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Aquired is a podcast where the two hosts independently spend several weeks researching a specific company and then share their findings together during a multi-hour episode.
My favorite episode this year is about Renaissance Technologies, where business meets science:
Renaissance Technologies is the best performing investment firm of all time. And yet no one at RenTec would consider themselves an “investor”, at least in any traditional sense of the word. It’d rather be more accurate to call them scientists — scientists who’ve discovered a system of math, computers and artificial intelligence that has evolved into the greatest money making machine the world has ever seen. And boy does it work: RenTec’s alchemic colossus has posted annual returns in the firm’s flagship Medallion Fund of 68% gross and 40% net over the past 34 years, while never once losing money. (For those keeping track at home, $1,000 invested in Medallion in 1988 would have compounded to $46.5B today… if you’d been allowed to keep it in.) Tune in for an incredible story of the small group of rebel mathematicians who didn’t just beat the market, but in the words of author Greg Zuckerman “solved it.”
They aren't just math nerds. They threw their $$ around playing both ends of the political spectrum: https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-renaissance-donors-20161006-snap-story.html
In 2020 dueling board members supported Biden and Trump. Now that Simons is gone, I wonder if things change much.
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When Ben and David talked about that I wondered what the net effect on society is when they donate so much to both sides (assuming it's somewhat in balance). Is it neutral, as in they just wasted all that money?
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I doubt it benefitted society in the least, but it bought them tremendous political influence. I grew up not far from where they are located. They kept a low profile for years, or tried to, but they are very influential in the region. I don't recall the name of the guy, but one is a big Trump donor. People were angry 4 years ago when he held a fundraiser at his mansion where Trump was in attendance. Traffic on those small roads were apparently a disaster.
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