At this horrible moment in history, it’s reassuring to find out that serious thinkers have longbeen reflecting about national and global security and the way that AI interacts, or mightinteract in the future, with military and strategic matters. Thus, The Age of AI (And Our HumanFuture), by Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher, is keenly relevant eventhough the book …

Vaclav Smil, the 80-year-old Czech-Canadian scientist whom Bill Gates cites as his favorite author, rarely disappoints. Smil’s 2022 book, How the World Really Works, is a superb paean to the physical world and its primacy in our lives — warning us that idealistic techies are wrong when they claim that teraflops and petabytes are what matters. As the economist and …

With Stephen C. Sexauer “I know some things,” he said. “I can, you know, do math and stuff.” – Harry Potter, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J. K. Rowling Most investors believe we “know some things” — and that we can do some “math and stuff.” But the question is: Do we know what we need to …

I wanted to write Pulak Prasad’s What I Learned About Investing from Darwin, or something very much like it, 40 years ago. My first published article, written in 1982, began: “The economy of man was Charles Darwin’s inspiration for his theory of natural selection.” I then quoted Darwin: I happened to read…Malthus on Population, and being well prepared to appreciate …

At this horrible moment in history, with Israel waging a war on multiple fronts and Ukraine fighting for its independence. it’s reassuring that serious thinkers have long been reflecting about national and global security. They are considering the way that AI will interact with military and strategic matters. Thus, The Age of AI (And Our Human Future), by Henry Kissinger, …

Technological progress in the last two centuries, and especially in the recent past, has beennothing short of amazing. So why are we so unhappy? Why aren’t we all rich? Why are we sounequal in material success? Why is social unrest just as wrenching as it was in earlier, poorertimes? When Daron Acemoglu speaks, I listen. Well on his way to …

Edited by Laurence B. SiegelApril 2023Special to AJO Vista On February 25, 2023, I heard Mark Mills, a physicist, venture capitalist, and author of The Cloud Revolution, which I reviewed in this space on April 6, 2022, speak at a meeting of the Global Interdependence Center in La Jolla, California.

We can and do build very tall skyscrapers. But they are impractical money losers because so much floor space is taken up by elevators. A new book explains the interplay between size and scale, and what it means for our economy and investments. Vaclav Smil, the 80-year-old Czech-Canadian scientist whom Bill Gates cites as his favorite author, rarely disappoints. Smil’s …

Should investors build their own portfolios of bonds, or buy shares of bond funds? Is there an economic difference or just one of appearance? Are directly held bonds safer because they mature, and you get your money back? How should one decide? Let’s ask the experts. Their differing views frame the question. Then, I’ll provide my answer. “You get your …

As a long-standing supporter of the “endowment model,” I’ve spent decades balancing my enthusiasm for active management and alternative investments against my theory- and evidence-based belief in indexing. But my advocacy of alternatives has been targeted to institutions and ultra-high net worth investors. The recent embrace of so-called liquid alternatives by ordinary Americans seeking to fund their retirement is deeply …

Technological progress in the last two centuries, and especially in the recent past, has been nothing short of amazing. So why are we so unhappy? Why aren’t we all rich? Why are we so unequal in material success? Why is social unrest just as wrenching as it was in poorer times? When Daron Acemoglu speaks, I listen. Well on his …

Pulak Prasad is a successful investor in the Indian market, where he grew up. But he is also an amateur evolutionary biologist. His new book illustrates a powerful – and often money-making – link between the disciplines of investing and evolution. I wanted to write Pulak Prasad’s What I Learned About Investing from Darwin, or something very much like it, …

Joel Kotkin, an urban geographer, demographer, and prolific futurist, argues in a new book that the United States is headed toward “neo-feudalism.” The original feudalism of the Middle Ages bound most individuals into a fixed position in the social hierarchy. Kotkin sees something similar emerging in our future. But his evidence is unconvincing. Rather than feudalism, we are headed toward …

With commentary and an afterword by Fred Mueller. Will artificial general intelligence (AGI) transform the experience of being human, opening up possibilities of knowledge, achievement, and prosperity that we can now barely conceive? Or is AGI an existential threat to humanity, something to be feared and restrictively confined? Erik J. Larson, in a fascinating book entitled The Myth of Artificial …

As a long-standing supporter of the “endowment model,” I’ve spent decades balancing my enthusiasm for active management and alternative investments against my theory- and evidence-based belief in indexing. But my advocacy of alternatives has been targeted to institutions and ultra-high net worth investors. The recent embrace of so-called liquid alternatives by ordinary Americans seeking to fund their retirement is deeply …

Should investors build their own portfolios of bonds, or buy shares of bond funds? Is there an economic difference or just one of appearance? Are directly held bonds safer because they mature, and you get your money back? How should one decide? Let’s ask the experts. Their differing views frame the question. Then, I’ll provide my answer. “You get your …

As a long-standing supporter of the endowment model, I’ve spent decades balancing my enthusiasm for active management and alternative investments against my theory- and evidence-based belief in indexing. But my advocacy of alternatives has been targeted to institutions and ultra-high-net-worth investors. The recent embrace of so-called liquid alternatives by ordinary Americans seeking to fund their retirement is deeply troubling. What …