Allison Schrager's Substack Finds, 7/27

One is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; another is Aswath Damodoran

We had an enlightening, uplifting conversation with Allison Schrager the other night. After she got her Ph.D, she was spurned by academia, but she is happy it turned out that way. Same. But she is optimistic that the economics profession will save itself. Not same.

She mentioned two substacks that I had not seen. One is “Market Musings,” by Aswath Damodoran. In one of his posts, Damodoran writes,

As expected inflation rises, you are likely to see higher interest rates, and as we noted above, that may induce investors to cut back on risk taking and focus on earning enough to cover the ravages of inflation. As uncertainty about inflation rises, you will see reallocation of investment across asset classes, with real assets gaining when unexpected inflation is positive (actual inflation is higher than expected), and financial assets benefiting when unexpected inflation is negative (actual inflation is less than expected).

. . .at the risk of sounding callous, I do think that a return of fear and a longer term pullback in risk capital is healthy for markets and the economy, since risk capital providers, spoiled by a decade or more of easy returns, have become lazy and sloppy in their pricing and trading decisions, and have, in the process, skewed capital allocation in the economy. If a long-term slowdown is in the cards, it is almost certain that the investment strategies that delivered high returns in the last decade will no longer work in this new environment, and that old lessons, dismissed as outdated just a few years go, may need to be relearned. 

He writes long, careful essays, but posts infrequently.

Another substack that Schrager recommends is that of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who posts on a more regular schedule.

Here, Kareem dunks on Jordan Peterson.

Much of Peterson’s fame and infamy is the result of YouTube debates he does with other YouTubers, mostly with people that agree with him. On those occasions when he debates people who don’t agree with him, his tactic is similar to Ben Shapiro’s: name-drop famous writers and thinkers, keep changing the subject so he never has to fully defend his position, throw out irrelevant facts and studies so he sounds smart. You would be hard-pressed to know what Peterson’s thesis is during a debate.

But he argues against Twitter canceling Peterson.

we must draw a clear line between hate speech and hateful speech. Hate speech promotes violence and biased actions against groups. Hateful speech spews irrational anger that is hurtful. Granted that line can get fuzzy because hateful can quickly become hate, but it’s important that we are vigilant in making that distinction so as not to quash free speech. His comments were more buffoonish than hate and he should have the right to be a buffoon.

I think that when Peterson interviews someone on YouTube, he tends to ask a lot of Devil’s Advocate questions, which scores points in Fantasy Intellectual Teams.

I advise that when you feel strongly about something, talk softly. Have the self-control to use minimal rhetoric, patience, and a mild tone. I offer that advice to Kareem as well as to Peterson.

I think it will be a great day when you encounter a thinker on the Internet and instead of asking “I wonder where I can find this person’s Twitter feed,” you ask “I wonder if this person has a substack.” I am increasingly optimistic that this day is coming.