The Omniscient Planner
Grant a planner every fact in the world and a machine that never errs. He still cannot choose between steel and aluminium, because the number that choice needs is made by a contest he has abolished.
series: nik_khosravipour, monthly, 2003 to present
Nik
Khosravipour
I study how monetary policy and institutions move the economy, and what the data says once they do. Economics at WU Vienna; I also run Students For Liberty Austria.
Observationslatest research & writing
Speculators and Markets: The Role of Risk-Takers in the Economy
The speculator is the market's most useful villain. He produces nothing you can hold and profits when others panic, which makes him the natural suspect whenever a market breaks. But the risk he is blamed for existed before he arrived, and most of what gets pinned on speculation turns out to be the work of whoever distorted the price he was only reading.
Calibrated to the Headline: The Cost of a Reaction Function No One Can Write Down
In four weeks the market repriced the Federal Reserve's policy path four times, on a hot CPI, a hawkish projection, an energy-driven PCE print, and a payroll miss. News about the economy moves any expected path. The rest of the movement priced something else: how a committee bound by no rule would choose to read that news. Data dependence is the honest name for discretion, and the honesty does not lower its price.
Regimeswhat I’m working on
Economic research
ongoing
Monetary policy, institutional economics, and financial markets. Coursework at WU Vienna on one side, my own econometric work — mostly in R — on the other.
Research · Analysis
Students For Liberty Austria
active
I run the national network: events with classical-liberal think tanks, and speakers I have brought in from the Cato Institute, George Mason, and the Austrian Economic Center.
Leadership · Coordination
Writing & commentary
developing
Notes, essays, and commentary on how economic arrangements play out in the real world — from a single central-bank decision to the shape of a whole market.
Policy · Outreach
annotation
I'm a sixth-semester economics student at WU Vienna. One question runs through most of my work: how do monetary policy and institutions actually move the economy, and does the data back the story we tell about it? Since 2023 I've also run Students For Liberty Austria, building its network of students and think-tank partners from the ground up.
More about me →Forecastget in touch
I'm looking for research internships and analyst roles — policy institutes, central banks, research shops working on monetary policy or macro. Email is the fastest way to reach me; I read everything and usually reply within a day. Happy to talk about a collaboration or a project, too.
Email meLinkedIn (opens in new tab) GitHub (opens in new tab) CV (opens in new tab)