Richard Cantillon (1680-1734), an Irish-French banker/merchant predating Adam Smith, is arguably the founder of modern economics. The book he wrote shortly before his demise, Essay on the Nature of Trade in General, officially published in 1755, was an influential and highly citied document, before it was overshadowed by the retardation of economics that would follow in the form of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776). Cantillon rescued economic analysis from its traditional conflation with politics and ethics. In the words of Friedrich Hayek, “this gifted independent observer, enjoying an unsurpassed vantage point in the midst of the action, coordinated what he saw with the eyes of the born theoretician and was the first person who succeeded in enterating and presenting to us almost the entire field which we now call economics.” ...

Passages From The Wealth of Nations The following passages from Adam Smith’s An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations have received enormous attention over the centuries following their publication in 1776. “[A man] will be more likely to prevail if he can interest their self-love in his favour, and show that it is for their own advantage to do for him what he requires of them … It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity, but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.” “As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of. . .industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value; every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. . .(B)y directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.” “Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good.” These passages are seen as evidence of Adam Smith promoting laissez-faire capitalism. Note the introduction of the “invisible hand” meme in the second passage, one that has been propagated around without much regard for context. These famous quotes convey the idea that it is through the selfish pursuit of our own goals that the good of the economy results, and this is more desirable than a direct, motivated pursuit of social good. The anti-free market positions advocated by Adam Smith, therefore, come as a shock to those who imagine him as the paragon of the laissez-faire paradigm. ...

There are two opposing thoughts regarding money I am considering at the moment. On the one hand, we have the idea that to the extent it serves a nonmonetary purpose, it is an inferior form of money. For example, gold, which is a form of money, also has various other use cases as jewelry, industrial raw material, etc. These use cases compete against the monetary use case. Until Bitcoin, there was no contender for pure money. That Bitcoin lacked any other utility was hurled as a criticism. The idea was something like this: gold has various other utilities (and corresponding demand), so its price is unlikely to fall below a certain level; Bitcoin, on the other hand, due to absence of such alternate uses, would see its price collapse to zero some day. ...

In March 2021, Coinkite introduced an entropy bug into the firmware for their Mk3, Mk4, (and the yet to be produced Mk5 and Q) line. Instead of utilizing proper hardware-based entropy, the devices used software-based entropy partly predictable from the unique ID/serials, time/clock registers, and related states of their chips. The result: instead of utilizing 128 or 256 bit entropy, they were down to just 40 bits (for Mk3) or 72 bits (for the others), under optimistic assumptions. To grasp the difference in scale, see the video below. Essentially, the bug reduced the problem for the attackers from finding one atom in over a billion galaxies to finding one atom in a single organism. ...

The following table depicts the major components of the fiat financial system from the Indian point-of-view. For the most part, it is similar to the table for the US case. The key differences are noted at the bottom. Components of the Indian Banking System ENTITIES LIABILITIES ASSETS EXAMPLES Individuals Mortgages, Loans, Taxes Deposits, Banknotes, Government Securities (G-Secs), Stocks, Bonds, Fund Units, SDLs, Benefit Payments High Net-Worth Individuals, Retail Investors, Family Offices, Other Individuals Businesses and Non-Profits Loans, Bonds, Equity, Commercial Paper, Taxes Deposits, Banknotes, Subsidies Tata Group, Reliance Industries, Infosys, Indian Red Cross Society, Small and Medium Enterprises Financial Institutions Deposits, Fund Units, Securities Issued, Taxes Loans, Mortgages, G-Secs, SDLs, Stocks, Bonds, Commercial Paper, Bank Reserves, Deposits, Banknotes, Bailouts State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI Mutual Fund, Life Insurance Corporation of India Foreign Sector Deposits, Stocks, Bonds, Loans, Taxes G-Secs, Stocks, Bonds, Loans, Fund Units, Deposits, Banknotes Reserve Bank of Japan, Norges Bank Investment Management, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs), Global Corporations Public Authorities, Government Trust Funds, State Governments Bonds, SDLs, Benefit Payments Government Securities, (State) Taxes Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), National Pension System (NPS Trust), State PSUs like NTPC, Indian Railways, Government of Maharashtra Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Banknotes, Bank Reserves Government Securities, Foreign Exchange Reserves, SDLs Reserve Bank of India (Mumbai, Regional Offices) Government of India Government Securities, Subsidies, Bailouts Taxes — Notes The components here are very similar to the Components of the US Banking System. Standard notes regarding the US system applies. There are some differences. ...

Perhaps I should begin building a list of all the lies we are taught in school. That a plant-based diet is healthy for you is presented to you so adamantly and incessantly, you begin treating the claim as self-evident to the point that questioning it becomes a nonstarter. Despite being proclaimed from the highest pulpits by doctors, nutritionists, and public health experts, it lacks both empirical and logical backing. The truth is pretty much the opposite. ...