How to Make the U.S. Semiconductor Industry Boom Again
This year, everyone's become aware of the hollowing out of U.S. semiconductor manufacturing capacity. Whether it's the rise of TSMC, the stumbles at Intel, or the inability of car companies to acquire...
3 Maj 202151min
What Adam Tooze Learned About the World Last Year
There's probably nobody better at synthesizing massive events like Columbia professor Adam Tooze. His book Crashed, which came out in 2018, was probably the definitive take on the Great Financial Cris...
29 Apr 202152min
Why the Price of Lumber Has Soared Day After Day After Day
It's not often that lumber becomes a national obsession. But this year it has. Thanks to a combination of factors, including diminished sawmill capacity, a renovation boom, and then a homebuilding boo...
26 Apr 202159min
How to Build a Portfolio That Outperforms For a Century
There's a huge question mark at the moment about whether markets are at some sort of important turning point. For instance, we've seen big amounts of fiscal stimulus in the U.S., sparking concerns tha...
22 Apr 202145min
John Hempton on Greensill, Archegos and What It's Like To Short Right Now
It's a weird moment for the markets. The big stock indices are near all time highs. And yet there have been some high profile meltdowns and blowups. There was the collapse of the vendor financing firm...
19 Apr 202152min
Zach Carter on the Real Story of Weimar Hyperinflation
Whenever the government is engaging in fiscal or monetary expansion, people like to invoke the history of Weimar Germany and how soon we might all go around transporting dollars in wheelbarrows. But w...
15 Apr 202154min
Slavoj Žižek on GameStop, WallStreetBets, and the Future of Capitalism
When GameStop shares skyrocketed earlier this year, numerous pundits were quick to ascribe political significance to the whole thing. Was it a rebellion? Was it class warfare in the spirit of Occupy W...
12 Apr 202143min
Why Treasury Market Spasms That Shouldn't Happen Keep Happening
The U.S. Treasury market is the biggest, most liquid market in the world. Its smooth functioning is also crucial to the economy and the financial system. Yet it keeps experiencing bizarre, seemingly i...
8 Apr 202148min
