Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Bus Stop

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Many years ago, in the early 1990s and the beginning of my company Prophet, my partner said something to me at the time that I’ll never forget. He pointed to our rack of modems and said, “This is dumb.”

I’m not exactly sure what he meant at the time, nor am I sure to this day, but I believe what he meant was that the notion of:

  1. a phone line on the customer’s end;
  2. a modem on the customer’s end
  3. a dedicated phone call (often long distance);
  4. a phone line on our end;
  5. a modem on our end

All for the purpose of establishing ONE connection was ridiculous and would be surpassed by something better one day.

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Dope Springs Eternal

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Hey, does anyone know where I can buy some Theranos stock? I realize the company is bankrupt and its founder is in prison, but I still want to know.

Sounds stupid, right? Well, it isn’t one bit more stupid than the fact that FTX Token ($FTT) is still happily trading and has a market cap of nearly half a BILLION dollars. Here’s the chart, which, weirdly, spiked nicely higher in the throes of SBFs trial. When he was convicted of all counts, it did even better.

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What Counts

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It’s eye-opening to see what does and doesn’t matter to equity markets these days.

  • Hopeless war in Ukraine: doesn’t matter
  • Another hopeless war in Gaza: doesn’t matter
  • Over $33 trillion in debt: doesn’t matter
  • A guaranteed disaster, politically, in 2024: doesn’t matter
  • Grotesque maldistribution of wealth: doesn’t matter
  • Slowing economic growth doesn’t matter

OK, so what DOES matter? That’s easy! Janet Yellen’s free-money-to-her-friends BTFP, which hit yet another record and is almost $130 billion now! Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

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