The Short Version turns podcasts into what was actually said. Every
weekday we take the shows worth knowing about — macro, markets, tech,
power — and boil each episode down to the argument, the takeaways, and
the calls, if anyone was brave enough to make them. An hour of someone
talking becomes a few minutes of you reading. You listen to the episodes
that earn it and skip the rest with a clear conscience.
How it works: subscribers get one email every weekday around 6:30am ET —
the morning's index plus the takeaways from each episode. The full reads
live here on the site: the argument, the reasoning, what has to be true
for the person to be right. For now, we do things in categories. You
pick which ones land in your morning email — the links at the bottom of
every digest handle that, plus unsubscribe if it comes to that. No
account settings to dig through, and no passwords anywhere: the email
itself logs you in. Your inbox is your identity around here.
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We'll decide if it makes the cut. "Hey, why do you get to
decide?" Because this thing is free for now. Send money and your opinion
will start carrying real weight around here.
Fair warning: this thing is young and it will change under your feet.
New shows, new categories, new features, the occasional redesign. One
thing coming that we're genuinely excited about — every checkable
prediction a guest makes gets logged and scored when it resolves. People
who make confident calls on podcasts keep receipts now. You'll see it
grow teeth on the site over time.
And since it's early, complaints carry weight. Reply to anything — a
summary that missed the point, a show we should add, a feature that
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The Short Version is invite-only for now. Signing up gets you both
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Have an invite code? Sign up → Odd Lots
Aug 31, 2026 · 31m · 3 min read
Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin says the US economy's resilience rests on a "creative consumer" effectively borrowing from the future — running down savings, stretching bill payments, living rent-free with family — and expects that to continue as long as jobs and markets stay healthy. He broadly aligns with new Chair Warsh's read that inflation is "not in the right place," flags housing tightness as likely to return eventually, and argues today's economy may be structurally more inflation-prone than a decade ago as old disinflationary tailwinds (fracking, demographics, e-commerce, globalization) fade — but he gives no signal on September policy and stresses AI has not yet produced a broad productivity boom.
This is the super-short version — click for the full summary → Macro Musings
Aug 31, 2026 · 1h 09m · 2 min read
Donald Kohn, 40-year Fed veteran and former vice chair, uses a Greenspan/Volcker retrospective to frame three live views: inflation risk still tilts to the upside pending confirmation that tariff/oil supply shocks are fading; the "large Fed balance sheet footprint" concern is overstated because the Fed's share of a fast-growing Treasury market keeps shrinking; and he wants Chair Warsh to preserve a Greenspan-style narrative reaction function even while dropping explicit forward guidance. No trades or price levels are given — this is an institutional and policy-process read, not a market call.
This is the super-short version — click for the full summary →