Allison Morrow

Sam Bankman-Fried is trying to rewrite the story of one of the biggest white-collar crimes in American history.

Once upon a time, all of us were taught the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, and its unambiguous lesson about calling out the truth when it’s right in front of your eyes. The emperor was not, in fact, clad in the finest suit. The emperor was naked. A fool who’d been had.

There’s an economic explanation for why everything feels so tense right now

Allison Morrow and Lisa Eadicicco

Amazon is laying off thousands of people, part of a familiar impulse in Corporate America to reduce headcount in the face of rising prices, an unpredictable trade war and a potential (though still largely speculative) artificial-intelligence revolution. But the impulse also amounts to a giant gamble on a technology that has yet to prove it can deliver the efficiencies its backers have long promised.

Changpeng Zhao, one of the wealthiest and most influential figures in the cryptocurrency industry, is back in the spotlight this week after securing a pardon from President Donald Trump — a reprieve that renews concerns that those with deep pockets have been able to buy their way out of trouble under Trump 2.0.

The Trump administration excels at sowing uncertainty. But it is sending an unambiguous message to crypto entrepreneurs who may be operating on the fringes of the law, or straight up outside of it: Don’t worry about a thing.

The concern is less about two businesses failing than it is about major banks’ exposure to them — and whether banks have been overlooking risks in private credit, where less-regulated non-bank entities lend money.

At this point, even the concept of an “AI bubble” seems to be a bubble. (In fact, Deutsche Bank analysts said last month that the “AI bubble” bubble has already burst.)https://www.dbresearch.com/PROD/RI-PROD/PDFVIEWER.calias?pdfViewerPdfUrl=PROD0000000000604456

Two years ago, as President Trump was running for re-election, he derided President Biden’s electric vehicle push as a “hoax” promoted by “Radical Left Fascists, Marxists & Communists.” He wrote on social media at the time: “Within 3 years, all of these cars will be made in China.”