Tell that to Sri Lanka, Sudan, Iran, Turkey, Argentina, Nigeria, Pakistan, Laos, on and on.
The idea the real danger is disinflation here is as ridiculous an economic statement as I have ever read when so many of the countries in the world are facing economic collapse from inflation.
Cathie Wood/ARK is the 2020s version of Janus funds.
She will slowly fade away into obscurity from here.
What I find most interesting is how we change the meaning of genius over time.
I can remember as a kid that Mozart was considered a genius on par with Einstein. No one was considered a genius just because of the size of their bank account.
Now I think almost any billionaire is considered at least on the level of Mozart. "All" Mozart did was make music.
I doubt we would even be that impressed by Einstein today. If he is so smart why doesn't he at least have a billion dollar net worth?
Mozart in 2022 would be a great soundtrack composer that almost no one would consider a genius unless somehow he figured out how to make a billion dollars from selling soundtracks. Then by modern standards, of course he is a genius.
I just don't see how you can say society always evolves towards more freedom and less centralization.
I would say the total opposite. The natural equilibrium is no freedom and complete centralization but we have just been in a far from equilibrium state recently.
I imagine over the next 100 years "freedom" will be completely redefined. It was only 40 years ago in the US that you could go to a bar, get incredibly drunk and then drive home without a seat belt. This was normal behavior that is now 100% illegal. It is hard for me to imagine a future that doesn't look like modern day China but with monitoring of blood and brain states as well. Society has already spoken that we will trade freedom for safety. With pooling resources for health insurance we are going to have to know collectively about early warning signs in your blood once possible in order to keep us all safe.
We are going to have to monitor your brain state once possible for early warning signs of people becoming unhinged to keep us all safe.
I mean you don't have the freedom to travel west and claim 160 acres of land anymore. It wasn't that long ago people had that freedom but it is laughable by today's standards. I think this is how people in the future will feel about total surveillance because that is kind of how it is now anyway.
I would love a light option but with the people I know I am in the minority. Most people I know are so use to 20%+ THC strains that they would never want something less.
Even before my state legalized, I hadn't run into anything besides high grade strains in years. I imagine it would be really hard to find low quality weed anywhere in the US at this point.
IMO you probably just have an average memory but you are comparing yourself to people with incredible memories.
I think of Magnus Carlsen holding 10 chess games in his head and doing it perfect enough to beat everyone he was playing against. Of course, that is extreme but there are many people who have above average memories.
I am spot on with hydration, sleep, cardio, weightlifting but I don't think any of this really makes my memory better. Mood and energy but not memory. The only thing I have found that makes my memory better is trying to memorize things like a daily exercise. Learning another language is really the way to go.
I went to my first powerlifting meet in the early 90s.
The problem with powerlifting is it really beats up your body over time and as you age. Once you get past 405lbs or so for squat you are almost insuring future disc herniation. Disc herniation is a concern with aging even without constantly loading 400lbs+ on your spine.
This is patently obvious but when young and indestructible hitting PRs becomes completely obsessive and that is another problem. There are not many things that give the rush of hitting a new PR or milestone with strength. Your strongest pound for pound in powerlifting weight classes relative to your height at much higher body weight than what is healthy. Pull up a group photo of any hardcore powerlifting gym and that will be super obvious.
Instagram and people posting PR videos has caused this explosion in powerlifting popularity and conventional deadlift popularity along with Rippetoe. It use to be an almost deviant aspect of bodybuilding for guys obsessed with strength with a disregard for aesthetics.
If I could start over I would never powerlift. I would train absolute strength still but I would also focus on relative strength. Relative strength as displayed by the number of pull ups or muscle ups you can do. I would always want to be able to pass the army running/situp/pushup standards. I would mostly squat with a belt squat and trap bar and be very careful about loading the spine instead of the ridiculous powerlifting game of seeing if you can get your legs strong enough to break your spine over time.
If you really want to save money, Walmart brand Stay Awake caffeine pills are 80 200mg tablets for a few bucks. I split them in 4 so it is like 320 50mg servings for a few bucks.
The best thing about caffeine pills is you can actually know how much caffeine you are getting. I limit myself to 100-200mg a day. I wouldn't even want to know what I use to take drinking coffee but it was quite a bit. I will just drink coffee now as a treat.
I think even larger problem is how we don't correlate the other thread on here right now about how America can't build anything anymore with the over financialization of the society.
The amount of human capital spent on the thousands of hedge funds and financial products the last 30 years is staggering and we basically have nothing to show for it other than unproductive pooling of capital. Given the incentives though it is borderline individually foolish to build anything in the physical world.
I don't even think political corruption is near the worst part. It is the complete distortion of risk preferences and the distortion of what is even meant by "investing".
At least the financial swindlers of old actually laid down thousands of miles of rail in their process of swindling. Now in the name of market efficiency we have a systemic process of trading options on options on options on options in an endless chain to the point the underlie has practically vanished.
At least crypto is honest and doesn't even pretend there is an underlie, just a call option on nothing straight up. Everyone knows that is most of the financial system outside crypto too but with an accompanied financial theatrical performance by the participants. Even complete with Shakespearean bullshit language to make it sound more real.
"I am not trading options on thin air. This is an arbitrage opportunity on a derivatives price that will help to facilitate market efficiency. It is almost like the way a physical bridge facilitates people getting across a river but we don't have to waste years actually building a bridge, take a fraction of the risk of bridge building and the return is 100X better."
I am sure some future Edward Gibbon will come up with a name for this process while writing their historical masterpiece on why the West imploded.
Reminds me of an interview I watched with some hedge fund asshole talking about how they were "creating value" by raising the rent of old people in trailer parks. As if raising the rent of old people in trailer parks is basically like building a bridge across a river.
A large percentage of people will spend everything they earn and then also spend every cent of their credit worthiness no matter the size of their cash flow.
I remember watching a show on the actor Nicolas Cage going bankrupt. He bought like 15 motorcycles and a $300k dinosaur bone.
I am sure some of these people are in unfortunate debt situations but a whole lot of them are on the Nicolas Cage version of financial planning for the future.
At least when Full Tilt Poker was raided the previous decade the online gamblers didn't pretend Full Tilt was some kind of depository bank.