The Digest #227
Final Issue: Bitcoin at $100K, Buffett and Munger Unscripted, Blue Chip Stamps, Flawed CPI Statistics, Ergodicity, The End of Shame, Notre Dame, Online Censorship, Healthcare Costs, and more ...
Quote of the Week
“What fools you are, all who seek to gain honour in war and the clash of spear on spear, stupidly trying to solve men’s troubles by death! If they are to be settled by contest of blood, never will strife end among the cities of men.”
— Euripides1
Note to Readers
I started The Digest on January 1, 2020. A weekly cadence has been maintained for five years. The goal was to grow my subscriber list and this has been accomplished with a fifteen-fold increase. While the broader readership is gratifying, publishing a weekly newsletter is very resource intensive. This has become unsustainable.
I plan to cease publication of The Digest and this will be the final issue. I would rather devote the time I have available for writing to original articles.
The Rational Walk has been the home of my writing for nearly sixteen years. All of my writing will continue to be published on the website. There are now over 1,300 articles in the archive, all of which are free to read.
In recent months, I have chosen not to distribute all of my articles via email, opting instead to include links to my articles in issues of The Digest. I did so to respect the inboxes of my readers who are no doubt inundated with incoming emails. However, without The Digest, most readers will be unaware of new articles on The Rational Walk. For this reason, I will resume sending new articles to email subscribers.
Over the years, my interests have shifted from an almost exclusive focus on business and investing to a number of other subjects. I do not plan to completely stop writing about business and investing, but I will also write about public policy matters related to economics and foreign policy. In addition, I have taken up a study of the Great Books over the past year and have written several articles about this project.
I realize that a majority of my current subscribers signed up to read business and investing articles and that the new content I plan to publish might not be what everyone is interested in. In particular, I will not shy away from writing about controversial topics. I plan to use my small platform to speak out on topics that I believe will have a major impact on the United States and the world.
Over time, I expect that my subscriber base will evolve to match my writing. I will not be offended by those who choose to unsubscribe. I struggle myself to keep up with new articles and routinely trim my own subscriptions.
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Thanks for reading!
Articles
Bitcoin Hits $100,000, Lifted by Hopes of a Crypto-Friendly Washington by Alexander Osipovich, December 5, 2024. The end game for Bitcoin speculators seems to involve manipulating the government to prop up an intrinsically worthless token via a “strategic bitcoin reserve.” One popular social media account has proposed that the government print $250 billion to buy Bitcoin. If this strategy works, Bitcoin may gain a perceived imprimatur from the government that leads ordinary Americans into speculative activity and makes Bitcoin too politically sensitive to collapse, leading to future bailouts. I hope the Trump Administration rejects these proposals. (WSJ)
Buffett And Munger Unscripted by
, December 5, 2024. Alex Morris, the author of TSOH Investment Research, has written a book that aims to present the highlights of Berkshire Hathaway annual meetings. I am sure that this book will be excellent and I have pre-ordered a copy! (The Science of Hitting)Christmas Comes Early: A Closer Look at Warren Buffett's Surprise Shareholder Letter by
, December 3, 2024. This article contains key highlights and comments about Warren Buffett’s recent letter revealing his latest gifts to his family foundations. I briefly discussed Mr. Buffett’s gifts last week. (Kingswell)Becoming Berkshire: 1970 Part 2 - Blue Chip Stamps by
, December 1, 2024. For some reason, many current Berkshire Hathaway investors are not familiar with Blue Chip Stamps which was one of the most important early collaborations between Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. Blue Chip was an issuer of trading stamps and benefited from float much like insurers. This article describes the business as well as other events that took place during 1970. (Becoming Berkshire)Recession Since 2022: US Economic Income and Output Have Fallen Overall for Four Years by EJ Antoni and Peter St Onge, October 9, 2024. The CPI provided on a monthly basis by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is treated with reverence on Wall Street. Few question whether the numerous changes to the model over the years have led to a more or less accurate estimate of the cost of living for Americans. This article claims that inflation statistics are deeply flawed. If this is the case, real GDP growth has been significantly biased as well. h/t
(Brownstone Institute)Luca Dellanna on Why Investors Must Understand Ergodicity by John Mihaljevic and Luca Dellanna, November 28, 2024. MOI Global recently launched a Substack. “Ergodicity may be one of the most consequential yet least well-understood concepts, not just in investing but also in business and life. I’m sure we will come back to ergodicity many times in the future and examine its implications from different perspectives. There’s no better place to start than a conversation with Luca Dellanna …” ()
The End of Shame by Lawrence Yeo. “What makes shame so pernicious is that it doesn’t take much from the outside world to install it. Of course, a negative comment can agitate it, but what keeps it alive is the narrative you tell yourself about that comment. For example, if someone said that you chose the wrong career, that statement will convert to shame only if it coincides with the story you tell yourself about your career as well.” (More to That)
Why Notre-Dame Is So Important by
, December 4, 2024. “Notre-Dame was never meant to be just another church. From the day its construction began in 1163, the cathedral was designed to showcase Paris as a cultural and political powerhouse. With its soaring arches and pioneering flying buttresses, the cathedral became a model of Gothic innovation and a source of local pride.” (Culture Critic)Podcasts
Joe Rogan Experience #2237 - Mike Benz, December 4, 2024. 2 hours, 43 minutes. Mike Benz is a former official with the State Department and current Executive Director of the Foundation For Freedom Online. In this episode, he discusses highly disturbing efforts by governments around the world to suppress freedom of speech over the past decade, especially on the internet. These allegations, if accurate, indicate that the deep state is far from mere “right wing” hyperbole. (Joe Rogan Experience)
SpaceX, December 4, 2024. 1 hour, 4 minutes. Elon Musk has attracted criticism in recent months for his political activity. But the fact remains that he is one of the most consequential entrepreneurs of our time. Most of his critics have never created anything of consequence in their lives. In my opinion, his leadership of SpaceX is far more important for society than making electric cars. This podcast does a good job of describing unique aspects of a very admirable company. (Business Breakdowns)
Choices, Costs and, Challenges in U.S. Healthcare, December 2, 2024. 2 hours, 48 minutes. This is a very comprehensive discussion of our often dysfunctional health care system. Americans spend more for healthcare as a percentage of GDP than any other developed country and there are many historical and political reasons for this. Peter Attia and Saum Sutaria present a masterclass. (The Peter Attia Drive)
Max Meyer Launched a Print Magazine in 2024. Here’s Why, December 5, 2024. 1 hour, 14 minutes. Why would anyone launch a print magazine? Max Meyer is the proprietor of Arena Magazine, a new quarterly publication exploring technology, capitalism and civilization. This is an interesting discussion. (Infinite Loops)
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The quote is taken from Helen, a play by Euripides first performed in 412 BC. The play is set during the aftermath of the Trojan War, but it was performed during the Peloponnesian War which took place from 431 to 404 BC and is documented by Thucydides. The audience would have taken the quote to be a commentary on current events as well as a lament by the chorus of captive Spartan women who sang these words. As the world careens toward a catastrophic third world war, I found the quote relevant to our situation in the early twenty-first century. A nuclear war would, ironically, actually “end strife among the cities of men” because humanity would be erased from the face of the earth.