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Stay Curious.
Make the most of your college experience.
Jeff Hulett
Curator, The Curiosity Vine
Stay Curious.
The Curiosity Vine is an idea incubator.
Our contributors have experience and interest in a variety of high-impact topics, such as science, technology, conservation, mathematics, data science, public policy, economics, and others. Our objective is to promote early-stage ideas, enable idea collaboration, and test idea purchase.
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TCV platform is curated by Jeff Hulett.
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Join our team - become a TCV contributor!
Learn about why you should join The Curiosity Vine.
TCV's ideas are used to provide seminars, write books, build businesses, and especially to help people.
So take a look around the site, feel free to ask or answer your own questions, and enjoy your own curiosity exploration!
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Featured Posts
How Colleges Exploited Student Loans to Kill the Liberal Arts
In 1828, a Yale report on academic instruction declared: "Our object is not to teach knowledge peculiar to any one of the professions; but to lay the foundation common to them all." This noble promise established the liberal arts as a dedicated space for personal exploration, intellectual breadth, and the pursuit of a "North Star." By definition, the liberal arts exist to facilitate this exploration. They provide the map and compass for a student to discover an intellectual i
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A Century of Economic Engineering and its Discontents
- What Paul Samuelson got right, what he got wrong, and how he motivated a century of economic thinkers to get it right. Paul Samuelson transformed economics from a collection of literary observations into a formal, deductive science. In his seminal 1947 work, Foundations of Economic Analysis, he established a universal mathematical framework based on the principle of constrained optimization. By applying the calculus of thermodynamics to human decision-making, he provided a
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How Sick Care Drains Your Health and What To Do About It
Almost everyone agrees the American medical system is broken. The examples are endless: staggering costs, mind-numbing bureaucracy, and poor outcomes. Yet, few agree on how to fix it. All participants, including the government, remain frozen by conflicting internal incentives and constraints preventing meaningful reform. This article takes a different approach called 'Radical Acceptance.' This is not the acceptance of futility, but the clarity of seeing the system for what it
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Redefining Rationality: The Act of Calibrating Internal Maps to the Evolving World
Many people view rationality as a cold, rigid set of rules. This narrow definition often creates resistance because it suggests a singular, correct way to live. However, this article introduces and defines Diverse Rationality to better align with how people actually experience decision-making. We move rationality from a static destination to an active process of internal calibration—one that is sensitive not only to the world but to the shifting state of the decision-maker th
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How Colleges Exploited Student Loans to Kill the Liberal Arts
In 1828, a Yale report on academic instruction declared: "Our object is not to teach knowledge peculiar to any one of the professions; but to lay the foundation common to them all." This noble promise established the liberal arts as a dedicated space for personal exploration, intellectual breadth, and the pursuit of a "North Star." By definition, the liberal arts exist to facilitate this exploration. They provide the map and compass for a student to discover an intellectual i
Jeff Hulett
5 hours ago8 min read
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Treasury Rates Update: May 28th, 2026
In my decades of monitoring fixed-income volatility, this week stands out as a significant period of correction. The Treasury market has staged a dramatic reversal, with yields falling across the entire term structure. From my perspective, this broad-based decline suggests a market that is momentarily looking past inflationary concerns to focus on a broader economic cooldown. The benchmark 10-year Treasury rate plummeted 12 basis points (bp) this week, finishing at 4.45%. Thi
Bill Knudson
3 days ago1 min read
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Mortgage Rates Update: May 28th, 2026
The mortgage market for the week ending May 28, 2026, showcased a significant decoupling between consumer borrowing rates and secondary market benchmarks. As an economist who evaluates market efficiency through the lens of risk premiums, I find this week's data indicates a substantial expansion in lender safety margins. While the 10 Year Treasury rate decreased by 2 basis points to 4.45 percent, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate moved in the opposite direction, increasing by 2
Bill Knudson
3 days ago1 min read
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Treasury Rates Update: May 21st, 2026
In my years analyzing fixed-income markets, the current environment presents a classic case of the market wrestling with diverging economic signals. While recent labor data indicated some cooling, the bond market is clearly prioritizing inflation concerns. This week, we observed a decisive, broad-based surge in yields as investors adjusted to the reality of sticky price pressures. The benchmark 10-year Treasury rate climbed 10 basis points (bp) this week, finishing at 4.57%
Jeff Hulett
May 221 min read
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Mortgage Rates Update: May 21st, 2026
The mortgage market for the week ending May 21, 2026, experienced a notable upward shift in borrowing costs as primary rates closely tracked rising secondary market yields. As an economist who prioritizes the analysis of market efficiency and spreads, I find this week's movement indicates a continued period of volatility for prospective homeowners. The benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate surged by 15 basis points to reach 6.51 percent, while the 10 Year Treasury rate climbe
Bill Knudson
May 221 min read
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A Century of Economic Engineering and its Discontents
- What Paul Samuelson got right, what he got wrong, and how he motivated a century of economic thinkers to get it right. Paul Samuelson transformed economics from a collection of literary observations into a formal, deductive science. In his seminal 1947 work, Foundations of Economic Analysis, he established a universal mathematical framework based on the principle of constrained optimization. By applying the calculus of thermodynamics to human decision-making, he provided a
Jeff Hulett
May 227 min read
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How Sick Care Drains Your Health and What To Do About It
Almost everyone agrees the American medical system is broken. The examples are endless: staggering costs, mind-numbing bureaucracy, and poor outcomes. Yet, few agree on how to fix it. All participants, including the government, remain frozen by conflicting internal incentives and constraints preventing meaningful reform. This article takes a different approach called 'Radical Acceptance.' This is not the acceptance of futility, but the clarity of seeing the system for what it
Jeff Hulett
May 2119 min read
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Mortgage Rates Update: May 14th, 2026
The mortgage market for the week ending May 14, 2026, demonstrated a notable divergence between primary lending rates and secondary market benchmarks. As an economist who prioritizes market efficiency, I find this week's data underscores a significant tightening of the risk premium. While the 10 Year Treasury rate increased by 6 basis points to reach 4.47 percent, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate actually decreased by 1 basis point to settle at 6.36 percent. This inverse mov
Bill Knudson
May 161 min read
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