January 17, 2023
A Barron’s article said that Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, has made some “fantastic bets” in his career. However, it said that Thiel’s investment in FTX, the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, cannot be counted as one of those bets.
Barron’s called Thiel “one of Silicon Valley’s most high-profile investors” but added, “Even the best get burned sometimes.” Together, Thiel’s Rivendell Trust and Thiel Capital held more than 300,000 shares of FTX or subsidiaries.
The February 2023 issue of The Socionomist looks at perceptions of risk and says that economists, speculators, regulators, media and other people struggle to perceive risks in real time. Even renowned mathematician and physicist Isaac Newton bought into the South Sea Bubble mere weeks before its 1720 crash.
When the bubble burst, Newton lost the equivalent of $4 million in today’s dollars. He reportedly said, “I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of the people.” Risks are a fact of life for investors. To learn how to see them more clearly, sign up for a Socionomics Membership.
If you look closely, you can see patterns in social mood that help you predict social trends. Learn more with the Socionomics Premier Membership.
The Socionomist enables you to see trend-shaping waves of social mood, as reflected by the stock market — and capitalize on them. The April 2023 issue looks at negative social mood’s influence on the tumultuous history of the Mexican Revolution. Mood Riffs topics include President Joe Biden’s reelection prospects, challenges facing corporate giants, the new workplace trend known as Bare-Minimum Monday, and British Columbia’s effort to relax laws governing hard drugs. Read the April issue when you become a Socionomics Premier Member. 
