Addison founded the Agora Financial group and was Executive Publisher for 17-years.
One of the things I love about Addison is he has the increasingly rare quality of actually believing in the ideas he writes about and publishes.
I see Addison as one of the few intellectuals in financial publishing.
One thing many marketers & copywriters in financial forget is your ideas matter.
Content is not just some random stuff you backfill behind a promotional idea.
In a promo-driven industry too easily focused on short-term promotional concepts it is increasingly rare to find someone who understands you have to have a worldview. You need a perspective ¬- one different than the main-stream and also resonates with your customer.
You have to be a believer in the ideas you publish.
Addison is a true believer.
Addison writes about the Austrian School of Economics because he believes in the Austrian School – and its counter to the mainstream Keynesian economics.
He & Bill Bonner have written best-selling books about their ideas.
- Financial Reckoning Day: Surviving the Soft Depression of the 21st Century
- Empire of Debt: Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis
- The New Empire of Debt: The Rise and Fall of an Epic Financial Bubble
Addison also co-wrote the film I.O.U.S.A: One Nation. Under Stress. In Debt. The legendary film critic Roger Ebert added it to his list of Top 5 Documentary Films.
Ebert started his review with:
“A letter to our grandchildren, Raven, Emil and Taylor: I see you growing up into such beautiful people, and I wish all good things to you as you make the leap into adulthood. But I have just seen a documentary titled “I.O.U.S.A.” that snapped into sharp focus why your lives may not be as pleasant as ours have been. Chaz and I had the blessing of growing up in an optimistic, bountiful America. We never fully realized that we were paying for many of our comforts with your money.”
The ideas matter.
Addison & I cover a lot of ground in this conversation starting with a bit of industry (and internet) history: the launch of the Daily Reckoning, likely the FIRST email newsletter on the internet.
We get into media and promotional cycles.
And he shares a lot of his experience in how markets and promotions interact.
For instance, Addison points out that during “greed” cycles most of the successful promotions are built around investments like micro-caps, crypto, or other alternative assets. During that period macroeconomic promotions don’t tend to work very well. Then, when the market environment changes, macro starts becoming more sellable.
We talk about the risk of cancel culture on finpub, about the cycle of media aggregation and dispersion and it’s impact on your ability to scale your business and more.
If you think deeply about the industry then you’ll love this conversation.
Best.
John Newtson
P.S. Check out Addison and I in conversation in 2019 at FMS London right after they launched the failed imprint experiment he mentions https://financialmarketingsummit.com/financial-publishing/a-conversation-with-addison-wiggin-founder-of-agora-financial/
