From Crypto Art to Trading Cards, Investment Manias Abound
The New York TimesEach market frenzy seems crazier than the last. But all have the same roots.
Read when you’ve got time to spare.
What is even happening with money right now? In January, amateur investors introduced the world to the idea of “meme stocks,” bidding up shares in struggling brick-and-mortar video game retailer Gamestop not because it was a good company, but because it was hilarious. Meanwhile, investors have been spending millions on digital GIFs, images, and videos known as NFTs. In April, Dogecoin—a cryptocurrency that was started in 2013 as a joke—somehow became valued higher than Ford Motor Company.
To make sense of it all, we’ve curated some of the best financial writing attempting to explain why markets and investors have seemingly gone bonkers.
Each market frenzy seems crazier than the last. But all have the same roots.
Welcome to the non-fungible, memeified, cryptodenominated, degenerate future of finance.
The idea has always been that value—in stocks, art, precious metals, whatever—is inextricably tied to “fundamentals.” But it seems the internet changed that (hello, GME and Dogecoin!). Felix Salmon explains that if you want to understand finance now, you’d be better off studying Supreme than an annual report.
Is the app that brought zero-commission trades and a mobile-first design to millions of investors too good at what it does?
On meme stocks, dogecoin, and jokes as an investment.
If the financial and crypto markets are going to be so dumb, count me in.
The stock market has had quite a year. But economists and policy makers are worried that the Vanguard model of passive investment is hurting markets.