As a lifelong democrat, I've never considered voting for the Republicans. Even when there were certain ideals that I could agree with them on - welfare reform, reduced regulation and free trade - I could still not even imagine aligning myself with the conservative movement. Beyond individual policy prescriptions, the deeper spirit and character behind … Continue reading The Two Faces of the GOP
Buy Low, Sell High: The Worst Financial Advice of All Time
As someone who’s given a number of talks on personal finance, and managing your investments, there’s one piece of advice that I keep hearing from people over and over again. “Buy low, sell high”, they usually whisper to me in a sagely tone, as though they have discovered some profound truth that will solve all … Continue reading Buy Low, Sell High: The Worst Financial Advice of All Time
The Chinese Hegemony
Given the frantic pace of the 24 hour news cycle, stepping back from it all and looking at history provides some immensely valuable perspective. The modern news cycle may care only about what happened in the past few years, but in reality, World History is measured in centuries. First there was the Roman empire. Then … Continue reading The Chinese Hegemony
Caucus: The Next-Generation Community-Discussion Forum
Regular readers have probably noticed my extremely low posting frequency lately. I would usually explain this with some excuse about being busy, but this time, I actually have a good reason behind it. I've been spending the past couple of months building a site of my own. For years, I've been frustrated by the state … Continue reading Caucus: The Next-Generation Community-Discussion Forum
Conscience Driven Politics
Around the world, xenophobia seems to be everywhere. In the US, anti-immigration rhetoric fills the airwaves in half the country. People like Donald Trump, the leading republican Presidential nominee, describe Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers. Eastern European countries like Hungary are not only politically lobbying to restrict the rights of asylum seekers escaping … Continue reading Conscience Driven Politics
Avoiding the next Financial Meltdown
In a previous article, we discussed the problem with banks guaranteeing fixed deposits while actually investing the money into speculative, long-term ventures, and how such an arrangement naturally leads to bank runs. There is a second problem in this scenario as well; one that is so commonplace that most people do not even stop to … Continue reading Avoiding the next Financial Meltdown
A Financial System with Solid Foundations
The story of financial crises is one that’s as old as time. Bank runs have been occurring since the time of the renaissance, were a key factor in the great depression, and its variants have necessitated billions of dollars in bailouts in the past decade after the subprime crisis. Is this really inevitable? Is this … Continue reading A Financial System with Solid Foundations
Life Lessons from Machine Learning
What comes to mind when you hear the term “Machine Learning”? A bunch of programmers hunched over their computers in a dark room, working on something completely virtual & divorced from reality? A group of scientists creating a Frankenstein monster that has no resemblance to us whatsoever? It may certainly seem that way, but you’d … Continue reading Life Lessons from Machine Learning
All Lives Matter
Disclaimer: In the months after this was published, the phrase "All Lives Matter" has been co-opted into a politically charged critique of BLM. To be clear, this post is not intended to criticize BLM, any more so than it criticizes our reaction to terrorist attacks, mass shootings, and plane crashes. There’s been a number of … Continue reading All Lives Matter
Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
We live in a world today, with statistics all around us. Opinion polls. Confidence Intervals. Margin of Error. Risk estimates. But do we actually understand what any of these things mean? I must have been in college when I first heard the quote popularized by Mark Twain: “There are lies, there are damned lies, and … Continue reading Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics
