Joakim Book
Was Bitcoin the Best-Performing Asset of the Decade?
Bitcoin’s returns over the last decade have dominated every other asset we can compare it with, but that still doesn’t tell us what we need to know about the future viability of this extraordinary development in human monetary affairs.
The Hobbit Teaches that We Can’t Eat Money
There are a lot of good economic lessons to be learned from popular culture. Perhaps that’s not surprising, as the subject matter of economics is ingrained in our very humanity […]
More Good Arguments Against a Carbon Tax
Carbon taxes do alleviate some negative externalities that we might want to counter — but they come with a nasty drawback (and getting them in place requires an inefficient and opaque political process) that no caring person would want to impose on the poorest of us, namely that basic necessities become more expensive.
Troubles with the Economists’ Case for a Carbon Tax
Carbon emissions are not, contrary to what many economists and non-economists seem to believe, approaching the idea of a pure externality; their costs are only partially external to the main transaction.
What Is Money? It’s All About Liquidity
When I give my sister a nonfiction book for Christmas, neither of us presumes that she’ll use it in payments for food, rent, clothes, travel, or something else that she desires. Indeed, […]
Jim Simons and His Quants
We meet colorful characters, financial success, and business matches made in heaven — but also ceaseless struggling, heartbreaking losses, friendships, marriages, and partnerships with flourishing beginnings and abrupt endings.
Technology Has Made Flexible Work Possible, and That’s Wonderful
When I got my first summer job, my coworkers and I were paid the same hourly wage. Doing sales and booking in three languages for a shipping company, we spent […]
An Unexpected Climate Hero: Equity Markets
The best way to protect vulnerable countries and communities from some of the inevitable impacts of climate change is to up their defenses – i.e., make them rich as quickly as possible.
The Great Redistribution: Who Benefits From Ruthless Capitalism?
The two ugliest entries in America’s anti-capitalist vocabulary might be “ruthless capitalism” and “speculation.” Ruthless — or any other distasteful adjective of your choosing — capitalism is a mythical kind […]
Don’t Hand Over Your Money to Uncompetitive Banks
Having lived abroad for most of the last seven years, I am painfully aware of the challenges that emerge from having incomes, assets, and costs in different currencies. Sometimes that […]
