I just finished “Number Go Up” by Zach Faux, a reporter for Bloomberg. Its focus is the doomed ex-billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried (‘SBF’), but it’s more a tour of the world’s financial underworlds. SBF’s story mostly bookends the narrative. It’s said to be funny, but I didn’t see much to laugh about. It is fully absorbing. I read through it in three days, breaking into my usual retiree habits. Every so often a book does that for me. New novels from John le Carré used to suck me in.
I have started calling it kleptocurrency. My initial thought when i first heard about bitcoin, was similar to your response, Max, as well as Krugman's - the main uses are money laundering and tax evasion, could think of nothing socially useful. Later I realized that it also has great use as a ponzi scheme, but the social utility, as with gambling in general, is negative: a system for transferring wealth from the desperate many to the undeserving few, especially those who run the system. Mark S, nom de blog Albanius.
I have started calling it kleptocurrency. My initial thought when i first heard about bitcoin, was similar to your response, Max, as well as Krugman's - the main uses are money laundering and tax evasion, could think of nothing socially useful. Later I realized that it also has great use as a ponzi scheme, but the social utility, as with gambling in general, is negative: a system for transferring wealth from the desperate many to the undeserving few, especially those who run the system. Mark S, nom de blog Albanius.