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Jay DeBoer's avatar

Instead of Bezos and other wienies having not the courage to tell the truth about the costs of tariffs, I wonder whether there is an AI possibility of wrapping and reporting source, supply stream, price, tariff, and final cost for a wide market basket. That would make it at least partly helpful.

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kyla scanlon's avatar

That would be an excellent use for AI!

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Jonathan Trimble's avatar

Thanks for the analysis Kyla

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IRAW's avatar

T has dismissed the goal keeper and is scoring own goals "like never before seen", claiming victory.

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Ross's avatar

Do you think a strong enough faction of crypto will return to its original ethos of transparency and decentralization, or will the space be co-opted by extrajudicial carrot and stick incentives, reduced to a tool for grifting or something effectively outlawed?

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kyla scanlon's avatar

Oh man i hope its the former

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STRAND's avatar

The last note, about clarity becoming an increasingly scarce commodity, ironically reminded me of Zora, which purports to be creating a free market for information that will serve as a "truth machine." In reality it's just another NFT site where people mint various images they find on the internet and hope that the randomness and inaccuracy of the market glitches out and gives them money by accident. I guess it's premised on truth being more valuable than fiction. But that assumption is only valid when operating in base reality.

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kyla scanlon's avatar

Great parallel to draw

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Jared Brown's avatar

It just keeps getting better, doesn't it?

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Rob Rains's avatar

Made my sticker purchase!

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kyla scanlon's avatar

Thank you! It really helps.

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Rob Rains's avatar

Next we need a shirt with that stupid equation

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Stephen J. Carroll's avatar

This topic could be a book within itself

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The Blind Squirrel's avatar

You have to trademark MAGA Maoism. So good.

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The Blind Squirrel's avatar

I missed the citation.

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Kevin Lawrence's avatar

The term originally came from a WaPo editorial. It’s cited in the blog post. How would Kyla trademark a term that came from someone else?

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The_Unemployed_Economist's avatar

Been reading about the last Soviet generation and there seems to be parallels. Everyone on the outside thinks it will last forever and everyone on the inside wonders how it is still going. Hyper normalcy. We assume this is how it has to be because we think this is all there is.

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Kevin Lawrence's avatar

“Young adults, crushed by debt and priced out of housing, are turning to speculative financial behavior. They're not irrational - they're adapting. When wealth accumulation is impossible, hypergambling makes emotional and economic sense.”

There are a couple points in this blog post that I think are untrue and actively dangerous. This is the first part. You are reinforcing that fact that it is okay to “hypergamble” your money because “wealth generation is impossible”. Both of these statements are untrue. It does not make economic sense to gamble your money. This is basic common sense. If you are drowning in debt, the very last thing you should be doing is gambling your money. To say “hyper gambling makes economic sense” is so incredibly dangerous and makes me question basically everything else you have said. Young people read and listen to your content. You have a responsibility to them not to reinforce this kind of reckless and self defeating behavior.

Also, “US bonds are not the safe haven they once were” - what is this based on? Vibes? This is dangerously close to bad financial advice. If the US defaults on bonds, the entire financial system will collapse. People will have a lot more to worry about than 40% of their retirement savings.

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Tyler Pellom's avatar

I think the point on bonds is that they (meaning bond ETFs and mutual funds) don't exactly protect you when stocks drop. It can be bewildering to expect 20-40% of your portfolio to be static when it reality it is also dropping with everything else.

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Ethan Caughey's avatar

Folks thought Postmodernism was this silly thing that would stay in Academia. Then they thought it was a political weapon that they could turn into a sword or fight against to look courageous and amass followers. Postmodernism is Culture—it is the water we swim in—Postmodernism comes for all, financial markets included.

WW1 and WW2 were wars of Modernism. There will be great Postmodern wars; Vietnam and Iraq were just warm-ups for, "What the fuck are we fighting for? Why am I shooting this guy again? What precisely is the goal? When can I go home?"

Narrative is the Zeitgeist, the King Spirit moving across the age.

But rebellion is always possible. Don't fall for the story; find the Metamodern theorists; and they won't ever call themselves Metamodern; but they will be arguing that there is a way out of this Postmodern, Nihilistic Death Trap.

Know the price. Find the meaning.

Per usual, great piece Kyla.

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S. Singh's avatar

Hi Kyla, Why not just use the correct political terminology - fascism, demagogues and isolationism, when describing Trump? This lack of political knowledge is blunting your otherwise well written article.

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S. Singh's avatar

Hi Kyla, Why not just use the correct political terminology - fascism, demagogues and isolationism, when describing Trump? This lack of political knowledge is blunting your otherwise well written article.

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Kenneth A Buxton's avatar

Will facts ever become a tradable commodity?

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Olov Moström's avatar

Hey Kyla, would love to get your take on what is happening to oil prices right now and what that would mean to the us and the world. Lovely newsletter!

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