Jesse Felder on the cryptocurrency craze and FTX collapse

It’s no secret how Warren Buffett has been so successful over the course of his career. In fact, he has made it priority to share all of his “secrets” with anyone willing to take the time to simply read them. The trouble is his philosophy is intolerably dry and the process of investing as he does is infinitely boring to the vast majority of people in the world. The truth is that most don’t want to succeed in the markets as much as they want to be both thrilled and agonized by them. 

The latest example of this is the cryptocurrency craze. As an investment, cryptocurrencies make very little (if any) rational sense; in fact, there’s little reason to believe they are anything more than elaborate ponzi schemes. What they do offer, however, is a strong sense of community, a feeling of intellectual superiority, hope of an easy path to financial freedom and, perhaps most importantly, the thrill and agony of wild volatility.

~ Jesse Felder, "Crypto Bros Are Getting Exactly What They Want Out Of The Market," The Felder Report, November 16, 2022

Jesse Felder on what "don't fight the Fed" really means

There's a fascinating irony right now....  The misconception propping up asset prices is this idea of "don't fight the Fed," that there is no alternative to owning stocks when interest rates are suppressed.  So "don't fight the Fed" means you buy financial assets.  At the same time, the Fed is saying "we're going to do everything in our power to create inflation."  So if you're going to really adopt the "don't fight the Fed" mantra, then you would take them at their word and say "they're biasing for higher inflation," which means financial assets are not the place to be.  It's interesting to me that these misconceptions result in this hyprocrisy. 

~ Jesse Felder, "Diego Parilla on Appreciating the Opportunity Set in 'Antibubbles'," Superinvestors and the Art of Worldly Wisdom podcast, 37:15 mark, April 21, 2021