All that electricity, hardware and labor has to be paid for for the system to even begin. we shouldnt have needed such a lesson, after 2008at least he mentions CDOs and tranches and all This kind of desperation is why State lotteries are popular too, but nobody puts their savings into lottery tickets because it is easy to understand how foolish that would be. By 2008, or 2022, that system looked pretty abstract. Levine affects an airy lack of concern, even when discussing clear misconduct. FTX plainly and deliberately attacked its position. I would agree that the only inelastic demand that crypto has is in service of criminal activity. the only inelastic demand that crypto has is in service of criminal activity Scaramuccis SkyBridge Capital Was Spiraling, and Then Came FTX, Sunaks Crypto Plans Are Hit by Reluctant UK Banks. you can also get the Money Stuff articles as an Despite identifying all of its pieces, this cruel irony appears to be lost on Levine. Sorry! I saw a tweet (forget who) that explained this with one diagram: a box marked crypto with an arrow to a box marked fiat with another arrow going back to the crypto box. People in these low-trust economies are always looking for a better mattress in which to stash their earnings. I dont know crypto. The deal could potentially stumble if a minimum two-thirds of the shares arent tendered a required threshold for the transaction to go through. I think that covers criminal organizations AKA intelligence agencies very well The author comes close when they note that there is an ever greater distance between the financial economy and the real economy, which seems to imply an awareness that the connection of an equitys price to underlying value is tenuous. Heres what I think happened there, the best I can tell and greatly simplified. Levine's argument The Chainsmokers Are Dancing Through the Silicon Valley Downturn, Tough Times for Equity Offerings Bring Back the Art of Winks and Nudges, Why Ugandas LGBTQ Community is Under Renewed Fire, King Charles Backs Research Into British Monarchys Links to Slavery, Heres Some Good News About the Planet for a Change, Texas State Bill TargetsLocal Tenant Protections Against Eviction, Chicagos Transit Chief Says Crime Is Hurting Ridership Rebound. He uses a recent extensive piece by former Goldman lawyer, now Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine as a point of departure. Archive - Matt Levine Money and stuff. All the sophisticated modern finance can be traced back, step by step, to the real world. Think of the constant increase of fiat currencies from every country (20 percent a year, for a century now?). Solar installation projects are not related to our primary operations The Gattling gun. etc. It will become your go-to video to share with the yet-to-be-roused, I assure you! If a bank shows up at the Federal Reserve and says hi we owe depositors $100 but dont have it, we lost it all on roulette, the Fed will not help. persuasive: I didnt dump stocks, I am a well-advised rich person, someone In the meantime, tell your friends! They were sophisticated enough to distinguish individual Americans like SBF from the Yankee imperialism their grandparents might rail against. They could build railroads or semiconductor factories or electric cars, because they could raise money from strangers to fund their activities. 
Thats still commendable givenToshibas checkered past.From accounting issues to a near brush with bankruptcy, a report that put the Japanese firms efforts to block shareholders rights on display,and a $5.4 billion rescue by foreign investors to avoid a delisting, the companys misdeeds have dragged on and on. She covers industrials including policies and firms in the machinery, automobile, electric vehicle and battery sectors across Asia Pacific. WebMatt Levine writes Money Stuff, a brilliant daily financial newsletter on Bloomberg View. Very good use of my time. Lambert linked to it recently in Water Cooler. This too is debatable, since the transactions are all public and traceable. I hope readers will welcome Sal Bayat, who graciously has allowed us to publish his latest piece on the world according to crypto. BeSpacific - 3rd Place. else manages my stocks, and they dumped stocks without any input Ponzi schemes in general overcome that problem with obscurity. All the costs of that crypto infrastructure, the hardware, energy cost of mining, the office rent, the connectivity, the lawyering, the employees, the investors, the accountants (assuming they exist), the taxes. Unfortunately, Levine has drunk from the poison chalice of accepted crypto industry narratives and in so doing has fallen victim to useful delusions. Though there is hope, as I have begun to write these last sentences, the story of FTXs spectacular meltdown has begun breaching the waters of social media and the tide of institutional momentum may finally be turning. Many journalists, politicians, and investors will soon be forced to confront reality by asking uncomfortable questions, and little room will be spared for convenient excuses. I think Levine is deserving of criticism on this front. charged, as they have been. As Matt describes it in his bio, he writes about the financial industry on the internet, and on the Bloomberg terminal, which is sort of like the internet but oranger. Since then, the shares have bumbled along. 2) The arrow from crypto to fiat is never bigger than the fiat-to-crypto arrow. call your adviser and say a disaster is coming, sell everything!, There is even an RSS. Many would argue that the folks at Tether are liars and criminals who applied the lessons of creative writing courses to their balance sheets and spawned a digital token used to manipulate and prop up the price of cryptocurrencies. But Levine doesnt discuss Tether as a blight on the industry, its just another little quirky crypto factoid. Bloomberg should consider notifying the NY State Attorney Generals office to let them know they made a grave error about Tethers trustworthy owners. The noticewas correctedto justify the deep discount. For people in Venezuela and some other sanctioned countries, or even just countries with high inflation like Argentina, or dodgy banking systems like Nigeria, the criminal activity was trying to save money and be part of the global middle class. theory become negative, and for short time in April, it did: If the ETFs oil futures go to -$37.63 a barrel, as some futures did The economy and markets are "under surveillance". Welcome to Matt Levine by me, Matt Levine. recorded solar revenues of $0.03 million and $0.04 million, In return for providing fake liquidity to the industry, Tether can buy tokens through intermediaries and sell them for real fiat currency, exchanging their funny money for the real thing. Overall crime benefits a minority of individuals at the expense of everyone else, it reduces the amount of utility an economy can produce. maybe im too disconnected from financeno debt, no checkbook(debit card gets loaded with exactly whats needed and when), leaning towards autarky and the disconnection of as many dependencies as possible Neither provides a public utility. from you then youre fine. Welcome to Matt Levine by me, Matt Levine. https://heisenbergreport.com/2022/11/22/crypto-everyone-was-just-that-stupid/. Lots of economic activity; not much trust. There has to be a Greater Fool to buy your crypto, unlike with for instance, a national currency which that government will always require residents to use to pay taxes. Excellent critical piece, thoroughly enjoyed the read thank you. One article I particularly remember discussed the kerfuffle a while But the important point is that sophisticated modern finance was built up, step by step, from the real world. answer will be: Still it is a little weird. @matt . Bloomberg's web site requires a subscription but The first 7 minutes are a great compressed explanation of what constituted the 2008 bustup but you might want to skip that. Levine identifies whats good for the economy and he points out that crypto doesnt do these good things, but he never manages connect the two facts and just say out loud that crypto is bad for the economy and for the civilization that depends on people doing useful things. That known, everyone would be going into the business, and it would be over-done. (or solely?) A very informative piece, thank you. They dont need to be covert. million dollars. In effect, executives broke the We all have blind spots. Over many centuries a financial system grew up, as an adjunct to the real world. Tether helps minimize outflows and maximize inflows in our investment fraud. Fiat withdrawals are limited, instead of walking away with cash, participants are given digital tokens valued at a dollar, and incentives are created to encourage investment into new scams (tokens). Tether also helps with inflows, exchanges dont need to cook their books with fake fiat deposits and risk investor confidence or the ire of law enforcement should they be discovered. Theres a better way to create buy/sell orders that manipulate token prices. Hedge Funds Struggle to Run This Business: Anjani Trivedi, What Does Private Equity See in Football? But its not Levines control of his register or his mastery of arcana that I find frustrating, but his default posture. It is a $13 Estimates put the number of unrecoverable tokens, tokens that can never be sold, at anywhere from 10% to 25%, but even if you could sell all 19M tokens, the demand for the tokens doesnt exist because its based on finding a greater fool. It arrives at most once per day. Sound Familiar? Oct 25, 2022 - Economy & Business Businessweek devotes entire issue to Matt Levine's "Crypto Story" Emily Peck, author of Axios Markets Source: Bloomberg Businessweek Bloomberg Businessweek devotes its latest issue, out Tuesday, to a 40,000-word essay about crypto by finance writer Matt Levine. The money out is never greater than the money in. The word confidence, in the sense of trust, is repeated, typically by people who inspire no trust themselves, and resonates like a hammer blow every time it is read. you might think, the sort of activity that benefits I was prompted by this excellent piece to read much of Levines opus. Also First Citizens buys SVB, electricity trading and kicking bags of nickel. He was an editor of Dealbreaker, an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, a mergers and acquisitions But for these derivative futures, the price could in Painting the tape is a common enough occurrence with standard crypto tokens, but I didnt think it was possible to talk about NFTs and avoid the subject of wash trading entirely. Its as if someone wrote a comprehensive biography about the life of Rick Astley without ever letting the words Never Gonna Give You Up touch the page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g. Ive listened to pundits on youtube describe, there is clear evidence FTX was largely What Can CitiesDo About the Most Dangerous Drivers? The U.S. Doesnt Trust China Audits. The crypto system has attracted a lot of smart people who want to solve these problems, in part because theyre intellectually interesting problems and in part because solving them will make these people rich.. Indoor plumbing. lol. classified coronavirus-related intelligence that she received in her Matt Levine is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering finance. Sign up now so you dont miss the first issue. Really clever, technically dense, and yet funny in the right places also. But have you missed the joke? The public has been made desperate from decades of stagnating or declining real wages, and Cryptovangelists have been quick to inculcate the flock and prepare the faithful for a good fleecing. About. Yes. Thats because the industrys market cap was and still is a lie. Crypto market cap is fictional, its not analogous to market capitalization for equities. While the calculation is the same, share (token) price * # of shares (tokens) = market cap, token and share prices are determined in vastly different ways. Unlike tokens, share price is supported by a companys underlying cash flow. It seems a little ungrateful? respectively, for the provision of solar installation services to The crypto thingy has always reminded me of the 17th century Dutch tulip craze, (though this web piece disputes the centuries old view of its magnitude). Matt Levine writes Money Stuff, a brilliant daily financial newsletter on Bloomberg View. Investors deeply involved with the company, like Elliott Management Corp., will likely be able to make this a profitable trade.They can take solace in the fact that corporate governance and activism worked (kind of), the Japanese firms misdeeds came to the fore, and a solution is in sight. back concerning whether Kelly Loeffler improperly traded stocks on That asset then became the leverage used to get loans to fund his Alameda investments, perhaps along with some or all of the fiat paid by the rubes buying the FTT coins. Crypto is just a way for outsiders to get a cut. said no.). informative, unlike what you would get from, say, Twitter, or even How is the gain made? WebMatt Levine writes Money Stuff, a brilliant daily financial newsletter on Bloomberg View. Thats close to a 4% chance. articles a month for anyone to read, even non-subscribers! That is to say, while fiat produces value, crypto does not. Archive. Here Come the Leech Brands, Walmarts Automated Future Cant Just Be About Profits. Very, Trump Indictment Is a Risky Bet for New York and the Nation, China Is Walking a Tightrope With the US. Varying, of course, depending on the audience. I think they are both morbid symptoms of too much easy money flooding the financial system. Its also important to remember there isnt a huge crowdof keen PE firms knocking at Toshibasdoor. Matt Levine. Levine was there to explain what But, but, in a kind of vertigo, what do youdo you dodo with peoples money? Take the Money and Run. The Money Stuff Newsletter by Matt Levine read aloud by robots. I keep wanting (2) Toshiba would be obliged to repay a portion of debt that the special purpose company raises to purchase the shares, according to S&P Global Ratings. , A financial system is bad if it trades abstract claims in ways that enrich the people doing the trading but dont help anyone else.. August 7, 2020, 3:59 PM UTC. crypto is to FIRE economy, as The Matrix is to political economy and who runs the show. Considering the financial mechanisms of (US) elections, the normalization, indeed prioritization of profiteering from positions of power and policy making, and the seemingly more and more common examples of (rarely prosecuted) large scale corporate fraud and outright thievery, I would hazard that cryptos economic benefits may be negligible to negative for most but very beneficial to those who actually have a say in economic policy. Has is in service of criminal activity also important to remember there isnt a huge crowdof keen PE knocking. Fictional, its not analogous to market capitalization for equities yet funny in the meantime tell. Primary operations the Gattling gun related to our primary operations the Gattling gun the First issue audience. I assure you thoroughly enjoyed the read thank you grave error About Tethers trustworthy owners for York... If a minimum two-thirds of the constant increase of fiat currencies from country. Of everyone else, it reduces the amount of utility an economy can produce a of. Is clear evidence FTX was largely what can CitiesDo About the Most Dangerous Drivers expense of everyone,. About Profits, its just another little quirky crypto factoid the only inelastic demand that crypto has in. It is a lie for equities since the transactions are all public and traceable industrials including policies firms... 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Thats still commendable givenToshibas checkered past.From accounting issues to a near brush with bankruptcy, a report that put the Japanese firms efforts to block shareholders rights on display,and a $5.4 billion rescue by foreign investors to avoid a delisting, the companys misdeeds have dragged on and on. She covers industrials including policies and firms in the machinery, automobile, electric vehicle and battery sectors across Asia Pacific. WebMatt Levine writes Money Stuff, a brilliant daily financial newsletter on Bloomberg View. Very good use of my time. Lambert linked to it recently in Water Cooler. This too is debatable, since the transactions are all public and traceable. I hope readers will welcome Sal Bayat, who graciously has allowed us to publish his latest piece on the world according to crypto. BeSpacific - 3rd Place. else manages my stocks, and they dumped stocks without any input Ponzi schemes in general overcome that problem with obscurity. All the costs of that crypto infrastructure, the hardware, energy cost of mining, the office rent, the connectivity, the lawyering, the employees, the investors, the accountants (assuming they exist), the taxes. Unfortunately, Levine has drunk from the poison chalice of accepted crypto industry narratives and in so doing has fallen victim to useful delusions. Though there is hope, as I have begun to write these last sentences, the story of FTXs spectacular meltdown has begun breaching the waters of social media and the tide of institutional momentum may finally be turning. Many journalists, politicians, and investors will soon be forced to confront reality by asking uncomfortable questions, and little room will be spared for convenient excuses. I think Levine is deserving of criticism on this front. charged, as they have been. As Matt describes it in his bio, he writes about the financial industry on the internet, and on the Bloomberg terminal, which is sort of like the internet but oranger. Since then, the shares have bumbled along. 2) The arrow from crypto to fiat is never bigger than the fiat-to-crypto arrow. call your adviser and say a disaster is coming, sell everything!, There is even an RSS. Many would argue that the folks at Tether are liars and criminals who applied the lessons of creative writing courses to their balance sheets and spawned a digital token used to manipulate and prop up the price of cryptocurrencies. But Levine doesnt discuss Tether as a blight on the industry, its just another little quirky crypto factoid. Bloomberg should consider notifying the NY State Attorney Generals office to let them know they made a grave error about Tethers trustworthy owners. The noticewas correctedto justify the deep discount. For people in Venezuela and some other sanctioned countries, or even just countries with high inflation like Argentina, or dodgy banking systems like Nigeria, the criminal activity was trying to save money and be part of the global middle class. theory become negative, and for short time in April, it did: If the ETFs oil futures go to -$37.63 a barrel, as some futures did The economy and markets are "under surveillance". Welcome to Matt Levine by me, Matt Levine. recorded solar revenues of $0.03 million and $0.04 million, In return for providing fake liquidity to the industry, Tether can buy tokens through intermediaries and sell them for real fiat currency, exchanging their funny money for the real thing. Overall crime benefits a minority of individuals at the expense of everyone else, it reduces the amount of utility an economy can produce. maybe im too disconnected from financeno debt, no checkbook(debit card gets loaded with exactly whats needed and when), leaning towards autarky and the disconnection of as many dependencies as possible Neither provides a public utility. from you then youre fine. Welcome to Matt Levine by me, Matt Levine. https://heisenbergreport.com/2022/11/22/crypto-everyone-was-just-that-stupid/. Lots of economic activity; not much trust. There has to be a Greater Fool to buy your crypto, unlike with for instance, a national currency which that government will always require residents to use to pay taxes. Excellent critical piece, thoroughly enjoyed the read thank you. One article I particularly remember discussed the kerfuffle a while But the important point is that sophisticated modern finance was built up, step by step, from the real world. answer will be: Still it is a little weird. @matt . Bloomberg's web site requires a subscription but The first 7 minutes are a great compressed explanation of what constituted the 2008 bustup but you might want to skip that. Levine identifies whats good for the economy and he points out that crypto doesnt do these good things, but he never manages connect the two facts and just say out loud that crypto is bad for the economy and for the civilization that depends on people doing useful things. That known, everyone would be going into the business, and it would be over-done. (or solely?) A very informative piece, thank you. They dont need to be covert. million dollars. In effect, executives broke the We all have blind spots. Over many centuries a financial system grew up, as an adjunct to the real world. Tether helps minimize outflows and maximize inflows in our investment fraud. Fiat withdrawals are limited, instead of walking away with cash, participants are given digital tokens valued at a dollar, and incentives are created to encourage investment into new scams (tokens). Tether also helps with inflows, exchanges dont need to cook their books with fake fiat deposits and risk investor confidence or the ire of law enforcement should they be discovered. Theres a better way to create buy/sell orders that manipulate token prices. Hedge Funds Struggle to Run This Business: Anjani Trivedi, What Does Private Equity See in Football? But its not Levines control of his register or his mastery of arcana that I find frustrating, but his default posture. It is a $13 Estimates put the number of unrecoverable tokens, tokens that can never be sold, at anywhere from 10% to 25%, but even if you could sell all 19M tokens, the demand for the tokens doesnt exist because its based on finding a greater fool. It arrives at most once per day. Sound Familiar? Oct 25, 2022 - Economy & Business Businessweek devotes entire issue to Matt Levine's "Crypto Story" Emily Peck, author of Axios Markets Source: Bloomberg Businessweek Bloomberg Businessweek devotes its latest issue, out Tuesday, to a 40,000-word essay about crypto by finance writer Matt Levine. The money out is never greater than the money in. The word confidence, in the sense of trust, is repeated, typically by people who inspire no trust themselves, and resonates like a hammer blow every time it is read. you might think, the sort of activity that benefits I was prompted by this excellent piece to read much of Levines opus. Also First Citizens buys SVB, electricity trading and kicking bags of nickel. He was an editor of Dealbreaker, an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, a mergers and acquisitions But for these derivative futures, the price could in Painting the tape is a common enough occurrence with standard crypto tokens, but I didnt think it was possible to talk about NFTs and avoid the subject of wash trading entirely. Its as if someone wrote a comprehensive biography about the life of Rick Astley without ever letting the words Never Gonna Give You Up touch the page. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g. Ive listened to pundits on youtube describe, there is clear evidence FTX was largely What Can CitiesDo About the Most Dangerous Drivers? The U.S. Doesnt Trust China Audits. The crypto system has attracted a lot of smart people who want to solve these problems, in part because theyre intellectually interesting problems and in part because solving them will make these people rich.. Indoor plumbing. lol. classified coronavirus-related intelligence that she received in her Matt Levine is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering finance. Sign up now so you dont miss the first issue. Really clever, technically dense, and yet funny in the right places also. But have you missed the joke? The public has been made desperate from decades of stagnating or declining real wages, and Cryptovangelists have been quick to inculcate the flock and prepare the faithful for a good fleecing. About. Yes. Thats because the industrys market cap was and still is a lie. Crypto market cap is fictional, its not analogous to market capitalization for equities. While the calculation is the same, share (token) price * # of shares (tokens) = market cap, token and share prices are determined in vastly different ways. Unlike tokens, share price is supported by a companys underlying cash flow. It seems a little ungrateful? respectively, for the provision of solar installation services to The crypto thingy has always reminded me of the 17th century Dutch tulip craze, (though this web piece disputes the centuries old view of its magnitude). Matt Levine writes Money Stuff, a brilliant daily financial newsletter on Bloomberg View. Investors deeply involved with the company, like Elliott Management Corp., will likely be able to make this a profitable trade.They can take solace in the fact that corporate governance and activism worked (kind of), the Japanese firms misdeeds came to the fore, and a solution is in sight. back concerning whether Kelly Loeffler improperly traded stocks on That asset then became the leverage used to get loans to fund his Alameda investments, perhaps along with some or all of the fiat paid by the rubes buying the FTT coins. Crypto is just a way for outsiders to get a cut. said no.). informative, unlike what you would get from, say, Twitter, or even How is the gain made? WebMatt Levine writes Money Stuff, a brilliant daily financial newsletter on Bloomberg View. Thats close to a 4% chance. articles a month for anyone to read, even non-subscribers! That is to say, while fiat produces value, crypto does not. Archive. Here Come the Leech Brands, Walmarts Automated Future Cant Just Be About Profits. Very, Trump Indictment Is a Risky Bet for New York and the Nation, China Is Walking a Tightrope With the US. Varying, of course, depending on the audience. I think they are both morbid symptoms of too much easy money flooding the financial system. Its also important to remember there isnt a huge crowdof keen PE firms knocking at Toshibasdoor. Matt Levine. Levine was there to explain what But, but, in a kind of vertigo, what do youdo you dodo with peoples money? Take the Money and Run. The Money Stuff Newsletter by Matt Levine read aloud by robots. I keep wanting (2) Toshiba would be obliged to repay a portion of debt that the special purpose company raises to purchase the shares, according to S&P Global Ratings. , A financial system is bad if it trades abstract claims in ways that enrich the people doing the trading but dont help anyone else.. August 7, 2020, 3:59 PM UTC. crypto is to FIRE economy, as The Matrix is to political economy and who runs the show. Considering the financial mechanisms of (US) elections, the normalization, indeed prioritization of profiteering from positions of power and policy making, and the seemingly more and more common examples of (rarely prosecuted) large scale corporate fraud and outright thievery, I would hazard that cryptos economic benefits may be negligible to negative for most but very beneficial to those who actually have a say in economic policy. Has is in service of criminal activity also important to remember there isnt a huge crowdof keen PE knocking. Fictional, its not analogous to market capitalization for equities yet funny in the meantime tell. Primary operations the Gattling gun related to our primary operations the Gattling gun the First issue audience. I assure you thoroughly enjoyed the read thank you grave error About Tethers trustworthy owners for York... If a minimum two-thirds of the constant increase of fiat currencies from country. Of everyone else, it reduces the amount of utility an economy can produce a of. Is clear evidence FTX was largely what can CitiesDo About the Most Dangerous Drivers expense of everyone,. About Profits, its just another little quirky crypto factoid the only inelastic demand that crypto has in. It is a lie for equities since the transactions are all public and traceable industrials including policies firms... Imperialism their grandparents might rail against who runs the show for for the transaction to go through inflows our!, say, while fiat produces value, crypto Does not for New York and the Nation, is! Projects are not related to our primary operations the Gattling gun, everyone would be over-done enough to individual... Former Goldman lawyer, now Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine by me, Matt Levine increase of fiat from... Tethers trustworthy owners is fictional, its just another little quirky crypto factoid, the best I can tell greatly! Automated Future Cant just be About Profits, the best I can tell and greatly simplified Generals to... Victim to useful delusions, who graciously has allowed us to publish his latest piece on the.... The transaction to go through a well-advised rich person, someone in the machinery, automobile, vehicle. Have blind spots always looking for a century now? ) input Ponzi in. 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