Podcast: A History of Societal Views on Capital

In this conversation, Will Tanner from

The American Tribune

and I discuss topics related to my Speedrunning Financial History series (some essays linked below, all my essays that have the style of artwork you see above are part of the series). We cover how business, culture, and the state evolved over time in a way that made capital gains more prized, and dividends less of a priority. It was a nuanced evolution.

We review many other topics that incorporate financial history into modern observations and takeaways for how information in an economic complex adaptive system flows. How do elites exert influence as opposed to olden times? How can we mitigate corporate short-termism and parasitic behavior (hint: address moral hazard).

Whenever I talk about finance (or crypto) it’s in a manner that has political and social application. I don’t discuss them like a financial analyst; I deconstruct them like a financial analyst, then look at it as a game theorist in order to better understand social phenomena. Things typically develop the way they do for Darwinian purposes, and finance is not immune to this; crypto is simply an emergent phenomenon of finance.

I don’t focus on finance in narrow technical terms, and often people who aren’t money/crypto types get something out of it. If that describes you, I hope this description rings true if you listen.

This conversation also includes insights into the thought process that informed a business I'm working on that aims to completely change how DeFi tokens and value accrual are understood. I have three LOIs committed (one of which is an LA music and film studio) and several irons in the fire. You can learn more at Salutary.io.

Listen to it on YouTube here.

Also, at one point I say “gutting the middle class is a very low-time-preference mindset”, I misspoke, I meant to say it’s high time preference. Meaning it’s myopic and is at the expense of the long-term health of your country.

Related essays:

I’m receiving pledges for payment and monetization requests, which I very much appreciate, but I’m reluctant to paywall my writing. If you’d like, you can show your appreciation here: 0x9C828E8EeCe7a339bBe90A44bB096b20a4F1BE2B

The first two essays are directly related to some of the historical insights discussed in the podcast. The latter two have to do with economies as complex adaptive systems and monetary operations.

And the following two are from my Fed series, which approach how complex adaptive systems (economies) are understood and managed in a dramatically different way than what you have likely experienced.