Financial Nihilism: Price Discovery in a World Where Nothing Matters | Ben Hunt & Grant Williams
Hidden Forces
Demetri Kofinas
4.8 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 24 February 2020
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In Episode 123 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with two guests who have each made one prior appearance on Hidden Forces: Grant Williams and Ben Hunt. Ben is the founder of the widely read Epsilon Theory, a newsletter and website that's become popular for its insights and analysis into markets and society with a particular focus on how narrative drives our perception of the world and our place in it. Grant is the long-time publisher of a popular financial newsletter, the host of a phenomenal sports podcast, and the co-founder of Real Vision, a financial media company that offers in-depth video interviews with some of the world's most thoughtful investors.
Today's conversation is broken into two parts, the second hour of which is available to our paid subscribers. In the first part we discuss a philosophy that Demetri calls "financial nihilism," which treats the objects of speculation as though they were intrinsically worthless.
We are witnessing price movements characteristic of a raging bull market without the euphoria that typically accompanies them. The rationalization that governments will "fix the mess" and that central banks will "buy the dip" channels a deeper sense of existential meaninglessness. Whether it's the decline of religion, the dismantling of the nation state, or the commodification of the self, something feels lacking.
In the second hour, the three continue their discussion about markets but also delve into more personal stories from their lives and careers. Grant shares anecdotes from his experience interviewing some of the most brilliant minds in finance and Ben shares insights from his own creative process and what motivates him. All in all, this is one of the best conversations we've ever released.
If you are interested in accessing the overtime, transcript, and/or rundown to this week's episode, you can do that through the Hidden Forces Patreon Page. All subscribers also gain access to our overtime feed, which can be easily added to your favorite podcast application.
Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas
Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today's episode of Hidden Forces is made possible by listeners like you. |
| 0:04.4 | For more information about this week's episode or for easy access to related programming |
| 0:09.7 | visit our website at hidden Forces. I.O. and subscribe to our free email list. |
| 0:16.4 | If you listen to the show on your Apple Podcast app, remember, you can give us a review. |
| 0:21.5 | Each review helps more people find the show and join our |
| 0:24.9 | amazing community. And with that, please enjoy this week's episode. And the What's up everybody? Today's episode features two guests who have each made one prior appearance on Hidden Forces, |
| 0:56.4 | Grant Williams and Ben Hunt. |
| 0:58.8 | Ben is the founder of the |
| 1:03.3 | newsletter and website that's become popular for its insights and analysis into markets and society |
| 1:08.6 | with a particular focus on how narrative drives our perception of the world and our place in it. |
| 1:15.0 | Grant is a little harder to pin down. |
| 1:18.0 | Literally, he's always traveling, but also creatively, he's the longtime publisher of a popular financial newsletter, hosts a |
| 1:26.4 | phenomenal sports podcast called Are You Not Entertained, and his long-formed conversations |
| 1:32.4 | with fund managers, investors, economists, and other brilliant |
| 1:36.4 | thinkers are some of the most engaging, thoughtful, and well-produced interviews you will find anywhere. |
| 1:44.9 | Today's conversation is broken into two parts, the second hour of which is available to our |
| 1:50.3 | paid subscribers. |
| 1:52.1 | I know what you're thinking. Thank God I'm subscribed. |
| 1:56.0 | Unless you're not, in which case there's an easy solution. |
| 2:00.0 | Just scroll down to the bottom of this week's episode page and click on the link that says |
| 2:06.2 | Patreon.com slash Hidden Forces. |
| 2:10.3 | From there if you already have a Patreon account, you just choose which content here you want access to, and boom, you're done. |
... |
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