Business

One day we’ll all yawn about blockchain

In all the excitement of the latest cryptocurrency bull run—Tesla buying Bitcoin, Ethereum hitting all-time highs, Snoop Doge—it’s easy to overlook what makes the technology underpinning all this newfound loot so exciting. Mostly people just want to talk about the big price movements. And space shuttle cartoons. (Not that I’m against price talk.Wheee!) But real […]

Business

Why the GameStop YOLO trade has me bullish

For all the angst and bickering brought about by the market moves of the past week—longs vs. shorts! hedge funds vs. retail investors! Robinhood vs….Congress!?—I am left with one overwhelming feeling: bullish. After all, consider what made the GameStop short squeeze possible in the first place. Namely, so many individuals had so much money in […]

Business

Tesla, GameStop, and the power of ‘meme stocks’

“Who controls the memes, controls the Universe” — Elon Musk (June 26, 2020) Eons ago, when I was interviewing for a job at another financial publication, I could tell the precise moment everything went off the rails. All was going well—until my last interview when a wizened editor showed up and asked me a question […]

Business

Tech and crypto funder Andreessen Horowitz wants to replace the media. That might be bad news for investors.

If you have even a passing familiarity with Silicon Valley or cryptocurrency, you’ve likely heard of Andreessen Horowitz, one of tech’s highest-profile venture capital firms. The firm, which tech insiders call a16z, is famous in part because of its investments—Facebook, Coinbase and other familiar names—but also because of its mastery at charming (and manipulating) the […]