Why the 2020s feel like the 1940s
Years ago, I worked with a fascinating independent economist. He cared little for mainstream thinking about markets, and had no company or department line to…
The Benchmark
A weekly letter on money, markets and history, for investors whose interest goes deeper than the share price.
Archive · page 3
How do we agree on inflation numbers?
Say you want to buy a new phone. An iPhone, to be exact. But you don’t know how much an iPhone costs.
Dark capital & the War on Cash
On March 8, citizens of Switzerland voted to enshrine in the country’s constitution their right to use banknotes and coins.
Are you one of them?
Hey, Thom here — co-founder of Navexa. In 2024, I wrote 37 essays for a project we called The Benchmark.
Macro chokepoints: How geographical determinism controls everything
An NBC News headline this week reads: Here’s the crude oil chart so you can see the volatility the journalist refers to:
What if inflation is a feature, not a bug?
I’ve written recently about fiat currencies’ appalling failure rate throughout history, and how successive cuts between paper money and gold have marked…
Edison and Ford invented Bitcoin in 1921?
In December 1921, two of the most influential technologists in history took a trip together. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford drove to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to…
Rome, JFK, and abandoning the gold standard
Rare is the person who’s not seen the footage of John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas in 1963.
2025 Market Wrap: The Year In Receipts
Dear Reader, The scoreboard for 2025 is in. If you only read the headlines, you might think Nvidia and Bitcoin were the only games in town.
What if this time it's different?
What if this time, it is different? The most dangerous words in investing might hold the answer to why the financial world seems to be collapsing and booming…
What if this time it's different?
What if this time, it is different? The most dangerous words in investing might hold the answer to why the financial world seems to be collapsing and booming…
Silly season: Place your bets for 2025
🎄 Happy returns 🎄 Dear Reader, Just two weeks of 2024 remain. A year in which the S&P 500 has climbed almost 30% — about triple its annual return:
