About The Wednesday Letter
🚨 Please note that as of September 16th we have increased the price of a paid subscription. We expect to raise the price again in October. Existing paid subscribers renew at their initial subscription price.
👉 What it is
The Wednesday Letter (TWL) is a weekly commentary with unconventional views on the economy, markets and current events, including investments, business, foreign affairs, politics, and culture. Since March 2020, the Letter has grown from a short weekly summary to something much bigger that now includes:
Geopolitics on Mondays: our editors’ weekly selection on geopolitics. Possibly the most comprehensive geopolitics reading list anywhere.
Invest AI etc. on Tuesdays: AI explained in simple terms, and AI investments.
The Wednesday Letter on Wednesdays: our core publication. Three to six short form discussions of investments, economics, politics or other topics.
Twelve Charts This Week on Fridays: important data on investments, economics, markets etc. related through twelve charts.
Occasional posts on random days.
The Letter was published as The Wednesday Briefs at the populyst website from TWL #1 in March 2020 to TWL #209 in February 2024. Email us if you want access.
Starting with TWL #163 and up to TWL #179, it was published on this site as The Wednesday Briefs before it became The Wednesday Letter with TWL #180.
👉 What you get
You can cancel any time, regardless of which option you choose.
Free subscribers get one weekly post, and occasional extras.
Paid subscribers get four posts every week: Geopolitics, Invest AI etc., The Wednesday Letter and Twelve Charts This Week. Paid subscribers also get occasional extras and guest posts.
👉 Who we are
Sami J. Karam
I was formerly a fund manager at leading investment management firms in New York and Boston. You can find out more at my LinkedIn page. I lived in many places in the US and overseas. I now live in New York City.
In 2012, I started populyst (population + analyst) as a site to research markets and demographics. My articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Quillette, National Review, New Geography, L’Express and other outlets.
I sometimes write for expert sites for their institutional clients. Contact me at populyst.net@gmail.com if this is of interest.
Follow me on Twitter/X at @TWL_Editors.
Richard Sprague
Richard co-authors with me the weekly InvestAI etc. post. He is a former Wharton School classmate. Find out more at Richard’s LinkedIn page.
Richard was a senior executive at numerous technology firms, including Apple where, as an early employee in Japan, he was responsible for the launch of several Mac software products, and Microsoft where he led the Beijing-based development of Mac Excel. After more than ten years in Japan and China, he returned to the US and has been in Seattle working with startups to build what he calls "personal science": applying the latest technology to personalized health and wellness. He also writes the substack Personal Science that I have long recommended.
Follow Richard on Twitter/X at @sprague.
Editors
For every Geopolitics post, I work with other editors. The Editors are a group of people that I speak to on a frequent basis who are very experienced in economics, investing and markets, in the US and internationally.
👉 Testimonials
“Sami J. Karam is smart, global, insightful, and ahead of the crowd.”
— Michele Wucker, keynote speaker, best-selling author of The Gray Rhino and You are What You Risk
“Sami J. Karam is a top specialist in demographics, and demographics is shifting like never before and becoming a key macro variable for investors globally. I have worked closely with Sami for years, including as a consultant for my firm Exante Data Inc., and I strongly recommend his writings and perspective.”
— Jens Nordvig, economist, founder and CEO of Exante Data and MarketReader
“I have known Sami for a long time, at first when we were both graduate students in engineering at Cornell, and then as an insightful and unconventional investor. The Wednesday Letter is the perfect vehicle for Sami and his team to share their expertise. I view the Geopolitics page and the commentary in TWL and TCTW as must-reads every week to keep me up to date on markets and international events.”
— Aref Lahham, founding partner, CEO / CIO of Orion Capital Managers
“The Wednesday Letter is an incredible information scoop that gathers material I'd never find on my own and presents it in a way that allows me to quickly grab what's relevant to my work. I especially love the posts with collections of interesting charts.”
— Aaron Renn, co-founder and Senior Fellow at American Reformer, author of the book Life in the Negative World
“I have been reading The Wednesday Letter since it started in March 2020. For me, it has evolved to be a great read, and frequently incremental to the other stuff that crosses my desk.”
— Bob Corman, senior finance executive, fund manager (ex-Soros, Neuberger Berman)
Please remember that The Wednesday Letter is not investment advice. We do not recommend any investments and we have no responsibility in losses that you may incur if you trade on information that we provide. Please do your own work and discuss with professional advisors before committing capital.
