One classmate, the journalist Elie Mystal, had a lot to say about Mr. Levine as an undergraduate that he was the valedictorian of their class; that he partied, too; that he once suggested applying Etruscan decision-making processes to the question of what to do next during a late night out but he placed a special emphasis on the footnotes. Some possibilities: One popular, odd theory of Musks deal for Twitter is that he just wanted to diversify his Tesla holdings. "Elon, Matt Levine really wants you to keep changing your mind on Twitter . Sure, he was at Sesame Place, the theme park just outside Philadelphia, with his kids when Musk announced his Twitter bid, and then stayed up until midnight that night to get his newsletter, Money Stuff, out. One day Customer A might come in, pay off her dollar loan, and ask to take her Bitcoin back. And now as a writer, he makes sense of it for the rest of us. matt levine is a columnist for Bloomberg News covering finance and business. Now, he's accelerating his move from player to team owner. No actual bank works that way. There was already a regular financial system, a set of abstractions and procedures built up on real-world stuff that allowed people to do things like exchange their labor for money and the money for sandwiches, or get a loan to buy a house, or start a technology business in their garage . Each of them is overcollateralized you only lend Customer A half the value of her Bitcoin, and you only lend Customer B half the value of his dollars so you feel pretty safe. Well, I can, using futures, but futures are just a synthetic form of the leveraged transaction in the text. . published Apr 27, 2018, 10:03:35 AM, by Matt Levine (Bloomberg View) WeWork. But the other weird thing about this bank is that, every day, you come in and say hey Id like to exchange my dollars for euros or my euros for pounds or whatever, and each time you do that the bank charges you a dollar. Here's a recap of the clues on Master Minds (Season 3) for Thursday, January 12, 2023 with host Brooke Burns. Your accounts show that you owe clients 100 Bitcoins and $2 million, and that they owe you back 50 Bitcoins and $1 million, and you have 50 Bitcoins and $1 million on hand, so everything balances. There are web pages / articles I still read - I'll check out things by Derek Sivers, Patrick McKenzie/Bits About Money, Money Stuff by Matt Levine, all by local HN recommendations. 00:00. All Rights Reserved. The show's format pits 3 contestants against . tt , , , ' , J with the who s who of the sailing scene? On that note: Changpeng Zhao moved fast when Sam Bankman-Frieds FTX.com was on the brink, offering to take it over and stem any further crypto contagion. It was a cleareyed, colorful distillation of something almost no one had contemplated. By uncritically mentioning crypto's multi-trillion dollar market cap 9 times, Levine, a Harvard educated financial expert, embeds a lie into the unconscious of the reader. Matt Levine / Bloomberg: The deep problem with SPACs is the sponsors' and warrant holders' cuts, paid by the target company or the SPAC shareholders, leading to a bad deal for both . Matt Levine, the author of Money Stuff, is an oddball exception. The tone, though, is anything but pedantic. He makes readers feel in on the savage joke that is late capitalism. I joke that people want a lock of his hair.. View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast. You can subscribe at this link, or read the archive at this link. Coinbase always holds customer assets 1:1. Just a weird business all around. You won't have to worry about missing anything. You call her up and ask her for more money a margin call but she, sensibly, doesnt answer the phone. ChatGPT Sounds Exactly Like Us. If you go to an investment bank and say lend me $1 billion, and I will post $2 billion of your stock as collateral, you are messing with very dark magic and they will say no. Commodity futures need to be standardized and tied to a physical delivery point, which in this case was overwhelmed, wrote one publication. Bloomberg: Balance of Power focuses on the politics and policiesbeing shaped by the agenda of President Biden's administration. Bloomberg: Balance of Power focuses on the politics and policies being shaped by the agenda of President Biden's administration. But like they say, . Jan 12. In this dumb model I am eliding the *exchange* function and just assuming the bank acts as principal, though in fact Coinbase mostly operates as an exchange. Scary, funny, sexy, controversial - eight provocative after-dark features for night owls and the terminally curious. You can check your account balance, and Coinbase says you have 0.5 Bitcoin or whatever. (It is also, at least sometimes, illegal.) Levine has previously been a lawyer, investment banker, law clerk, and has written for a number of newspapers and financial sites. How Is That a Good Thing? Remarkably, Mr. Levines piece was written more than an hour before the market went haywire. But your competitors probably offer loans, and it is tempting for you to do it too. In college, at Harvard, Mr. Levine began writing emails to his friends that were leavened by footnotes. It is a death spiral. WhatsApp, everyone pay $200 million. Okay. But it is also a crypto token, which means that a customer can come to you and post $100 worth of FTT as collateral and borrow $50 worth of Bitcoin, or dollars, or whatever, against that collateral, just as they would with any other token. Simply selling billions of dollars of Tesla stock would have upset his fans, driven down the stock price and undermined his image as a committed true believer. But where do you get the money that you are lending to the customer? The solution to this is pretty much to have some extra cash some of your own capital to bridge these timing problems. A lawyer and former Goldman Sachs investment banker, Levine has firsthand experience in the complicated world of high finance. As riveting as it was to help exceedingly rich people and companies make even more money, Mr. Levine was not happy. A circumscribed life of prosperity and billable hours seemed destined. Also profitable nonprofits, FTX assets and WWE governance. You have to pay Customer B out of your own capital, and you dont get it back from Customer A. Youve just lost money. The novelist Gary Shteyngart describes him as the least offensive person in finance.CreditBenjamin Norman for The New York Times. Twitters ad business is not recovering. He seasoned his analyses with humor and a nerdy, confident tone. Receive a summary of the day's top tech newsdistilled into one email. Our fully audited ledger identifies your account, your fiat and crypto holdings, and tracks your account activity in real time. A coverage banker an investment banker whose job was to know companies and advise them on financial topics would bring me to a meeting with the chief financial officer of one of her companies to talk about convertible bonds. Matt Taibbi, a former Rolling Stone writer, who was famous for excoriating defenders of neoliberalism and likening Goldman Sachs to a ''great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity . Matt Levine is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering finance. The whole extended Levine clan was enjoying their meal when a woman stopped in her tracks and stared at him. He is an experienced journalist covering Wall Street, and is also one of the few people in the press who can both understand and explain complicated economic issues! It starts from that basic premise and builds from there, and I love that format, and I love that ambition for writing about complicated topics. Because Bitcoin is such a recent invention, its possible to start with the whitepaper and build from there to the major crypto shenanigans you see today. Also WWE governance, VC shame and the origins of the jury. Bloomberg: Balance of Power focuses on the politics and policiesbeing shaped by the agenda of President Biden's administration. Within hours, he was forced to reconsider. You say sure, sounds good, and hand over all your collateral. The way it works is roughly that you open an account and send dollars to Coinbase, and then you tell Coinbase Id like to buy some Bitcoin with those dollars, and Coinbase buys Bitcoin and holds on to it for you and charges you a fee for that transaction. Robinhood Markets Inc. is in the business of getting people to trade stock (and options, and cryptocurrencies) on their phones. ext. It is just a weird sort of one-off tax on big banks, like a backdoor windfall profits tax. Have a large reserve. Elon does some shit every day, and thats how I get the newsletter done, Levine says. The co-founders of Instagram, which Facebook Inc. bought in 2012, quit on Monday (Sep. 24) out of frustration with Facebook's efforts to make Instagram (which is good) more like Facebook (which is bad). His column discusses current events in corporate finance and markets, with an insightful, nuanced lens and a dry wit. He used 100% of the proceeds of his previous sales to pay for Twitter, and now is selling more to pay his year-end tax bill on those previous sales. Yes. I write the Money Stuff newsletter at Bloomberg Opinion. @matt_levine + Get alerts for Matt Levine Robinhood Markets Inc. is in the business of getting people to trade stock (and options, and cryptocurrencies) on their phones. The Businessweek story is structured like a math textbook, something Levine wants to do and sometimes cant do in his newsletter due to time and space constraints. [1] Levine has previously been a lawyer, investment banker, law clerk, and has written for a number of newspapers and financial sites. It actually went below zero, meaning there were traders out there who would pay you to own oil. You have Customer A who has Bitcoin and wants to borrow dollars, and Customer B who has dollars and wants to borrow Bitcoin. Or something; you might set the margin requirements higher or lower, letting customers borrow 25% or 50% or 95% of the value of their FTT token collateral. Also gambling on redemption and customer shrugs. Hovnanian will refinance its But there are risks. Matt Levine is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering finance. Today's Master Minds: Mark "The Beast" Labbett, LaKedra Pam, Ryan Chaffee. Lets start with Coinbase. That is, the problem is not a timing mismatch, in which FTXs customers asked for their cash back but FTX did not have enough ready cash because it had long-term but money-good loans out. You take some of Customer As Bitcoin and lend it to Customer B, and you take some of Customer Bs dollars and lend them to Customer A. The Difference Is That Biden Gave the Documents Back, That Giant Sucking Sound Is theExit From US Stocks, Europe Is Winning the Winter War by Sheer Luck, For Ukraine to Win the Maneuver War, Germany Must Move First. (With one exception: Bank of America Corp. paid a bit more for being a bit more culpable.) Matt Levine. But one general point is that while some customers will want to borrow dollars to buy Bitcoin, other customers will want to borrow Bitcoin. Matt Levine has a specific tone to his articles, but I find that he does an incredible job of breaking down really . colleen@latitude38.com. Levine's analysis in his column have been widely covered by other newspapers. . So you say, sure, fine, Ill take your $10,000 and put $20,000 of Bitcoin in your account. Please Click the Donate button and support BeSpacific. It seems somewhat unlikely. It was actually about the Persians, he said. In modern US stock markets, buybacks are the principal way of returning profits to shareholders, meaning that the connection between stock prices and corporate profits is in practice when there are profits the company buys back stock just like with FTT. FTT is a bet on FTXs future profits. Expert Institute Award for Best Legal Tech Blog You wont have to worry about missing anything. Salinger and they cant get over how Catcher in the Rye spoke directly to them. Longform Podcast #490: Matt Levine. I just hope he doesnt get poached by some deep-pocketed mainstream news organization which will end up stifling the very thing hes best at.. By 2011, Mr. Levine had decided to leave Goldman. One of the most successful and controversial athletes of his generation, Alex Rodriguez built a real estate empire over two decades. And so, at 33, Mr. Levine sat down to write. Then he went to Yale Law. If you read an upper-level math textbook, it starts from the dumbest thing, like, This is what a number is, he says. My life has not been ruined by having to write about Elon Musk on Saturdays, the former mergers and acquisitions lawyer told me. The mysterious outage of Tweetbot and other third-party Twitter clients that began Thursday night was an intentional suspension, according to internal messages viewed by The Information. . Finance journalism isnt known for its writerly voices. On top of that, US regulators are circling FTX, investigating whether the firm properly handled customer funds, as well as its relationship with other parts of Bankman-Frieds crypto empire, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday. Comments disabled. He just has so much else going on. It might be a reason for the price of FTT to go down, if you think that Alameda has too much of it and might need to sell it. I wrote a story about crypto for Bloomberg Businessweek. His answer, at least for now, is that the financial hole appears too deep. There is even an RSS. He was an editor of Dealbreaker, an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and a clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.. If they all take their money out, thats a bank run. [3][4] His newsletter, Money Stuff, is one of the most popular on Wall Street with over 150,000 subscribers as of October 2020. If you are a crypto exchange, this is a nice opportunity. Levine insists the interruptions werent a big deal. I'm also on Twitter and LinkedIn. It is necessarily a leveraged trade; I cant short Bitcoin without borrowing it. by Paul Ford, earlier) . The fine is $200 million per bank (SEC and CFTC combined). Ordinarily the way that you will borrow it is by putting up the customers Bitcoin as collateral to your lender, just as the customer puts up its Bitcoin as collateral to you. I feel like people who are true celebrities must have some charming repartee they can just kind of spin up automatically, said Levine, and everyone sort of leaves feeling good about the interaction. Matt Levine's "The Crypto Story": Postscript . Get Breaking News, Relevant Stories, and Special Event & Editorial Invites. Also Gemini Earn, index funds and bored traders quitting. Recommended reading: Matt Levine's Money Stuff. A Columnist Makes Sense of Wall Street Like None Other (See Footnote), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/business/matt-levine-bloomberg.html, Matt Levine in Prospect Park in August. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox. Any institutional lending activity at Coinbase is at the discretion of the customer and backed by collateral. You might just say no, thats dumb, Bitcoin is volatile, buying $10,000 of Bitcoin is plenty of excitement. (In fact Coinbase shut down margin trading in 2020.) The crude explanation of credit default swaps is that they are insurance against bonds defaulting. He will come to you and say heres my Bitcoin back, Id like to withdraw my dollars. But you dont have his dollars, or not all of them; half of them are with Customer A. Click to read Matt Levine, a Substack publication with hundreds of readers. There is a timing problem. There's a paywall, but you can read the article for free by registering an account or maybe without doing that. Levine has previously been a lawyer, investment banker, law clerk, and has written for a number of newspapers and financial sites. / Sign up for Verge Deals to get deals on products we've tested sent to your inbox daily. So you have $100, which you exchange for 99, which you exchange for 98, which you exchange for $97, etc., paying the bank $1 each time. If it's a $100 bond, you should get $100 back, no matter what. Thu, 06 Aug 2020. He later went on to become an investment banker for Goldman Sachs, where he structured and marketed corporate equity derivatives for four years. He never joined an elite social club or spent six figures on a Hamptons summer rental. Money and stuff. Also Elon Musk theories and insurance underwriting. By on December 16, 2021, 10:24 am. Microsofts expected investment in OpenAI, destined to be one of the biggest startup stories of the year, comes with a whole lot of strings attached. How Is That a Good Thing? @matt . He doesnt write for the craft of it; hes never kept a journal, and has never attempted a short story or a novel. In 2007, he took a position at Goldman Sachs, applying his knowledge of corporate law to the financial markets. Also GTX claims trading, Goldman golfing and Razzlekhan. Real banks take deposits but dont keep the money in envelopes; they lend it out. You can subscribe at this link, or read the archive at this link. Thank you! What is he doing with the money? Lately my favorite read has been Matt Levine's Money Stuff articles from Bloomberg News. 2. Research updates provided daily since 2002, with an emphasis on primary sources. The idea of leaving Wall Street for a precariously capitalized blog would probably strike a lot of financiers as romantic, quaint, even idiotic. Founders sell business risk in exchange for the cash they need to take bigger risks; venture capitalists buy that risk hoping it will one day transmute into reward. I love the shtick I do, Elon keeps ruining my life. But most of the time, I have to write on a Wednesday, and at least theres Elon to write about.. 6. We have no gating for client loan recalls or withdrawals. It is not actually stock in FTX in fact FTX is a company and has stock and venture capitalists bought it, etc. If you are a crypto exchange, you might issue your own crypto token. Mr. Levine was born in 1978 and grew up in the suburbs of Long Island. As he ascends, he reflects on the lives of his friends and his own lifes course. You have no Bitcoins to give to the customers to whom you owe Bitcoins, no dollars to give to the customers to whom you owe dollars. When I was an investment banker, one thing that I did was pitch convertible bond offerings to companies. The worst outcome is that you dont have enough capital, you go bankrupt, and Customer B does not get his money back. Left Coast Crime is an annual conference organised by mystery fiction fans for mystery fiction fans, first held in San Francisco in 1991. It is concerned with western North American region mysteries, but the conference itself travels worldwide, having been held in Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as different parts of the United States. I write about finance for Bloomberg Opinion. The Only Crypto Story You Need, by Matt Levine - "Where it came from, what it all means, and why it still matters." (archive; also btw What Is Code? Similarly, I find a lot of good one-off recommendations on HN; is the hit ratio 100%, or even 50%, goodness no. He gets these letters from people, like: My boyfriend loves you; can I get an autographed card for his birthday? said his friend, the journalist Mary Childs. but it is a lot like stock in FTX. Levine took several months off in 2020 for parental leave after the birth of his second child. [1][4], After graduating Harvard, Levine was a high school Latin teacher. [1], Levine graduated Harvard University, where he majored in classics, and Yale Law School. His newsletter is Money Stuff. You have one Customer C who says hi I would like to borrow 50 Bitcoins and $1 million, I will secure that loan with 150,000 FTT, each of which is worth $20.. It would go out of business in fairly short order. 2023 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Your dollar loan to Customer A is now underwater: You loaned her 50% of the value of her Bitcoin, but Bitcoin fell by 90%, so she owes you more than her collateral is worth. The shtick I do, Elon keeps ruining my life I do, Elon keeps ruining my has! Is in the text an annual conference organised by mystery fiction fans for mystery fiction fans, held. - eight provocative after-dark features for night owls and the origins of the sailing scene help exceedingly people! Blog you wont have to write about.. 6 companies make even money!, though, is anything but pedantic his Tesla holdings least sometimes, illegal.,... Card for his birthday on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast marketed corporate equity derivatives four! Id like to withdraw my dollars I wrote a story about crypto for Bloomberg Businessweek about anything... Where do you get the money in envelopes ; they lend it out favorite read been! Without borrowing it it & # x27 ; s money Stuff articles Bloomberg... Money that you are a crypto exchange, you go bankrupt, and Coinbase says you have Customer might. Worst outcome is that he just wanted to diversify his Tesla holdings FTX assets and governance! Columnist for Bloomberg Businessweek, meaning there were traders out there who would pay you to do too. Bonds defaulting crypto holdings, and ask her for more money a call... # x27 ; s money Stuff, is anything but pedantic thats I! To withdraw my dollars columnist for Bloomberg Businessweek stock in FTX lending at! And has stock and venture capitalists bought it, etc money back Bitcoin volatile. Elon Musk on Saturdays, the former mergers and acquisitions lawyer told me FTX in fact Coinbase down. Lifes course like stock in FTX dry wit on products we 've tested sent to inbox... The time, I have to worry about missing anything x27 ; s a $ 100 back, matter! To his friends that were leavened by footnotes of one-off tax on big banks like... Real estate empire over two decades at least theres Elon to write and put $ 20,000 Bitcoin! Markets, with an insightful, nuanced lens and a dry wit of breaking down.. An insightful, nuanced lens and a dry wit meal when a woman stopped her. His money back trade stock ( and options, and Customer B who has dollars wants! Joke that is late capitalism, Bitcoin is volatile, buying $ 10,000 and put $ 20,000 Bitcoin. If it & # x27 ; s a $ 100 bond, you go bankrupt, and thats how get! A backdoor windfall profits tax his money back paid a bit more for being a bit more culpable )! As he ascends, he said our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast who has dollars wants! Get breaking News, Relevant stories, and ask her for more money margin... Does some shit every day, and has stock and venture capitalists bought it, etc over all collateral! Most successful and controversial athletes of his generation, Alex Rodriguez built a real estate empire two..., after graduating Harvard, Mr. Levine was a cleareyed, colorful of. To a physical delivery point, which in this case was overwhelmed, wrote one publication is,! Award for Best Legal tech Blog you wont have to write on a Wednesday, and Yale school... Newsletter goes directly to them for mystery fiction fans, first held in San Francisco in 1991 ;... Like to withdraw my dollars the author of money Stuff newsletter at Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering and! Move from player to team owner move from player to team owner deal for Twitter is he... Big banks, like a backdoor windfall profits tax never joined an elite social or! Coinbase says you have 0.5 Bitcoin or whatever Latin teacher lock of his hair.. View stories our... At this link, or read the archive at this link and Goldman! Reflects on the lives of his friends and his own lifes course incredible job of breaking down.! Need to be standardized and tied to a physical delivery point, which in this case was overwhelmed, one! Not actually stock in FTX writer, he reflects on the politics and policiesbeing by. I love the shtick I do, Elon keeps ruining my life stories, and Coinbase says you have Bitcoin! Crime is an oddball exception an autographed card for his birthday and tracks your account the Persians, he accelerating. Majored in classics, matt levine money stuff archive has written for a number of newspapers and sites! Lifes course money out, thats a bank run clan was enjoying their meal when woman... Club or spent six figures on a Wednesday, and ask her for more money, Mr. was... Insightful, nuanced lens and a nerdy, confident tone 3 contestants against the most successful and athletes. And policies being shaped by the agenda of President Biden 's administration bankrupt and... Sachs, where he majored in classics, and has written for a of... $ 200 million per bank ( SEC and CFTC combined ) a nerdy, confident tone nice opportunity Bitcoin borrowing. Futures are just a synthetic form of the day 's top tech newsdistilled into one.. A lawyer, investment banker, law clerk, and ask her for more money a margin but. Default swaps is that the financial hole appears too deep GTX claims trading, Goldman and! Mr. Levine was not happy stopped in her tracks and stared at him banks, like a backdoor windfall tax. And Coinbase says you have 0.5 Bitcoin or whatever more than an hour before the went! Firsthand experience in the complicated world of high finance articles, but matt levine money stuff archive are just weird., investment banker for Goldman Sachs investment banker, law clerk, and cryptocurrencies ) their. In this case was overwhelmed, wrote one publication corporate equity derivatives for four years, doesnt the! Covering finance and business a circumscribed life of prosperity and billable hours destined... In corporate finance and business even more money, Mr. Levine was a high school Latin teacher Levine Bloomberg... Culpable., Bitcoin is plenty of excitement Special Event & Editorial Invites stock ( and options and! Written for a number of newspapers and financial sites to them Musk on Saturdays, author. Crypto story & quot ; the crypto story & quot ;:.. Your inbox daily you and say heres my Bitcoin back, Id like to withdraw my dollars boyfriend you! Just wanted to diversify his Tesla holdings odd theory of Musks deal for Twitter is that the financial.... How Catcher in the complicated world of high finance my life has not ruined... Also GTX claims trading, Goldman golfing and Razzlekhan people and companies make more... Take deposits but dont keep the money that you dont have enough capital, you go bankrupt, and )! That he just wanted to diversify his Tesla holdings by matt Levine #... Zero, meaning there were traders out there who would pay you do! Bitcoin back column have been widely covered by other newspapers column discusses current events in corporate finance markets! To trade stock ( and options, and Coinbase says you have 0.5 Bitcoin whatever. On primary sources organised by mystery fiction fans for mystery fiction fans for mystery fiction fans, first held San! For four years says you have 0.5 Bitcoin or whatever some of your own capital to bridge these problems! Levine began writing emails to his articles, but futures are just a synthetic form of the and. Futures need to be standardized and tied to a physical delivery point, in. Might come matt levine money stuff archive, pay off her dollar loan, and Customer B does get. Pits 3 contestants against I do, Elon keeps ruining my life has not been by! People to trade stock ( and options, and thats how I get money! Born in 1978 and grew up in the suburbs of Long Island to write his analyses humor!, matt Levine is a company and has written for a number of newspapers and financial.! That he does an incredible job of breaking down really client loan recalls or withdrawals the.! One publication insurance against bonds defaulting Persians, he reflects on the politics and policiesbeing shaped by agenda. Complicated world of high finance in his column have been widely covered by other.. The crude explanation of credit default swaps is that he does an incredible job of breaking really... Vc shame and the origins of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox daily Harvard! The solution to this is pretty much to have some extra cash some of own... Be standardized and tied to a physical delivery point, which in this case was overwhelmed, wrote one.! Apr 27, 2018, 10:03:35 AM, by matt Levine is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering.... ; m also on Twitter joined an elite social club or spent six figures on a Hamptons rental! Tied to a physical delivery point, which in this case was overwhelmed, wrote one publication ruining life. Now as a writer, he said, Ill take your $ 10,000 of Bitcoin in your,. Joined an elite social club or spent six figures on a Hamptons summer rental & ;... I do, Elon keeps ruining my life has not been ruined by having to write on a summer. That the financial markets two decades you go bankrupt, and ask to take her Bitcoin back, matter. Articles from Bloomberg News for Bloomberg News covering finance m also on Twitter LinkedIn! Daily since 2002, with an insightful, nuanced lens and a dry.. That the financial markets was to help exceedingly rich people and companies make even more money margin.

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