Is the Debasement Trade Over?
The Fed is reversing its 2025 cuts, which were the genesis of the debasement trade
Ten shelves · 50 essays
The Reading Room
I.
Tech
[Reply] Re: Decimal Clock
Niki proposed a decimalised analogue clock, with ten subdivisions broken into partial hours. I much prefer a traditional…
[Note] Incoming Postcard... from Croatia
Word Tree to visualize structure in a body of text
[Article] "Things" is a thing that showcases my things.
II.
Culture
Advice for the incoming Democratic Congress: 8 Bold Ideas...
Advice for the incoming Democratic Congress: 8 Bold Ideas to Fix America. Bold? I dunno…it seems like a lot of this stuf…
Could a modern chess engine on a Pentium have defeated...
Odysseus Didn’t Rely on Grit; Neither Should You
An anthology that merely reflects the market amounts to a passive index fund. The editor’s job is to pick winners. David Lehman explains
Critics and biographers alike have tiptoed around a momentous force in John Berger’s writing: sex
III.
Life
I’m on a slow background mission to reverse the othering in my worldview. De-othering
I’m on a slow background mission to reverse the othering in my worldview. De-othering: sive.rs/deothering
Pablo Neruda on How to Hold Time
What Makes You Yourself: Earth’s Largest Living Organism and the Paradox of Personhood
De-othering
Carl Sagan on How to Live with the Unknown
IV.
Design
Fortune Telling and Speculative Design
Practical tools for design engineers to explore possible futures through speculative design
Planning with Agents: Divided Worlds, Boundary Objects, and Thicker Interfaces
August 2026
In Memoriam, Encountering World War I, and Thinkable Horrors
One Developer, Two Dozen Agents, Zero Alignment
V.
Economics
What should I ask Simon Sebag Montefiore?
I will be doing a Conversation with him, most of all about his new and very good book The Cauldron: The Making of the Mo…
Live Event with Heather Cox Richardson
How India samples its affluent households
How Much Does a Hawkish Fed Hurt Gold?
India is quietly doing great
VI.
Finance
Personal finance links: shrinking spending opportunities
Wednesdays are all about personal finance here at Abnormal Returns. You can check out last week’s links including a look…
Animal Spirits: What the Hell Just Happened?!
Treasuries lose their haven status
Tuesday links: one big bet
This is Why You Need a Plan
VII.
History
For More Than Three Decades, Qatar Has Flourished by Playing All Sides
A strategy of means, not ends
Why Russia had serfs
The Unfinished Drama of Two Histories
Yet More Flying Notes From Egypt
The US Election in 6 maps
VIII.
Philosophy
Evolutionary ethics and how we treat strangers
Are we born or taught to be fair?
Longtermism For Animals
The Scariest Recent AI Development
Dario Amodei’s Contemptible Critics
Suggested Readings
IX.
Psychology
Manly Jobs, Signal Inflation, Sexual Passion
Links and recommendations
We need more goat sacrifices
Women Have Become More Likely to Marry Men With Less Education Than Themselves
When there is no right answer
Brave Men, Reproductive Effort, Motivation
X.
Science
Eric Weinstein & Richard Borcherds: Fields Medalist & Eric Weinstein on the Future of Mathematics
SPONSORS:
Missing the boat on extreme event attribution
What Is a Quantum Field Theory, Really?
XKDR Newsletter - Issue 55
Eric Weinstein & Richard Borcherds: Fields Medalist & Eric Weinstein on the Future of Mathematics
Culture · Feature
USPS Announces Mythical Creatures Stamps for 2027
The US Postal Service recently released a partial list of the stamps it’s putting out in 2027. One of the sets is Mythical Creatures, featuring five cryptids.1 The legend of Mothman has endured for more than six decades, but of the creatures encountered on these stamps, this flying, man-sized, red-e...
From the Stacks
Browse the full archive → Five rediscoveries from the back issues, rotated by the day
Read slowly. There is no hurry.