About Me
Who is Collin Barnwell? Information about me, my interests and my career overview.
A Crazy Idea About Monetary Policy
This post is a slightly modified version of an essay I submitted as part of an application to a fellowship run by the very cool RadicalXChange foundation in December 2020 (I wasn’t accepted ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ). It definitely helps to understand what a quadratic matching fund is before reading it.
Stable, liquid, usable money is a public good. Currently, central banks operate with the goals of keeping inflation steady and, in some jurisdictions, keeping the economy at full employment.
Axe Club - Marry Me For Tax Reasons
Probably my favorite song I’ve written to date. Maybe you can guess what it’s about?
2020 Giving Guide
My highlighted charities for the year and why I think they’re great: Rainforest Trust, Un Techo Para Chile, Ocean Conservancy, Health in Harmony, Gideon’s Promise, FairVote and others…
How to Avoid Foreign Credit Card Fees in Chile
Even if you have a credit card that has no foreign transaction fees, you’ll often be charged extra for foreign credit card purchases in Chile. This is on top of the fees of roughly 3-5% that credit cards which do charge foreign transaction fees will charge for currency conversion.
Typically your credit card will first be declined, then when you try again, you’ll need to accept a charge of a few hundred or even thousand Chilean pesos to continue the transaction.
Financial Independence and Home Ownership
An Argument for Buying to Reduce Risk Without Cost I’ve been against home buying for purely financial reasons for about as long as I’ve paid rent, since the financial reason people usually give for home buying is that rent is purely an expense, whereas a mortgage builds equity. This argument to me intuitively smells like a $20 bill on the ground, but it’s also pretty easy to work through and debunk more formally.
Favorite Books
In no particular order…
Congratulations on your office expansion Genentech, why can't we build housing there too?
Anyone who commutes to South San Francisco by bus or by car knows the lurch of stop and go traffic heading east off the highway in the morning and getting back on in the afternoon, and has gazed longingly at the deserted road on the other side of the median.
Well, that’s about to get worse now that Genentech’s plan to add up to 4.3 million square feet of office space to its headquarters was approved.
Axe Club - Bathrobe Sessions
My first album as Axe Club is a compilation of 14 songs written and recorded between 2014 and early 2019. It includes a wide variety of folk, indie rock and experimental music, with the beginnings of some jazz influence. Friends have compared some of the songs to Beirut, Bright Eyes and Tame Impala.
Axe Club - Johnny Appleseed
My first single of 2020 is written sarcastically from the perspective of a modern-era Johnny Appleseed who waves away all environmental problems in favor of convenience, and was inspired by my dislike for large parking lots.