The AI doomsday narrative is back and the calls for slowing things down are getting louder. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s blog post has clearly re-energised the debate. It has also prompted responses from some of the other major players, including OpenAI’s Sam Altman as well as Elon Musk and SpaceX who appear to agree that…
When the textbook meets the market
A PhD in finance corners you in a meeting and asks what I think of the efficient frontier and mean-variance optimization. Fair question. My honest answer is that the theory has earned its keep. It gave the industry a common language and a useful starting point. The problem starts when people begin treating the model…
Why are we so glum when life has never been better?
I’m writing this at the train station, waiting for a train. Seemed like the right place for it where everyone around me looks faintly annoyed in a world where trains, on the whole, run better than they ever have in human history. Well, I told some friends this at dinner recently. They did not believe…
The bond market is in the ring
A recent article caught my attention and I thought I would share it here before some clients start coming to me with another “the dollar is collapsing” story. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund which manages around USD2.3 trillion is proposing to reduce government bonds from 70% to 50% of its bond allocation. Based on current holdings,…
Back on the road!
I will be away over a couple of days, so the blog will be taking a short break. That said, I know myself well enough. If I find a quiet moment in an airport lounge, on a train, or somewhere in transit, I will probably end up writing something anyway. Old habits are hard to…