Fat Tailed Thoughts

Today's discussion is on payment for order flow. Ever wonder why stock trading on Robinhood and other brokerage platforms is free? They're selling your orders to third parties like Citadel and Virtu. It's free because we're the product. The SEC is proposing new rules that would effectively end the business model as we know it, but the changes introduce their own challenges that may be even worse for investors.

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Join the Fat Tailed Thoughts discussion on LinkedIn and the @FatTailThoughts discussion on Twitter with your co-hosts @KleeBeard and @StevenDickens3.

For more episodes of Fat Tailed Thoughts, visit fattailedthoughts.com. Past topics include WTF is CPI, Debt Collectors Who Help Rather Than Abuse, Slow Revolutions in Financial Services, and more.

Stay up to date on all of our content by joining the Fat Tail Thoughts letter at fattailedthoughts.substack.com.

The US faces a crisis level shortage in baby formula. It's a story of good legislative intentions gone wrong. In our haste to subsidize families in need, we distorted the market and created a fragile industry. In retrospect, the only surprise is that it took this long to fail. We explore why the baby formula market is in crisis, what is being done to bring baby formula to market now, and how we might avoid such a crisis in the future.

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Join the @FatTailThoughts discussion on Twitter with your co-hosts @KleeBeard and @StevenDickens3.

For more episodes of Fat Tailed Thoughts, visit fattailedthoughts.com. Past topics include WTF is CPI, Debt Collectors Who Help Rather Than Abuse, Slow Revolutions in Financial Services, and more.

Stay up to date on all of our content by joining the Fat Tail Thoughts letter at fattailedthoughts.substack.com.

Terra blew up. Runs followed on other algorithmic stablecoins and many followed suit. Little about their failure was novel. They all implemented models we've seen fail before with fiat. We explore why they failed, how this could have been avoided, and consider the path forward for regulation.

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Check out this week's letter for the full story. Join the @FatTailThoughts discussion on Twitter with your co-hosts @KleeBeard and @StevenDickens3.

For more episodes of Fat Tailed Thoughts, visit fattailedthoughts.com. Past topics include WTF is CPI, Debt Collectors Who Help Rather Than Abuse, Slow Revolutions in Financial Services, and more.

Stay up to date on all of our content by joining the Fat Tail Thoughts letter at fattailedthoughts.substack.com.

Jared rants about fraud in crypto. Steven tries to reign him in. It mostly goes off the rails.

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Check out this week's letter for the full story. Join the Fat Tailed Thoughts discussion on LinkedIn and the @FatTailThoughts discussion on Twitter with your co-hosts @KleeBeard and @StevenDickens3.

For more episodes of Fat Tailed Thoughts, visit fattailedthoughts.com. Past topics include WTF is CPI, Debt Collectors Who Help Rather Than Abuse, Slow Revolutions in Financial Services, and more.

Stay up to date on all of our content by joining the Fat Tail Thoughts letter at fattailedthoughts.substack.com.

Welcome to the Fat Tailed Thoughts After Show! This is a more free flowing, less serious discussion of the episode. We discuss Buy Now, Pay Later... mostly.

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Check out this week's letter for the full story. Join the Fat Tailed Thoughts discussion on LinkedIn and the @FatTailThoughts discussion on Twitter with your co-hosts @KleeBeard and @StevenDickens3.

For more episodes of Fat Tailed Thoughts, visit fattailedthoughts.com. Past topics include WTF is CPI, Debt Collectors Who Help Rather Than Abuse, Slow Revolutions in Financial Services, and more.

Stay up to date on all of our content by joining the Fat Tail Thoughts letter at fattailedthoughts.substack.com.

Today's discussion is on Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL). BNPL is a novel alternative to credit card debt that's grown dramatically in recent years. We discuss how BNPL makes money, the impending regulatory crackdown, and why the enthusiastic reception by consumers and businesses alike begs a lot more attention. Please enjoy this breakdown of buy now, payer later.

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Check out this week's letter for the full story. Join the Fat Tailed Thoughts discussion on LinkedIn and the @FatTailThoughts discussion on Twitter with your co-hosts @KleeBeard and @StevenDickens3.

For more episodes of Fat Tailed Thoughts, visit fattailedthoughts.com. Past topics include WTF is CPI, Debt Collectors Who Help Rather Than Abuse, Slow Revolutions in Financial Services, and more.

Stay up to date on all of our content by joining the Fat Tail Thoughts letter at fattailedthoughts.substack.com.

Today's discussion is on embedded finance. It embeds the financial product purchasing decision right alongside consumption purchase. We discuss why an embedded and frictionless user experience is a major leap forward for finance, how banks and startups can partner to create experiences better than either one can alone, and the powerful data feedback loop from combining finance and consumption. Please enjoy this breakdown of embedded finance.

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Check out this week's letter for the full story. Join the Fat Tailed Thoughts discussion on LinkedIn and the @FatTailThoughts discussion on Twitter with your co-hosts @KleeBeard and @StevenDickens3.

For more episodes of Fat Tailed Thoughts, visit fattailedthoughts.com. Past topics include WTF is CPI, Debt Collectors Who Help Rather Than Abuse, Slow Revolutions in Financial Services, and more.

Stay up to date on all of our content by joining the Fat Tail Thoughts letter at fattailedthoughts.substack.com.

Today's discussion is on Netflix Ads. Netflix lost subscribers for the first time in over a decade. CEO and co-founder Reed Hastings opened the door to an advertising based model alongside the company's subscriptions. It's a bad idea. We discuss why combining advertising and subscriptions creates terrible incentives for Netflix, other business models for successful entertain businesses, and the many non-advertising options for how Netflix can grow revenues and subscribers. Please enjoy this breakdown of Netflix ads.

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Check out this week's letter for the full story. Join the Fat Tailed Thoughts discussion on LinkedIn and the @FatTailThoughts discussion on Twitter with your co-hosts @KleeBeard and @StevenDickens3.

For more episodes of Fat Tailed Thoughts, visit fattailedthoughts.com. Past topics include WTF is CPI, Debt Collectors Who Help Rather Than Abuse, Slow Revolutions in Financial Services, and more.

Stay up to date on all of our content by joining the Fat Tail Thoughts letter at fattailedthoughts.substack.com.

Today's discussion is on a revolution in payments. Visa has dominated card payments for 50 years, but cryptocurrency networks pose a real challenge. Services like Strike help businesses transact over the Bitcoin Lightning Network practically for free. We discuss why Visa has been so successful, how crypto can win the coming payments war, and what this means for processors and other payments companies. Please enjoy this breakdown of the payments revolution.

Shoutout to Strike for what the payments solution they've built on the Bitcoin Lightning Networks.

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Check out this week's letter for the full story. Join the Fat Tailed Thoughts discussion on LinkedIn and the @FatTailThoughts discussion on Twitter with your co-hosts @KleeBeard and @StevenDickens3.

For more episodes of Fat Tailed Thoughts, visit fattailedthoughts.com. Past topics include WTF is CPI, Debt Collectors Who Help Rather Than Abuse, Slow Revolutions in Financial Services, and more.

Stay up to date on all of our content by joining the Fat Tail Thoughts letter at fattailedthoughts.substack.com.

Today's discussion is on bad money, the difference between Starbucks and a bank. Good money is backed by government guarantee or robust regulations. Bad money, like the 100's of billions now held at money services businesses, lacks those protections. It has all the makings of a crisis. We discuss the history of privately issued good money, the rapid growth of bad money, and regulatory updates that can turn the bad money good. Please enjoy this breakdown of bad money.

Special thanks to Dan Awrey for his awesome paper Bad Money.

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Check out this week's letter for the full story. Join the Fat Tailed Thoughts discussion on LinkedIn and the @FatTailThoughts discussion on Twitter with your co-hosts @KleeBeard and @StevenDickens3.

For more episodes of Fat Tailed Thoughts, visit fattailedthoughts.com. Past topics include WTF is CPI, Debt Collectors Who Help Rather Than Abuse, Slow Revolutions in Financial Services, and more.

Stay up to date on all of our content by joining the Fat Tail Thoughts letter at fattailedthoughts.substack.com.