What we’re reading (1/17)
“The Crypto Collapse And The End Of The Magical Thinking That Infected Capitalism” (Mihir Desai, New York Times). “The unwinding of magical thinking will dominate this decade in painful but ultimately restorative ways — and that unwinding will be most painful to the generation conditioned to believe these fantasies.”
“Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Profits Dented By Deal Slump” (Wall Street Journal). “Investors have been looking for more clarity about where Goldman is going and what it is trying to be. The bank has pulled back on its ambitions to build a large consumer-facing business, and it has reshuffled its businesses. It continues to focus on steadier units like wealth management and less on the high-risk, high-reward units that were its traditional powerhouses, like investment banking.”
“Hedge Fund Manager Boaz Weinstein Bets Market Is Wrong On Credit Suisse” (Reuters). “Speculators increased bearish bets on the Swiss bank last year on concern about how much capital it would need to bolster its balance sheet in a confidence crisis deepened by unsubstantiated social media reports on the bank's financial health.”
“Sam Bankman-Fried Is Still Filibustering” (Slate). “Sam Bankman-Fried is still desperate to convince the world that he didn’t defraud customers of his bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, FTX. The disgraced mogul, out on bail as he awaits a federal trial later this year, launched a new Substack on Thursday to make his case.
“I didn’t steal funds, and I certainly didn’t stash billions away,” Bankman-Fried wrote in the newsletter’s first post.”“Commodities Have Largely Erased Last Year’s Spike.” (Fisher Investments). “Amid all the mixed economic data and recession forecasts, some actual good news hit the wires Wednesday: UK gasoline prices have now erased the spike that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That adds to the growing list of commodity prices that have settled near or below pre-invasion levels—a big disinflationary force.”
