52 things Tom Whitwell learned in 2024. Among them: “Ozempic is a modified, synthetic version of a protein discovered in the venomous saliva of the Gila monster, a large, sluggish lizard native to the United States…When writing a sentence, don’t keep your reader waiting.”
Paul Mueller: “A defense of free trade requires good paradigms and mental models—otherwise, our responses will be disjointed, abstract, and ultimately uncompelling. Adam Smith popularized economic freedom, classical liberalism, and limited government by developing and defending a coherent, compelling, beautiful system of economic prosperity—one that he contrasted with the existing corrupt system of mercantilism that dominated the eighteenth-century European world. Great economists have always cared about more than technical market efficiency. They often marvel at markets, and inspire students with their dynamism, beauty, and wonder. The political Right’s recent drift away from free markets largely stems from losing the grand vision of a commercial republic and instead myopically focusing on a few visible economic and social phenomena. I want to recapture part of this vision by using gardens as an analogy for markets.”
Paul Krugman in his last NYTimes column (ending after 25 years): “What strikes me, looking back, is how optimistic many people, both here and in much of the Western world, were back then and the extent to which that optimism has been replaced by anger and resentment. And I’m not just talking about members of the working class who feel betrayed by elites; some of the angriest, most resentful people in America right now — people who seem very likely to have a lot of influence with the incoming Trump administration — are billionaires who don’t feel sufficiently admired.”
WSJ: “The computer code behind bitcoin imposes a hard cap of 21 million bitcoins. So far, about 19.8 million bitcoins have been created, and it will take more than a century to create the rest, a process that will become increasingly difficult over time. Proponents of bitcoin argue that its scarcity will fuel rising prices as buyers scramble to acquire the last new coins to come online, or to buy existing coins from people fortunate enough to own bitcoin already. It is the same argument for buying Gutenberg Bibles, limited-edition baseball cards and beachfront real estate: There is a finite supply. Skeptics counter that bitcoin has no intrinsic value and that a wave of selling could wipe out its recent gains. Bitcoin has been hugely volatile over its short history, alternating between feverish rallies and spectacular crashes. It plunged nearly 80% from its peak in 2021 to its low point the next year, after the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange. Whatever it is really worth, bitcoin is a wild technical experiment unlike any the world has ever seen: an internet-based currency created by tech enthusiasts, without the backing of a government or central bank.”
The Generalist: “According to Industry Ventures, the global addressable market for secondary transactions in venture was $25 billion in 2012. A decade later, it had hit $105 billion – a 4.2x increase. That quantifies just how rapidly this part of the venture asset class has grown and illustrates the scale of the opportunity for both buyers and sellers. Market changes have been a critical part of this increase. Between 2012 and 2021, annual capital raised by venture funds grew from $58 billion to $240 billion, approximately a 4.1x jump. With larger coffers, venture firms have been able to capitalize startups at greater rates for longer, extending their stints as private businesses and delaying public market debuts. Today, it’s common for a startup to spend over a decade as a private business.”
