARPing and LARPers alike.
The MacGuffin, Part 1: The Corrupt Crypto ‘Revolution’
If you don’t see that the crypto “industry” has become just as blindingly corrupt, just as oozingly fatuous, just as profoundly captured by the Nudging Oligarchy as the traditional financial services industry it was supposed to replace … well, you’re just not paying attention.
The Most Important Trading Decision
Trading is hard. Your odds of success are heavily influenced by the seat you choose. Retail trader or bank trader or PM, here are metrics to evaluate that seat.
Cursed Knowledge #10: This Podcast Never Happened
We’ve all fallen victim to a bad retcon at some point in our lives. It’s Sherlock Holmes coming back from the dead. It’s the reveal that an entire season of Dallas was only a dream. It’s the author changing their mind and trying to convince you that it’s all part of the plan. I don’t buy it. And neither should you.
NGMI
The Fed’s rate hikes to curb inflation?
Not gonna make it.
Money Can Buy Happiness (in variable and diminishing quantities)
What does your money/happiness curve look like? Is it curved or linear? Does it flatline somewhere? If so, where?
There’s the game of trading and the metagame of life. To win the latter, you have to Know Thyself.
Winner’s Tilt
The most damaging stories and narratives are not those that others tell us, but those that we tell ourselves.
Waiting for the Dog to Bark
In the days leading up to their invasion of Ukraine, Russia successfully mounted a largescale cyberattack on Ukrainian banks, utilities and government agencies. Since then … crickets.
What are the vulnerabilities of Western financial systems to a new and wider attack?
Narrative and Metaverse, Pt. 3: The Luther Protocol
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” – MLK
Does it? Does it really?
Today we take a stand to defend the arc of the moral universe in its long path towards liberty and justice for all. Today we begin the Luther Protocol.
They’re Not Sending Their Best
The Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act is an abomination. It won’t lower gas prices, it will raise them. And the sponsors of the bill know it.
This bill was not written to become a good law. It was written to tell a good story.
Cursed Knowledge #9: Cat Eyes, Full Ass, Can’t Smile
We’ve all felt insecure about our looks at one point or another. Especially in our chronically online world where how you look can be your whole brand. So with plastic surgery rates on the rise, let’s peel back the layers of this industry and see how information (and lies) about procedures spread and examine the real price of beauty.
Tough Guys
Using NATO to escalate a shooting war with Russia – either directly through a no-fly zone or indirectly through a Polish cut-out and NATO “backfill” – is exactly what Putin wants. It’s the only thing that can save him. It’s how we ALL lose.
ChaChaCha!
Tired: Pump and Dump
Wired: ChaChaCha!
The Reckless Driver! TM Narrative
Reckless Drivers! is the dominant narrative for increased traffic deaths in the US. It’s dominant not because it’s true (it’s not), but because it serves the interests of the Nudging State to blame and the Nudging Oligarchy to spend.
Quitters
in the spirit of the question we are always asking ourselves at Epsilon Theory – WHY AM I READING THIS NOW? – Brent asks a slightly different question about announcements of senior management departures. DOES WHAT I’M READING NOW MATTER?
Cursed Knowledge #8: Bad Publicity
Someone once said there’s no such thing as bad publicity. With all due respect, this person is an idiot. Publicity, both good and bad, can have major ramifications. Even if you don’t play a part in creating it.
Narrative and Metaverse, Pt. 2: Gain of Function
Big Tech, Big Media and Big Politics are engaged in a widespread program of gain-of-function research on the linguistic entities of the metaverse.
It’s more dangerous than any virus.