The Pomp Letter

To investors, Today is a guest post from Will Clemente , co-founder of Reflexivity Research, on the current state of crypto market structure. You can subscribe to Reflexivity’s research by clicking here . After a major first quarter we have seen a continued decline in trading volume across the board for major digital assets across all major centralized exchanges. Throughout the month of May, aggre...

To investors, Artificial intelligence is now being talked about by the media as much as bitcoin was discussed during the all-time high run of 2021. This is noteworthy because the media’s coverage will only accelerate adoption, while also helping to solicit more investment dollars to the industry. As Bay Area Times explained, coverage of new product releases like ChatGPT have not slowed down months...

To investors, Today, we are publicly announcing the Bay Area Times — a new product that uses data and visuals to analyze what is happening across business, finance, and technology on a daily basis. The product has been in beta testing with 20,000+ readers for the last few weeks and the feedback has been phenomenal. Now we are ready for prime time, so you can subscribe here completely free . Why ar...

To investors, The concept of an insurance policy is straightforward. A contract is created between a policyholder and an insurer. The contract states that the insurer is legally required to pay for losses outlined by the insurance policy when they occur.  In exchange for having their losses covered, the policyholder must agree to pay a premium to the insurer over time. Policyholders pay for the ri...

Note: You all should have received my latest book summary (Excellent Advice for Living by Kevin Kelly) in your inbox this morning. It is under our new book brand — The Bookrat. If you don’t see it, please go to your spam folder and move it to your inbox. You can also reply to the email to solve the problem for the future too. Enjoy! To investors, British lawmakers from the U.K. Treasury Select Com...

Note: A book summary went out this morning on The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai. The sender is “The Bookrat,” so if you did not receive it yet please check your spam folder. Move the email to your inbox or respond to the email to make sure it doesn’t go to spam in the future. Thank you and enjoy. To investors, The second and third largest bank failures in US history happened earlier this year...

Note: Tomorrow you will receive the next installment of our book summaries, which is now called The Bookrat. Many of you reported the email went to spam last week, so please search “Bookrat” in your spam folder and move it to your inbox. You can also respond to the email and that will solve the problem in the future as well. Thank you. To investors, Social Capital’s Chamath Palihapitiya recently s...

READER’S NOTE: Many of you have asked me when you will receive more book summaries from the books I am reading each week. I am splitting the content into two separate emails. You will continue to receive my commentary on finance and economics here in The Pomp Letter. You will receive the book summaries once a week through a separate email we are launching today called The BookRat. Separating the c...

To investors, What the Fed gives, the Fed can take away. This has been the story for interest rates and asset prices for as long as fiat central banks have existed. Each new generation of investors have to learn this lesson the hard way and that is exactly what we have seen over the last 18 months. The Fed’s suppression of interest rates to 0%, coupled with trillions of dollars in QE, led to one o...

To investors, We have entered the Era of Digital Catastrophes. The concept of a Digital Catastrophe is going to be important to understand over the coming years. I define it as a large, negative event that occurs in the analog world, which is accelerated by online action and conversation. The first big example we have of this phenomenon is the fall of Silicon Valley Bank, the second largest bank f...

To investors, There is a massive financial crisis underway at the moment. Alarm sirens are going off almost every day. As a friend told me yesterday, “bodies keep floating to the surface.” This is really, really not good. The shut down of Silvergate Bank, along with the takeovers of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, have been well documented. Two days ago we got word that Credit Suisse was u...

To investors, The past week has seen three banks shut down, including the second and third largest bank failures in United States history. This appears to be created by a bad economic situation on the surface, but there is a controversy brewing behind the curtain that I think is worth taking a look at. As most of you know, I have the good fortune of speaking with many of the top venture capitalist...

To investors, Silicon Valley Bank’s failure on Friday afternoon left the business and finance industries scrambling in uncertainty. Would depositors get their money back? What would happen to the equity and bond holders? How would so many startups meet their payroll requirements in the coming week? I know of multiple companies who had tens or hundreds of millions of dollars stuck in the bank. They...

To investors, Silvergate Bank announced they would liquidate earlier this week. Now Silicon Valley Bank has come under immense pressure as a bank run commenced yesterday. There is a lot to unpack in this situation, so let’s dig in. Silicon Valley Bank is the leading bank for Silicon Valley tech companies. Great marketing in their name. Their customer base is dominated by businesses, not retail. An...

To investors, I hosted a conference this weekend at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The event featured guests from across industries and I sat on stage for nearly 9 hours to interview as many interesting people as possible. Given that many of you were unable to make the Miami-based event, I wanted to share a few of the lessons that I took away from LYCEUM Miami. First, Cathie Wood of ARK Invest...

To investors, I have been reading one book per week this year. This past week’s book was The Great CEO Within: The Tactical Guide to Company Building by Matt Mochary . Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here . Hope you enjoy these notes every Monday morning. Book’s main argument: Matt Mochary is one o...

To investors, I have been reading one book per week this year. This past week’s book was Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee by Shannon Lee . Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here . Hope you enjoy these notes every Monday morning. Book’s main argument: Bruce Lee was an international icon...

To investors, I have been reading one book per week this year. This past week’s book was The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin . Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here . Hope you enjoy these notes every Monday morning. Book’s main argument: Rick Rubin was crowned the most important music pro...

To investors, I have been reading one book per week this year. This past week’s book was Meditations by Marcus Aurelius . Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here . Hope you enjoy these notes every Monday morning. Book’s main argument: Marcus Aurelius was the Roman emperor and a Stoic philosopher. Alth...

To investors, There is a trend online where individuals try to name “zero interest rate phenomenon.” Some of the popular answers include the Island Boys popularity , frustration with an inability to purchase a mansion , working more than one remote technology job , starting a podcast , or NFTs and meme stocks . These examples were all ridiculous and unsustainable in hindsight. They don’t get at th...

To investors, I have been reading one book per week this year. This past week’s book was Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman . Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here . Hope you enjoy these notes every Monday morning. Book’s main argument: You have approximately four th...

To investors, I have been reading one book per week this year. This past week’s book was Never Finished by David Goggins . Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here . Hope you enjoy these notes every Monday morning. Book’s main argument: David Goggins is a former Navy SEAL who has a personal goal to bec...

To investors, I have been reading one book per week this year. This past week’s book was The War of Art by Steven Pressfield . Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here . Hope you enjoy these notes every Monday morning. Book’s main argument: The world is littered with people who dream, but very few who...

To investors, I have been reading one book per week this year. This past week’s book was Good Profit by Charles G Koch . Highly recommend reading it. If you are interested in the individual highlights that I made in the physical book, you can read those here . Hope you enjoy these notes every Monday morning. Book’s main argument: Koch Industries is estimated to produce $125 billion in annual reven...

To investors, The US national debt is over $31 trillion and US GDP is just under $26 trillion. This gives the largest economy in the world a debt-to-GDP ratio of ~ 125%. Not exactly an ideal situation. The proposed solution for this problem by the majority of individuals and organizations is to reduce the United States’ debt. This would be incredibly difficult to do. Federal income tax revenue has...