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coppolacomment.com
Personal blog · coppolacomment.comeconomicsbusiness
coppolacomment.com is a personal blog at coppolacomment.com about economics and business. Since 2015, 22 different Hacker News readers have linked it 32 times, most often “Probability for geeks”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (13) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Frances Coppola's blog for economics and finance explainers, such as the FTX-Alameda nexus, Voyager's bankruptcy, Maplin's debt structure, and money creation and banking.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 13 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Probability for geeks3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2018-01-12
- Explaining the FTX-Alameda nexus – how did it work?3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2022-11-10
- The Sinking of Voyager2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-07-03
What Hacker News says?
"The FTX-Alameda nexus" https://www.coppolacomment.com/2022/11/the-ftx-alameda-nexus... Excellent explanation. Appears to be confirmed by the WSG "FTX Tapped Into Customer Accounts to Fund Risky Bets, Setting Up Its Downfall" https://archive.ph/nZNmw Original: https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/ftx-tapped-into-customer-ac...
Comment linking /2022/11/the-ftx-alameda-nexus.html
on “FTX to file for U.S. bankruptcy, CEO resigns”Submitted The entire crypto ecosystem is a ponzi as a story · 144 points
HN discussionMaplin apparently had operating profits but accounting losses in the few years before it failed: http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-mapli... As you can see, 15% interest rates will do that. But this is one of those weird PE setups where the left hand is lending to the right hand.
Comment linking /2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html
on “Debt is coming to the tech industry”Submitted Lessons from the Long Depression as a story · 106 points
HN discussionThe Maplin explanation: http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-mapli... > Further down the corporate structure, Maplin Electronics Group (Holdings) Ltd. mainly seems to exist to drain Maplin Electronics Ltd. of profits. On the books of Maplin Electronics Group (Holdings) Ltd. is an intercompany loan to Maplin Electronics Ltd. at an interest rate of 10%. The interest charge on this loan was sufficient…
Comment linking /2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html
on “Neiman Marcus files for bankruptcy”Submitted The Sinking of Voyager as a story · 93 points
HN discussionSimilar to Maplin: http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/03/the-sad-story-of-mapli... Note the use of an elaborate corporate structure which involves a company paying its parent company 16.5% (!) on debt.
Comment linking /2018/03/the-sad-story-of-maplin-electronics.html
on “Toys R Us to close all 800 of its U.S. stores”Submitted JP Morgan's Coffee Machine as a story · 38 points
HN discussionFractional reserve banking doesn't exist anymore. Banks lend against their loss-absorbing capital, not their reserves. Reserves are just used for inter-bank settlement. Frances Coppola [0] has written fairly extensively on this topic, as has the Bank of England [1] [0] http://www.coppolacomment.com/2017/10/money-creation-in-post... [1] https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/quarterly-bulletin/2014/q1/m...
Comment linking /2017/10/money-creation-in-post-crisis-world.html
on “Do We Need Central Banks? (2017)”Submitted The Bitcoin Standard – a critical review as a story · 26 points
HN discussion1) she 2) your criticism seems overly harsh. perhaps you should familiarize yourself with the author's other writings: http://www.coppolacomment.com/2019/04/keynes-and-death-of-ca...
Comment linking /2019/04/keynes-and-death-of-capitalism.html
on “Lessons from the Long Depression”Submitted The Basic Income Guarantee: what stands in its way? as a story · 6 points
HN discussionhttps://www.coppolacomment.com/2022/07/the-sinking-of-voyage... posted on hn in the past few days is an excellent read about voyager and in particular explains the whole FDIC insured claim, how it was technically true but also quiet useless.
Comment linking /2022/07/the-sinking-of-voyager.html
on “Voyager Digital files for bankruptcy”Submitted The Fat Controller of the Lightning Network as a story · 4 points
HN discussionHere is a detailed description: https://www.coppolacomment.com/2022/11/the-ftx-alameda-nexus...
Comment linking /2022/11/the-ftx-alameda-nexus.html
on “Sam Bankman-Fried and the geometry of conscience”Submitted Probability for geeks as a story · 4 points
HN discussionhttps://medium.com/@jonaldfyookball/mathematical-proof-that-... http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/01/probability-for-geeks.... http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/01/lightning-and-fat-cont...
Comment linking /2018/01/lightning-and-fat-controller.html
on “As Bitcoin Bubble Loses Air, Frauds and Flaws Rise to Surface”Submitted Explaining the FTX-Alameda nexus – how did it work? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionRelated, Frances Coppola is an advocate of Helicopter money and UBI, but doesn't think it's the right medicine for these current circumstances: http://www.coppolacomment.com/2020/03/when-is-right-time-for...
Comment linking /2020/03/when-is-right-time-for-ubi-and.html
on “Helicopter Money: Way Out of Crisis or Fallacy of Traditional Economics?”Submitted Calculus for Economists (2021) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionLightening team is dubious and the design will likely evolve into a payment processor routing though a crypto-banking system. https://medium.com/@jonaldfyookball/mathematical-proof-that-... http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/01/probability-for-geeks....
Comment linking /2018/01/probability-for-geeks.html
on “Bitcoin Whipsaws Investors as Bubble Shows Signs of Bursting”Submitted The Abominable Laffer Curve as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSpecifically, the commonly cited "accelerating inflation" refers to the third derivative of price with respect to time. Interestingly, more physicists seem to understand this than economists: https://www.coppolacomment.com/2021/05/calculus-for-economis...
Comment linking /2021/05/calculus-for-economists.html
on “May inflation (PCE) falls to 1.2% (3.6% Core) / 3.8% YoY (4.6% Core YoY)”Submitted Money Creation in a Post-Crisis World (2017) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionI'm don't know of a good textbook that explains it well. But for an example of a textbook that gets it wrong, see Mankiw's introductory macro book. Mankiw alludes to the important brake on credit creation (capital constraints), but dismisses them as 'arcane', then goes on to describe a fractional reserve system that doesn't really exist anymore. I've pieced together what I can from reading blogs (Frances Coppola [0]…
Comment linking /
on “Shelling Out: The Origins of Money (2002)”Submitted Probability for Geeks as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Lightning Network as a Solution for Bitcoin's Scaling Problems as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Crypto-tulips as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Arithmetic for Austrians as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Carillion whitewash: insolvent, not illiquid as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
