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.

Best of 2020: Part 2 of 8

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Preface to all eight parts: This year was an extraordinary one for the world and an amazing one for Slope. Our user base has grown, our site has dozens more features, and we are poised for a great 2021, which will be our sixteenth year in business. Out of the thousands of posts this year, we have picked some we believe you will enjoy re-reading the most.

Diminishing Returns
My frantic short-selling starts to dry up

Fed Panics. Tim Cheers.
The Federal Reserve goes absolutely “all in” to save the rich

A Crucial Weekend
The last big weekend before the crash stopped in its tracks

Frogs From the Sky
The plague comes to Silicon Valley

Sand Castles and Fed Waves
Reflections on Q1 of 2020

Powell’s Pathetic Perversion
Treatise on why exactly I have such a bug up my ass about the Fed

Pain-Free Debt
Trillions and Trillions (say it in a Carl Sagan voice)

Forget the Prick
Has the bubble burst for good? I guess not.

Ex Squeeze Me
My tale of my car being hit by someone I know

Best of 2020: Part 1 of 8

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Preface to all eight parts: This year was an extraordinary one for the world and an amazing one for Slope. Our user base has grown, our site has dozens more features, and we are poised for a great 2021, which will be our sixteenth year in business. Out of the thousands of posts this year, we have picked some we believe you will enjoy re-reading the most. I will be rolling out these “parts” between now and the last day of this godawful year.


CES Silliness
We begin the new year with a look at the most ridiculous contraptions

Softbank’s $4 Billion Pizza
One of my best posts of the whole year, a take-down of Zuma.

Softbank’s Doppelganger
How CMGI compares to its modern-day equivalent.

What Expiring Bubbles Look Like
A prescient post from NFTRH just before the bubble did, in fact, pop.

The Terrible Truth About Awful Data
Why it’s important to have clean data, and how Slope embraces this value.

Iowa Kaka
The train wreck of an app in the Iowa Caucus

Extension Cord
The hero-worship of Elon Musk

Worst. Timing. Ever.
The electronic brokerage E*Trade was bought at the worst possible moment.

The Dawning Realization
Market movements go into 10th gear

The Bottom Is In
Hey, I missed it by five days, which isn’t too bad.

A Dozen for Twenty-Twenty

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The year 2020 has brought more new features and innovations to Slope than any other time in our fifteen year history. Here is a recap of some of our most interesting innovations; click on any of them to revisit what each of them is about:

Holiday Special

If you want access to more of Slope’s content and features like those listed above (or if you simply want to support the site, since subscriptions are our only revenue source), please consider taking advantage of these special lifetime discounts:

  • Bronze at 9.95/month (33% discount)
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The Effect of Asset Inflation on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

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A bicycle ride gave me some clarity, and I wanted to share those thoughts with you now. And the clarity wasn’t a total accident. I was going to run an errand on my bike, and I told myself as I got on, “I’m going to think about asset inflation on this ride.” In this absurdly controlled market, one has to strive to create decent content, so I decided to put my mind to work.

So I took off. I love my neighborhood. I took a few moments of video on my bike to show how pleasant it is. Just block after block of this:

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The Best of Tyler

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Whenever I think to myself, “I have nothing else to write; I have no content; woe is me!” a shining beam hits my face and I get an idea. This one is no different. and I really like it. Allow me to explain…………

A number of years ago, I got an invitation from the somewhat famous Tyler Durden, who runs ZeroHedge, to contribute articles to their site. I was absolutely delighted, and since then, I’ve posted almost 370 items there.

As regular ZH readers know by now, it seems that on Friday the collective Tylers threw a switch and changed their website. It looks different, it feels different, and – – many years after Slope did the same – – they have introduced a “premium” service. ZH has an audience vastly bigger than Slope, and I wish them well with their launch. They have been nothing but good to me over the years.

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