The Incredible True Story of the Real Life 'Trading Places'
If you have any interest at all in finance, then it's mandatory to have seen the 1983 movie "Trading Places." You remember, right? Two wealthy Philadelphia commodity brokers bet on whether anyone, eve...
3 Mar 201736min
Could Buddhism Save The Global Economy?
There's a widespread sense that something remains broken in the global economy. Despite a comeback in official measures of economic performance, like GDP and the unemployment rate, there's a widesprea...
24 Feb 201728min
How Poker Explains the Battle of Passive and Active Investing
Among the biggest trends in the world of markets is the rise of passive investing. Rather than pay high fees to active mutual fund managers (who often fail to beat the market), people are pouring mone...
17 Feb 201729min
Why It's Really Hard to Create a New Currency in a Revolution
Creating a new form of money is always tough. Will it hold its value? Will people trust it? Will people use it? All these challenges are even tougher if you're in the middle of a political chaos. On t...
10 Feb 201728min
Why Negotiating a Ransom Is the Trickiest Trade in the World
There are all sorts of reasons why markets break down. A lack of trust. Incomplete information. Divergent incentives. A lack of experienced actors. So it's hard to imagine a trickier market than kidna...
3 Feb 201730min
64: Stay in School, Even if You're Planning to Join the Mob
It's almost a truism that better-educated people earn more money. But suppose you're not interested in a normal job? What if you want to go into the mafia? Well, it turns out that you should still sta...
27 Jan 201726min
63: This Is How Monetary Policy Works in The Islamic State
The Islamic State is mostly discussed in terms of its threat to the safety and security of the world. But as a geopolitical entity, its leadership has to deal with mundane considerations such as opera...
20 Jan 201727min
62: How The Biggest Bull Market Could Come Crashing Down
The stock market is currently in one of its longest bull markets ever, but that doesn't hold a candle to what's going on bonds. According to Paul Schmelzing, a PhD candidate at Harvard and a visiting ...
13 Jan 201727min
