Top Highlights

• First, the crypto story. Some have gone out of their way to argue that this is not a story about crypto, per se, but rather one bad actor who got carried away. And that would be fine if it were true. But, unfortunately for crypto investors, we see a bigger truth out of the actions of Sam Bankman-Fried. If, as is alleged, he blew up FTX by over-leve...
• Perhaps the most significant aspect of what one can learn from the FTX implosion is the never-ending red flags of a business wrapped in contemporary do-goodism. Much like the Pharisees in the gospel accounts, it would appear that the easiest way to detect evil these days is from proclamations of goodness. The brand of “effective altruism” that the ...
• FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried have not hurt the global economy or anyone in the global economy who did not speculate on the shiny object of crypto. And much like the dotcom moment of the year 2000, this FTX implosion will prove an informative moment for many young, chastened investors. But the broader lesson for all of us need not be connected to the l...
• But the reality of cronyism is front and center in this saga as well. The effort Sam Bankman-Fried made to position himself as a high-status member of the “ruling class” is telling. FTX had all the right people in its corner to lobby for a framework that would leave it outside the normal regulatory oversight of broker-dealers dealing with margin re...
• It is time we take seriously the inverse relationship between a real business and one talking all the time about how good it is.

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