CRYPTOBALL
The New Yorker|October 16, 2023
Michael Lewis’ big contrarian bet on Sam Bankman-Fried.
GIDEON LEWIS-KRAUS
CRYPTOBALL

Almost immediately after the cryptocurrency exchange FTX imploded last November, an agent e-mailed Hollywood buyers to reveal that the writer Michael Lewis just happened to have spent the previous six months hanging around Sam Bankman-Fried. Lewis, the agent noted, “hadn’t written anything yet,” but the recent developments had provided “a dramatic surprise ending to the story.” Nobody would have argued that point. But Lewis didn’t appear to regard this unexpected climax the way everyone else did. According to the agent, the writer had likened Bankman-Fried’s archrival, Changpeng Zhao—who had helped set in motion the bank run that brought FTX down—to “the Darth Vader of crypto” and Bankman-Fried to Luke Skywalker. This might not have been a particularly weird thing to say a month earlier. But it was a very weird thing to say at a moment when Bankman-Fried’s alleged misdeeds had made him not simply the “main character” on Twitter but in much of the actual world. Bankman-Fried stood accused of having defrauded his exchange’s customers of something like eight billion dollars, which he had apparently used to prop up his flailing crypto-trading firm, Alameda Research. Furthermore, he had funnelled, or attempted to funnel, his illicit gains into all sorts of nonsense: naming rights to stadiums, Bahamian luxury real estate, a Pacific island where his confederates might ride out one minor apocalypse or another.

Bu hikaye The New Yorker dergisinin October 16, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

Bu hikaye The New Yorker dergisinin October 16, 2023 sayısından alınmıştır.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.

THE NEW YORKER DERGISINDEN DAHA FAZLA HIKAYETümünü görüntüle
President for Sale - A survey of today's political ads.
The New Yorker

President for Sale - A survey of today's political ads.

On a mid-October Sunday not long ago sun high, wind cool-I was in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for a book festival, and I took a stroll. There were few people on the streets-like the population of a lot of capital cities, Harrisburg's swells on weekdays with lawyers and lobbyists and legislative staffers, and dwindles on the weekends. But, on the façades of small businesses and in the doorways of private homes, I could see evidence of political activity. Across from the sparkling Susquehanna River, there was a row of Democratic lawn signs: Malcolm Kenyatta for auditor general, Bob Casey for U.S. Senate, and, most important, in white letters atop a periwinkle not unlike that of the sky, Kamala Harris for President.

time-read
8 dak  |
November 11, 2024
LIFE ADVICE WITH ANIMAL ANALOGIES
The New Yorker

LIFE ADVICE WITH ANIMAL ANALOGIES

Go with the flow like a dead fish.

time-read
2 dak  |
November 11, 2024
CONNOISSEUR OF CHAOS
The New Yorker

CONNOISSEUR OF CHAOS

The masterly musical as mblages of Charles Ives

time-read
5 dak  |
November 11, 2024
BEAUTIFUL DREAMERS
The New Yorker

BEAUTIFUL DREAMERS

How the Brothers Grimm sought to awaken a nation.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 11, 2024
THE ARTIFICIAL STATE
The New Yorker

THE ARTIFICIAL STATE

A different kind of machine politics.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 11, 2024
THE HONEST ISLAND GREG JACKSON
The New Yorker

THE HONEST ISLAND GREG JACKSON

Craint did not know when he had come to the island or why he had come.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 11, 2024
THE SHIPWRECK DETECTIVE
The New Yorker

THE SHIPWRECK DETECTIVE

Nigel Pickford has spent a lifetime searching for sunken treasure-without leaving dry land.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 11, 2024
THE HOME FRONT
The New Yorker

THE HOME FRONT

Some Americans are preparing for a second civil war.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 11, 2024
SYRIA'S EMPIRE OF SPEED
The New Yorker

SYRIA'S EMPIRE OF SPEED

Bashar al-Assad's regime is now a narco-state reliant on sales of amphetamines.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 11, 2024
TUCKER EVERLASTING
The New Yorker

TUCKER EVERLASTING

Trump's favorite pundit takes his show on the road.

time-read
10+ dak  |
November 11, 2024