What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

[pianodoctor]

I've been a member of several years/renewal cycles and a while ago my subscription ran out. I was about to renew but find no recent or even semi-recent analysis from EJ or even much in the way of postings by him. I seem to recall promises of upcoming analysis quite a while ago but I don't see any. I came across postings about "the new site" but don't see any more references to it. What is the status of iTulip at this point?

[Mega]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

I think EJ has taken the view that seeing how we no longer have Free matket capitalisum....there is not much point him try to suss out "They" next move. I read a lot of Jim Rickards, not 100% right but most of what he talked about in his books has come right.

In the next 12 months China joins the IMF, the Yuan will be in the basket for SDR's............now the MEGA question is will the IMF us SDR'S to help sort the balance sheet of the Fed etc?.................& will they be GOLD backed?
Mike

[Woodsman]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

And there's this...



"I finally get it. The bike is the controller." That's what I said when I was trying to get my head around the VirZoom concept based on a slide deck. Now they actually have one!

[RebbePete]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

I've been a member of several years/renewal cycles and a while ago my subscription ran out. I was about to renew but find no recent or even semi-recent analysis from EJ or even much in the way of postings by him. I seem to recall promises of upcoming analysis quite a while ago but I don't see any. I came across postings about "the new site" but don't see any more references to it. What is the status of iTulip at this point?

If you are a qualified investor (i.e., high net worth able to participate in private placements), then iTulip still has high value due to the investment opportunities that are presented behind the paywall.

If you are not, there is very little going on there, and virtually nothing from EJ as he is consumed by leading several high-tech start-ups. Other commentators do supply some value, but most threads go days or even weeks without any input from anyone.

- Pete

[jpatter666]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

If you are a qualified investor (i.e., high net worth able to participate in private placements), then iTulip still has high value due to the investment opportunities that are presented behind the paywall.

If you are not, there is very little going on there, and virtually nothing from EJ as he is consumed by leading several high-tech start-ups. Other commentators do supply some value, but most threads go days or even weeks without any input from anyone.

- Pete

Bingo. This is why I let my subscription lapse. IMO iTulip isn't the focus for EJ anymore and its become a side-project. I'd love to participate in the (restricted) forums again, but for the price asked, it is (again my opinion) ironically a bad investment.

Personally, I think EJ should open the doors to all again or drastically lower the price of entry. Maybe he can keep the former price for the high-net-worth people wanting to participate in the start-ups.

[Alvaro Spain]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

Bingo. This is why I let my subscription lapse. IMO iTulip isn't the focus for EJ anymore and its become a side-project. I'd love to participate in the (restricted) forums again, but for the price asked, it is (again my opinion) ironically a bad investment.

Personally, I think EJ should open the doors to all again or drastically lower the price of entry. Maybe he can keep the former price for the high-net-worth people wanting to participate in the start-ups.

I totally agree. I was a select subscriptor for over 6 years, but I haven't renewed my subscription. It has been a painful decission not to renew it, but my only reason to pay was to listen EJ's opinions, and, no matter how much I like iTulip, I have to be loyal to myself. There are people who say that, besides EJ, there are contributors with worthwhile opinions. Sure, but I wouldn't pay to listen to them.

[Prazak]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

I totally agree. I was a select subscriptor for over 6 years, but I haven't renewed my subscription. It has been a painful decission not to renew it, but my only reason to pay was to listen EJ's opinions, and, no matter how much I like iTulip, I have to be loyal to myself. There are people who say that, besides EJ, there are contributors with worthwhile opinions. Sure, but I wouldn't pay to listen to them.

I don't mind paying a subscription fee to listen to other subscribers, but I don't think it should be the same amount as it was to listen to EJ's analysis. Whatever the market will bear, I guess, but still, on principle it should be less than it is.

[pianodoctor]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

This is too bad. I had written a few times here that I really hoped EJ would not forget about us 99 percenters who are just trying to save and manage for our retirements. I am "down" substantially (critically) on my retirement egg since I first joined here, from following what the analysis implied. Now out in the cold I guess.

[ASH]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

Yeah -- I cruise by every month or two, but it seems like a different era. 'Hi' to everyone, by the way.

[flintlock]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

Yeah -- I cruise by every month or two, but it seems like a different era. 'Hi' to everyone, by the way.

Hi Ash. I have not visited here in months. EJ has probably grown tired of the constant Left vs Right battles fought on this forum, as have I. It's really become more of a philosophy forum than an economic one. Frankly I just check in to get Lakedaemonian's well informed opinions every now and then, and that's it.

[shiny!]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

Yeah -- I cruise by every month or two, but it seems like a different era. 'Hi' to everyone, by the way.

Hi, ASH, how've you been? I've missed you around here.

[Woodsman]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

Hi Ash. I have not visited here in months....

Ever see "A Raisin in the Sun?" It's sort of like that; when a new sort of family moves into a neighborhood where once such families never moved. One or two pioneers might raise an eyebrow, but let that grow to a low percentage and all of a sudden people start talking about how the neighborhood is "changing." Now whatever that magic number might be varies from time and place, but let it get to be 96 or 90 percent, well sooner than later folks start looking for a new place to live.

iTulip has been split let's say at a 98:2 percent ratio, right to left, since forever. Let that ratio slip to 96:4, well all of a sudden it's "this place is too polarized" or "I'm sick of the left right battles" or "we need more balance" or "I only buy it for the articles."

I guess no one would be surprised if I were to call bovine scatology. In my opinion, that speaks precisely to the failing dynamism of the rightist viewpoint that still dominates the minds of our most active posters. It highlights the inability or unwillingness of rightists factions here to effectively defend their POV in the face a relatively tiny, if articulate opposition. Since with each passing day the rightist perspective and ideological framework supporting it becomes increasingly delegitimized through the deeds of the Trumps and Carsons of the world, one can understand their frustration.

And with the devil incarnate HillBill tacking right to put some light between her and a "socialist" opponent, folks here on the right experience daily and increasingly more disturbing bouts of cognitive dissonance. But instead of adapting and reexamining their view based on new information, they double down and demand censorship, make desperate appeals to authority, or decide it's time to find another sandbox.

While there may be little distinction among the venal and mendacious antics of elite politicians and the commentocracy of either party or ideological faction, it's a grave error to imagine that same lack of distinction exists with the theory and praxis said to be represented. There really is a huge gap between legitimate left and right in terms of how problems are framed and the constellations of solutions each faction considers viable. To pretend there isn't is to enter the same group hallucination currently experienced by the right leaning folks here and presumably elsewhere.

ITulipers are said to value independence, I'm told, but in practice it turns out that's just another word for right and conservative. It's funny to me how people who consider themselves among the smartest and most objective folks on the Internet (and how many times have we been told that) seem to lack enough of both to have even considered the possibility that the person they see as a leader might never really have completely bought into their rightist ideology even if he may have never seen a need to make a special point of it for practical reasons.

Read "Postcatastrophe Economy" again and tell me TECI is not the same flavor of Keynesian macroeconomic liberalism that ruled the roost for the better part of 60 years before the rise of the neoconservative right redistribution. The state seeking to advance particular initiatives intended to increase aggregate growth uses its enforcement power to level the playing field and uses its fiscal power to buttress key initiatives that on their own would otherwise fail. It manages capitalism by syncretic adaptation of policies that in all times and places have been considered liberal, leftists and even to a degree (purely academic and theoretical, of course) Marxist.

It's FDR saving capitalism from itself by turning left. That's TECI. Of course, it's pure speculation on my part on a cold and gray Saturday. I could very well be a victim of the same psychological mechanism I highlighted. So what you're theory. Show me where I am wrong.

[lektrode]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

....
iTulip has been split let's say at a 98:2 percent ratio, right to left, since forever. Let that ratio slip to 96:4, well all of a sudden it's "this place is too polarized" or "I'm sick of the left right battles" or "we need more balance" or "I only buy it for the articles."....
...
..In my opinion, that speaks precisely to the failing dynamism of the rightist viewpoint that still dominates the minds of our most active posters. It highlights the inability or unwillingness of rightists factions here to effectively defend their POV in the face a relatively tiny, if articulate opposition
...
......

that might all be well and good - or even correct, woody - but IMHO, the issue is that the discussion has swerved to far away from what brought the vast majority of us here in the first place:

E C O N O M I C S

AND centering on/REVOLVING AROUND

I N V E S T M E N T S

even if the thrust of the topics mostly revolved around 'the political economy' and how Mr J's interpretation of this apparently centered on how politix in the US today has perverted the mechanics of the economy.

methinks that when the discussion has been essentially hijacked by some of the 'newcomers' and their hardline political POV that its become less a forum for ECONOMICS than political argument - as yerself as said, your style being somewhat "pugilistic" (in the extreme, i would add) - and this tends to stifle the conversation (and perhaps Mr J's willingness to devote much attention, given his other more demanding pursuits, these daze)

as much as i value your input, vast trove of historical knowledge, perspective on things - you do tend get too far off track, from the stated purpose of the iTulip, doncha tink?

just sayin....

[Woodsman]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

that might all be well and good - or even correct, woody - but IMHO, the issue is that the discussion has swerved to far away from what brought the vast majority of us here in the first place:

E C O N O M I C S

AND centering on/REVOLVING AROUND

I N V E S T M E N T S

even if the....

Agreed and point taken. I came here on the basis of EJ's record of macroeconomic research. I still rely on it and not a week goes by where I'm not rummaging through his work looking for some point he made or data he analyzed and comparing it with the present crisis. But for reasons he and others articulated, that can't happen now. And without data - or the time and inclination to attempt a similar rigorous analysis - we fall back on the shorthand we all know to be a poor substitute. I don't like it any more than you do, but neither of us has the juice to convince Mr. J to dance the dance we love so much. He's listening to other music but was kind enough to keep the hall open for his friends and customers in the meantime.

There's still plenty of macroeconomics and investments going on in the Select forums. And if folks haven't been paying attention to Finster, well that's just too bad for them. It can't rise to the level of EJ's detail but still offers more insight and rigor than we'd likely ever see at other similar sites. I think it still has immense value.

[lakedaemonian]

Re: What is the NEWS on the status of iTulip?

Yeah -- I cruise by every month or two, but it seems like a different era. 'Hi' to everyone, by the way.

G'day Ash! I hope you're well.

Wow. It's like a mini reunion up in here.

I'm the same not having renewed.

The over promise, under deliver, and under communicate kind of bugged me.

Strangly enough, the private equity space iTulip seems to be moving into is the same space I seem to be aggressively moving into as well.