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Several centralized crypto entities failed in 2022, resulting in the cascading failure of other crypto firms and raising questions about the protection of crypto investors. While the total amount invested in the crypto sector remains small in the United States, more than 10 percent of all Americans are invested in cryptocurrencies. In this post, we examine whether migrating crypto activities from centralized platforms to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols might afford investors better protection, especially in the absence of regulatory changes. We argue that while DeFi provides some benefits for investors, it also introduces new risks and so more work is needed to make it a viable option for mainstream investors.
- by Psyche Film
- by Giulia Terzian & M Inés Corbalán
- by Scott Hershovitz
- by Ed Simon
New Fed Historian Jonathan Rose explains the importance of connecting the past to the present for monetary policymakers.
Philosophy, AI, and Society (PAIS) is a listserv that aims to “connect philosophers working on AI and related digital technologies, with a particular focus on their societal dimensions.” Run by the Machine Intelligence and Normative Theory Lab (MINTLab), PAIS “is open to anyone with an interest in those topics, and members can post to the list to contact other members. The goal is to help build the Philosophy, AI and Society Network, particularly to share news about events, opportunities, and research activities.” You can sign up for PAIS here. While we’re on the subject, the director of MINTLab, Seth Lazar (Australian National University) will be delivering the Tanner Lectures at Stanford next month on “AI and Human Values.” Further details here.
The central truths revealed to me by psilocybin were all the things my mother tried to teach me.
Yours truly has invited five of his colleagues to share a Christmas lunch with him around the circular dinner table in his kitchen. Unfortunately, two of the colleagues are not on speaking terms with each other, so they cannot be seated together. In how many ways can we be seated around the table?
Shreya Bansal explores how patriarchy in Indian households impacts the experience of growing up as daughters in the country
As is our annual tradition, we take a look back and present you once more with our most popular posts of the year. In case you missed any of them the first time round, the five most viewed posts for 2022 were: We hope you enjoyed the blog in 2022. Happy New Year and we … Continue reading Our top 5 posts of 2022
John Mitchinson explores the enduring relevance of the "little Christmas book" the author penned in 1843
• Mind the assumptions — assess uncertainty and sensitivity. • Mind the hubris — complexity can be the enemy of relevance. • Mind the framing — match purpose and context. • Mind the consequences — quantification may backfire. • Mind the unknowns — acknowledge ignorance. Andrea Saltelli, John Kay, Deborah Mayo, Philip B. Stark, et […]
The teaser trailer for next year’s Barbie movie is here – giving us a hint of the role of Ncuti Gatwa’s Ken The first teaser trailer for Greta Gerwing’s upcoming movie based on the most famous doll in the world is out. As a teaser it only hints at the action we can expect from […]
The post New Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa in Barbie Trailer appeared first on Blogtor Who.
It’s Wednesday and a few items caught my interest in the last few days. I have been besieged with requests to comment on the Bank of Japan’s announcement yesterday to widen the range in which it conducts yield curve control…
If you believe in Santa, do not read the following paper — sympathetically warn us Teea Palo, Katy Mason and Philip Roscoe at the beginning of “Performing a Myth to Make a Market: The Construction of the ‘Magical World’ of Santa”. In this interesting research, the authors follow the Santa myth to a remote northern […]

This food timeline started as a way to explore the revolution in Australian food that has occurred during the baby-boomers’ lifetime, but has since expanded to include more about the previous decades (and century) as well. Also included are overseas events and trends that had an impact here. The entries are brief, but there are lots of links if you want more information.
There is a vast international literature exploring the consequences of low interest rates for various banking sectors. In this paper, I explore how this international literature relates to the Australian banking sector, which operates differently to other jurisdictions. In the face of low rates, the profitability of Australian banks has likely been less adversely affected than what the international literature would predict, but the flip side to this is that the pass-through of monetary policy to lending rates may have been more muted. I then use a recent advance in macrofinancial modelling to explore whether pass-through in Australia could turn negative – the so called ‘reversal rate’ – and find that the features of the Australian banking system mean a reversal rate is highly unlikely to exist in Australia.