Ben Hunt
Long volatility and short abstraction, seeing capital and political markets through lenses of game theory and history. Like all coyotes, I’m too clever by half.
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How It Started. How It's Going. | Epsilon Theory
Once Daryl Morey's new idea became the common knowledge of the NBA - once everyone knows that everyone knows that the way to win NBA games is to maximize 3-point shots and lay-ups - then it became a permanent feature of the way professional...
Why Am I Reading This NOW? | Epsilon Theory
5+ On October 4, 2018, Bloomberg BusinessWeek published a story claiming that Chinese hackers were able to “infiltrate America’s top companies” by planting a spy microchip “not much bigger than a grain of rice” on the motherboards of Supermicro...
The Frustrated Money Manager | Epsilon Theory
The frustrated money manager is almost always a smart, accomplished professional in his own field who believes VERY much in the existence of The Smart Money (tm). The frustrated money manager is almost always a liiiittttle bit on the make. Like a...
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Ben Hunt
The frustrated money manager is almost always a smart, accomplished professional who believes VERY much in the existence of The Smart Money (tm).
The frustrated money manager is almost always a liiiittttle bit on the make.
Like a Vatican cardinal.
142d
Fell on Black Days | Epsilon Theory
2020 has awakened us to the Black Days constructed while we slept. Now we act, and not just to avoid the worst excesses of the Trumpist clownshow or the Socialist lunacies. Now we change the entire freakin' world. For ourselves, yes. For our...
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Ben Hunt
How do we fix the world?
By burning away the overwhelming levels of securitization, leverage, scale and alienation in every aspect of human civilization.
Are you awake yet?
I bet you are.
144d
How Tourism Drove Europe’s Second Wave of Covid-19
As European countries cope with a second wave of infections, data indicate that tourism has helped the coronavirus spread in popular destinations and travelers’ home countries. WSJ explains how summer travel has made it harder to control the...
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Ben Hunt
Air travel is the primary vector to jumpstart R-0 back over 1.
Combine that with back to school, rampant complacency, coronavirus truthers, and an AWOL federal government ... and here we go again.
How Tourism Drove Europe’s Second Wave of Covid-19
151d
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
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Ben Hunt
Australia will no longer require mortgage loan verification by banks, allowing blanket acceptance of borrower statements, in order to address “excessive risk aversion which has built up and restricted the flow of credit".
LOL. Nothing matters.
155d
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
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Ben Hunt
Trump’s price for approving the deal: $5 billion in tribute.
My god, how much lower can we sink?
160d
A Society of Tinkerers | Epsilon Theory
We don't need more minimally viable products. We need more maximally viable organizations attacking big problems with a tinkerer's mindset and a capitalist's goals. Guest post by Luis Perez-Breva, faculty director at MIT Innovation Teams. Read more
The Game of Tesla | Epsilon Theory
Recent price action in Tesla is the Common Knowledge Game in action. It is the power of the crowd watching the crowd. It is the power of – not what you think is true, and not what you think the crowd thinks is true – but of what the crowd thinks the...
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Ben Hunt
Tesla is the Common Knowledge Game in action.
It's the power of the crowd watching the crowd. It's the power of – not what you think is true, and not what you think the crowd thinks is true – but of what the crowd thinks the crowd thinks is true.
177d
Lucifer's Hammer | Epsilon Theory
There's a comet speeding our way, a comet of endemic urban violence. And for so many people - especially young men with the voice of Ego now shouting in their heads as the whispers are turned up to 11 by the amps of political party and social media...
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Ben Hunt
There’s an apocalyptic comet of endemic urban violence speeding our way.
Both the GOP and the Dems think defusing the violence puts themselves at a competitive disadvantage this Nov.
Both parties are sowing the wind.
And both will reap the whirlwind.
180d
Sacrifice for Thee, Vast Wealth for Me | Epsilon Theory
Doug Parker, American Airlines CEO and Chairman of the Board, wrote a letter to his employees today that pretty much defines high-functioning sociopathy. I'm going to reprint excerpts from that letter - which is couched in the saccharine vocabulary...
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Ben Hunt
American Airlines CEO Doug Parker wrote a letter today that has saccharine words, but is in truth a shakedown letter to employees and a ransom note to the US gov't.
I'm going to share that letter.
And then I'm going to tell you a few things about Doug.
185d
Can't Fight This Feeling | Epsilon Theory
No, I don't think there's a bubble. No, I don't think a crash is coming. But when Mark Cuban says this reminds him of 1999 and 2000, he's right. And the reason worries me more than either of those things. Read more
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Ben Hunt
It's the new common knowledge.
Everybody knows that everybody knows that the way you make a killing is to bet that grifters are gonna grift, and nobody’s going to lift a finger to stop them.
198d
The Grifters, Chapter 2 - N95 Masks | Epsilon Theory
I don't think I have the words to communicate just how screwed up our PPE distribution system is in this country, or what a profound betrayal it is for our government to support this perverse system of personal greed and corporate ambivalence in...
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Ben Hunt
Not sure I have the words to describe how screwed up our PPE distribution is in this country, or what a betrayal it is for our gov't to support this system of personal greed and corporate ambivalence in trade for campaign photo ops.
But I’m gonna try.
200d
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Ben Hunt
Watching Mike Roman, 3M CEO, mutter on CNBC about N95 masks and his mgmt "priority" of 3M shareholders.
I will never forgive our gov't for not using the DPA to crack open 3M's supply and distribution chains.
We've been betrayed from start to finish.
123d
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
1
Ben Hunt
Larry Summers was not just Jeffrey Epstein's friend, he was his good friend. For example, Epstein gave >$100,000 to Summers' wife for her poetry-reading foundation in 2016.
How is it possible that Summers has NEVER been publicly questioned about Epstein?
204d
Vietnam says the new strain of coronavirus behind its ominous COVID-19 spike is 3 times more contagious
Vietnam's latest surge, which started July 25, ended a 99-day streak of no new cases. The country previously warned it cannot handle a mass outbreak.
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Ben Hunt
R-0 > 5
The local liquor store opens in 10 minutes. I plan to buy them out of tequila and drink myself into a stupor.
208d
Exxon prepares spending, job cuts in last ditch move to save dividend
Exxon Mobil Corp is preparing deep spending and job cuts, according to people familiar with the matter, as it fights to preserve a 8% shareholder dividend with a multi-billion-dollar quarterly loss looming.
1
Ben Hunt
Me: What is financialization?
Alex: Correct.
Me: I'll take Last Gasps of a Dying Empire for $1,000 please.
211d
How Jared Kushner’s Secret Testing Plan “Went Poof Into Thin Air”
This spring, a team working under the president's son-in-law produced a plan for an aggressive, coordinated national COVID-19 response that could have brought the pandemic under control. So why did the White House spike it in favor of a shambolic...
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Ben Hunt
As if this article didn't already make me want to carve out my eyes with a rusty spoon ...
TIL Alex Boehler - CEO of the Int'l Dev Finance Corp and principal villain of the Kodak grift - was Jared's college bud.
211d
The Grifters, chapter 1 - Kodak | Epsilon Theory
We've been assaulted by three brutal grifts in just the past week ... three smacks from Bobo and his bag of oranges ... each deserving of an Epsilon Theory note. Here's chapter 1 - the ludicrous crony capitalism of the US government giving Kodak...
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Ben Hunt
We've been assaulted by three brutal grifts in just the past week ... three smacks from Bobo and his bag of oranges.
Here's chapter 1 - the ludicrous crony capitalism of the US gov't giving Kodak $765 million for "pharmaceutical supply production".
212d
Kodak-Branded Bitcoin Mining Scheme Collapses | Mining Bitcoin News
The Kodak-branded bitcoin mining rigs unveiled at the CES technology trade show this year will no longer be available to mine for customers. Amid scam accusations, the company behind the Kodak Kashminer crypto mining scheme has reportedly confirmed...
Taiwan is now Arrakis | Epsilon Theory
"He who controls the spice controls the universe." The world's principal supplier of semiconductors - the spice of OUR global empire - is now Taiwan. Thanks a lot, Intel. Thanks a lot, Bob Swan. Thanks a lot, Jack Welch. Thanks a lot, all you Wall...
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Ben Hunt
"He who controls the spice controls the universe."
The world's principal supplier of semiconductors - the spice of our world - is now Taiwan.
Thanks a lot, Intel. Thanks a lot, all you Wall Street wizards of financialization.
Taiwan is now Arrakis.
214d