Gilder’s Guideposts Newsletters
Private Vices in Public Places
“For all that is secret will be revealed, and everything that is hidden will be brought to light.” — Luke 8:17 The fight over whether big internet platforms such as Facebook (NASDAQ: META) and X may censor content posted by users is alleged to be an argument over First Amendment freedom of speech and the […]
Was the Flushing of Agent 13 a Reichenbach Fall?
Remember Agent 13? He was Maxwell Smart’s unfortunate colleague assigned to do surveillance from the most awkward and uncomfortable places. Over two seasons, these included a U.S. mailbox, a barber shop towel warmer, a locker at Dulles International Airport, a trash bin, a laundromat washing machine, an ice machine, and a plant pot. When Max […]
Revisiting the Nvidia Cult; the Nvidia Conundrum
Editor’s Note: The rise of Nvidia is continuing as its market capitalization recently soared past $2 trillion. We are re-sharing our June 30 column from last year, since it highlights Nvidia’s meteoric growth and deals with the same questions that have resurfaced in the past week about how high the company’s share price can go. […]
Against the Dying of the Light
Cacophonous are the voices decrying the implosion of “the U.S. Innovation Ecosystem,” as the Harvard Business Review puts it. Do not hope, the voices warn, to see in our future anything like the miraculous progress of the last two centuries, or even the last 50 years. It’s done. Tighten your belts. Supporting the doomsters are […]
Will National Security be the Death of Us?
In his first State of the Union address, John Quincy Adams laid down the fundamental principle of strategy for a commercial republic: “let us not be unmindful that liberty is power; that the nation blessed with the largest portion of liberty must in proportion to its numbers be the most powerful nation upon earth…” This […]
Ukraine Losing as U.S. Military Tech Lags… the Russians!
Ukraine is losing the war for many reasons including the all-too-familiar cycle of Russian military ventures: corrupt, politicized, and incompetent. The Russians start out failing pathetically, hold on in the interim by massive blood sacrifices of untrained troops, and finally, battle-hardened and led by officers competent enough to have survived, use their massive advantages in […]
Don’t Worry America, Israel is Behind You
More than a decade ago on trip to Israel, Richard V bought a tee shirt inscribed with the slogan above. The street vendor, handing him the tee with a slightly shy (for an Israeli!) and ironic smile said, “I know, it’s other way around, right?” Maybe not. As things stand today, no nation is more […]
The Topological ‘Traitors’ Who Will Save America’s Chips
The sagas of knowledge and power continue to deform the topology of the world. In 2012, George authored a book entitled Knowledge & Power, expounding the “Information Theory of Economics.” Consummated in my new book, “Life After Capitalism” (2023), it espoused the unpopular view that knowledge has no nations, and ultimately dominates the preferences of […]
Instant Karma Comes for the U.S. Semiconductor Industry
Here is our best investment tip. We wish we could say it was based on inside information, but unless being old and experienced count as cheating, we’re afraid that even under the Biden Securities and Exchange Commission, this advice is strictly street legal: Always bet against the force-fed fancies of politicians. Currently those include the […]
The United States as a Petrostate?
The financial press has recently been celebrating that the United States has reached all time-highs in oil production. Some Republicans, accustomed to blistering Biden for crippling our oil and gas extraction fear losing an issue. Into this confusion steps the indispensable John Tamny who points out the real reasons U.S. production is high, and they are […]