Economics Books Tier List
And some crypto talk
Since Coinbase went public this week, I’ll focus on some crypto stories. First, NFTs, and further down I’ll talk about Coinbase.
At least since 2012, we have wondered what happens to the lives of people who become viral memes. Indeed, there’s a whole series on BuzzFeed that tracks down the faces behind famous memes and tells their stories.
Most dissolve into the background. But some are able to parlay their fame into career success. One example is Overly Attached Girlfriend, who took her meme and turned it into a YouTube channel that gained over 1 million subscribers.
Well now these meme lords are cashing in on a new meme: NFTs. The faces behind the memes are now selling NFTs based on their original image, and some are going for a lot. Like Overly Attached Girlfriend, who sold her NFT for 200 ETH (worth about $400k when she sold it a month ago, but hit around $500k just this last week).
What’s interesting here is how this demonstrates where NFTs get their value. NFTs (right now) are a meme. And therefore the more meme-worthy the underlying asset, the more valuable it will be. That’s what made the banana taped to a wall so valuable—it went viral, and we’re talking about it 18 months later, and so collectors see that it has value.
It demonstrates another important point about NFTs, but that’s related to a video I have coming up. So I won’t spoil it today.
Economics Books Tier List
I asked my viewers what Tier List they wanted next. Overwhelmingly (61%) asked for popular economics books. I did not think it would be that decisive.
Well today I’m publishing that video. There are four groups of books: Behavioral Economics, Marxist Economics, General Economics, and Development Economics. I’ll even list all of the books here (links are Amazon affiliates): Predictably Irrational, Nudge, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Capital in the 21st Century, The Deficit Myth, Naked Economics, The Undercover Economist, The Cartoon Introduction to Economics, Superfreakonomics, Freakonomics, Why Nations Fail, and Poor Economics.
Go over to the channel and let me know your thoughts.
Coinbase
This last week Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange, went public and at one point hit a market cap of $100 billion. The company started in 2012, and somebody scoured a tech message board and found the post when Brian Armstrong, the founder and CEO, asked if anyone on the board wanted to start the company with him. He was pleading for a partner and trying to sell the vision. Many of the replies told him it was not a good idea and that he was ill-prepared to start the company. So take that as your weekly motivation.