#financial-systems — Wealth & Means

Episodes tagged #financial-systems on Wealth & Means.

What the Signal Can't Tell You — 2026-09-25
A signal can be accurate and still leave out the part that decides what happens next. A price, a headline, a measurement, or a record in an account gives us information—but it doesn't explain the system that produced it, who can act on it, or what happens when the signal is wrong. That gap is where judgment begins. The visible number is often the easy part. The difficult work is tracing the route behind it: how a commodity reaches a buyer, how a financial promise matches an actual risk, how rules distinguish one use from another, and how a person can show what they know in a brief conversation. Even a fortune carries a question that isn't answered by its size: what does ownership mean when wealth depends on a world of institutions and cooperation? The Greater Debate puts that question between Andrew Carnegie and Ayn Rand, neither of whom gets to escape the strongest objection to his or her view. Let's Invent Again follows Roger Tsien, who turned a dim, limited natural signal into a palette that let researchers watch living cells without destroying them. The episode keeps returning to one practical habit: don't stop at what the signal says. Ask what made it possible, what it leaves out, and what decision it can actually support.

#financial-systems — Wealth & Means

Episodes tagged #financial-systems on Wealth & Means.

What the Signal Can't Tell You — 2026-09-25
A signal can be accurate and still leave out the part that decides what happens next. A price, a headline, a measurement, or a record in an account gives us information—but it doesn't explain the system that produced it, who can act on it, or what happens when the signal is wrong. That gap is where judgment begins. The visible number is often the easy part. The difficult work is tracing the route behind it: how a commodity reaches a buyer, how a financial promise matches an actual risk, how rules distinguish one use from another, and how a person can show what they know in a brief conversation. Even a fortune carries a question that isn't answered by its size: what does ownership mean when wealth depends on a world of institutions and cooperation? The Greater Debate puts that question between Andrew Carnegie and Ayn Rand, neither of whom gets to escape the strongest objection to his or her view. Let's Invent Again follows Roger Tsien, who turned a dim, limited natural signal into a palette that let researchers watch living cells without destroying them. The episode keeps returning to one practical habit: don't stop at what the signal says. Ask what made it possible, what it leaves out, and what decision it can actually support.