Sunday, December 18, 2022

Sam Bankman-Fried and the Crypto Scandal: Lessons for Average Americans

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, was once worth billions of dollars. Today he is sitting in a Bahamian jail, abiding with rats and maggots. Worse--the prison doesn't offer a vegan menu.

Sam was to have testified before a Congressional hearing about his financial dealings. However, a federal prosecutor filed criminal charges against him, and the Bahamian authorities obligingly locked him up before he spilled the beans.

And so many beans to spill. Commentators estimate Sam has one million creditors, primarily investors. 

The mainstream media has portrayed Bankman-Fried as a naive and inexperienced investor who got over his skis. I think that's bullshit.

SBF is no country bumkin. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in physics.

He certainly grew up in sophisticated surroundings. His Wikipedia bio says he was born "on the campus of Stanford University." (Evidently, Stanford has a maternity ward).

Sam's dad, a professor at Stanford School of Law,  is a tax specialist who got his law degree from Yale. 
Sam's mom, a recently retired Stanford law professor, has three degrees from Harvard, including a law degree.

So what's next for Sam Bankman-Friedman and his crypto empire, which some people describe as a giant Ponzi scheme?

There are two possibilities. If Sam's shenanigans are fully exposed, the public may discover that many influential politicians profited from Sam's activities, which could trigger a political earthquake and multiple indictments.

On the other hand, the full extent of this scandal may never come to light. Sam is in a Bahamian jail awaiting extradition to the United States. Sam might be prosecuted vigorously, but he will likely take a plea deal without ever publicly testifying.

Regardless of how this saga plays out, Americans can learn a lot from Sam Bankman-Fried and the FTX fiasco.

First, people should only invest in financial vehicles they understand. Who really knows what cryptocurrency is or why it has value? And yet, millions of people invested their savings in crypto.

Second, financially insecure people should not invest their meagrer savings in desperate schemes to reverse their fortunes.  Many Americans are approaching their retirement years with inadequate savings and are panicking.

Nevertheless, impecunious people who think they can get rich by investing in cryptocurrency are like the guy who loses heavily at the roulette wheel and places his entire dwindling stake on black. Desperate gambling often leads to disaster.

Finally, FTX's collapse is a reminder that people who have degrees from elite universities aren't necessarily smart.  Sam Bankman-Fried and almost everyone associated with FTX holds a degree from an exclusive school. Yet look what happened?

Sam Bankman-Fried has a degree in physics from M.I.T.















5 comments:

  1. People with similar educations run most of the major institutions in the country. SBF also went all-in in Wokeness to demonstrate how wonderful he was, as his crypto hedge fund ripped off the customers of his crypto exchange.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly. I checked the education credentials of several of the FTX insiders, and they all graduated from elite schools. No one who went to school in the flyover states.

      Delete
  2. Let's see if you think that my paraphrase is valid:

    First, people should only invest in [credentials] they understand. Who really knows what [a credential] is or why it has value? And yet, millions of people invested their savings in [credentials].

    Second, financially insecure people should not invest their meagrer savings in desperate schemes [i.e., credentials] to reverse their fortunes. ...

    Nevertheless, impecunious people who think they can get rich by investing in [credentials] are like the guy who loses heavily at the roulette wheel and places his entire dwindling stake on black. Desperate gambling often leads to disaster.

    Finally, FTX's collapse is a reminder that people who have degrees from elite universities aren't necessarily smart. Sam Bankman-Fried and almost everyone associated with FTX holds a degree from an exclusive school. Yet look what happened.

    ReplyDelete
  3. You are right. Many young Americans get sucked into elite schools (Harvard, Columbia, etc.) in the belief that an Ivy League degree will open doors of opportunity. Taking out student loans looks like a good investment to these naive people. More often than not, all they obtain is a lot of student debt. I am one of those people. I went to Harvard Graduate School of Education to get a doctorate in education policy. It was very expensive, and I could have gotten the same quality of education at a state institution. I had three very good professors whose names I still remember, but the majority of my teachers were no better than the professors teaching at other universities around the country. Fortunately, I had gotten a stellar education at the University of Texas School of Law, and it was my law degree, not my Harvard degree, that truly educated me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Holy Names University in Oakland CA is closing.
    Birmingham-Southern is begging for a bailout.

    ReplyDelete