Somehow I managed to underestimate how incredibly unpopular crypto is. After just a couple years they outrank oil companies, Wall Street and data centers. The Senate is only considering a crypto gift package for campaign money. Crypto remains the corruption GOAT. www.semafor.com/article/07/3...

Exclusive: Democrats circulate anti-crypto poll ahead of vote

The poll found that voters in Democratic primaries view crypto less favorably than oil companies; Wall Street; or data centers.

semafor.com

Protecting Consumers & Our Financial System from Silicon Valley Fintechs by @profhilaryallen.bsky.social – As Big Tech pushes further into finance, consumers deserve stronger safeguards: peri.umass.edu/publication/...

Protecting Consumers and Our Financial System from Silicon Valley Fintechs

Consumers today are increasingly relying on uninsured fintechs for core banking services. Silicon Valley fintechs are increasingly providing consumers with an alternative to bank deposit accounts. Mos...

peri.umass.edu

This profile by @ourfinancialsecurity.org of Marc Andreessen and Brian Armstrong is really important, because it makes explicit that you can't be anti-oligarch AND pro-crypto. Dems need to pick a lane. ourfinancialsecurity.org/resources/cr...

The Crypto Oligarchs - Americans for Financial Reform

A handful of crypto billionaires with extreme anti-democratic views stand to profit immensely from passage of the CLARITY Act – the massive deregulatory crypto bill poised for a Senate floor vote this...

ourfinancialsecurity.org

Also holds up pretty well for financial regulation

Mar Hicks@histoftech.bsky.social · 3w ago

Tweet so good I printed it out and put it on my wall. I referred to it in a conference talk today @hypervisible.blacksky.app

The AI bailout is going to come from within the Fed!

The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 4w ago

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh has enlisted Marc Andreessen — the billionaire investor, adviser to President Trump and one of Silicon Valley’s most aggressive promoters of AI — to help shape how the central bank thinks about the technology’s impact.

Marc Andreessen is quite literally the last person you want advising the Fed I recount the reasons in excruciating detail in fintechdystopia.com, but TL;DR, he doesn’t care about or understand financial stability, and is all about overthrowing govt oversight and central bank control of the $ supply

Katie Martin@katie0martin.ft.com · 4w ago

Andreesen is, uh, it's a choice. This is a choice. as.ft.com/r/4636eadd-8...

NEW in @prospect.org : Silicon Valley financiers are frothing at the mouth over a startup founded by Kirsten Gillibrand’s fresh-out-of-college son. Last month the company, APEC, was valued at $300 million.

Not All Nepo Babies Are Trumps - The American Prospect

DSCC chair’s 22-year-old son strikes it big in pursuit of further gamifying finance.

prospect.org

I just posted a draft of a new book chapter on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... TL;DR: There's nothing economically decentralized about crypto, blockchain, DeFi. If you believe decentralization hype, it's because you want to (probably because you're cool with unregulated economic power).

OpenAI wanting the US government to take 5% is not "democratization" or something, it's a bailout. OpenAI can't get the money from private investors or the stock market and needs the hole in their budget filled so they are trying to take US tax dollars.

Just went on CNN to talk about Trump's crypto holdings: video.snapstream.net/Play/3T0vspb...

What We Know With Max Foster - Hilary Allen

Powered by SnapStream Cloud Sharing

video.snapstream.net

A new poll makes abundantly clear, once again, that voters don't want this new crypto legislation. Instead, the CLARITY Act is by and for the crypto industry. ourfinancialsecurity.org/resources/20...

Silicon Valley really showing itself to be nothing more than Phillip Morris in a grey hoodie, buying the laws it wants so that it can continue its predation.

Rick Claypool@rickclaypool.bsky.social · last mo.

The spending coincides with the rise of *corporate supremacist super PACs.* These are set up not to advance either major party or any candidate, but solely to push the interests of specific corporate sectors. Crypto, AI & online betting super PACs are driving the trend

Marc Andreessen is appointed to the DOD's Defense Policy Board, a committee tasked with giving strategic advice to the defense secretary and other top officials (Nick Wadhams/Bloomberg) Main Link | Techmeme Permalink

I just watched this video about how policymakers need to press the "care" button. The joy of participating in the Game Changers project was learning that there are so many policies ready to go that will make lives better. Ready for someone to push the care button. www.tiktok.com/@joshjohnson...

What Mamdani feels like as NYC Mayor

TikTok video by Joshjohnsoncomedy

tiktok.com

PERI Umass Amherst@periumass.bsky.social · last mo.

It's time to change the game. Bold, new policies to build a stronger, fairer, greener economy for all Americans. Watch trailer: Game Changers: Economic Policies for a Working America gamechangerspolicy.org via @periatumass #GameChangersPolicy peri.umass.edu/gamechangers/

The oligarch Marc Andreessen now sits on the Defense Policy Board, per the Pentagon in an email to reporters. So does the "Flight 93 Election" fash polemicist Michael Anton; and the Arizona losing candidate Blake Masters, a protege of the oligarch Peter Thiel.

One challenge for financial regulation right now is that policymakers in the space often understand finance but not technology. The BIS Report on AI risks is Exhibit A: www.bis.org/publ/arpdf/a... ✅Good discussion of financial risks of bursting AI bubble. ❌Claiming that AI can create new ideas

fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

Gil Durán@gilduran.com · last mo.

When billionaires preach "abundance," remember that the richest man in the world killed the poorest children in the world just for the LOLs. And if these AI fascists get their way, most of us will join the starvation class. www.thenerdreich.com/a-silicon-va...

In the battle for the soul of the Democratic Party, Newsom is definitely on Team Oligarch.

Gil Durán@gilduran.com · last mo.

Back in 2024, I wrote that California Forever would try to go around the voters and appeal to the courts or the state. Now, the billionaires have hired some of Gavin Newsom's top consultants to push the project—just as Newsom is cozying up to to tech billionaires as he prepares for 2028.

There's been a quiet yet vicious fight between commercial banks & crypto, & crypto is winning. Eleanor Davis-Diver has this report on how stablecoin issuers are storming through the regulatory agencies. "Wall Street might be looking back on those days of bank-specific deregulation with nostalgia"

Crypto Industry Gets Its Way on GENIUS Act Rulemaking - The American Prospect

The primary federal regulators of stablecoins are finalizing their rules for GENIUS Act implementation and, much to the chagrin of the banking industry, crypto firms are getting everything they want.

prospect.org

NY, like Illinois, showing us that crypto industry backing doesn't guarantee you a win: Brad Lander trounced Dan Goldman last night (So why sell out to an industry I sometimes call "Philip Morris in a grey hoodie"???)

My latest in the FT on stablecoin runs My twist on the conventional wisdom: stablecoins have never been meaningfully used for consumer payments, and even if that changes through yield, consumers lack redemption rights. So institutional runs are what we should worry about www.ft.com/content/7a19...

Not surprising, given that Gillibrand has tried to give the crypto industry everything they ever wanted (and to be clear, Andreessen Horowitz built and is part of the crypto industry). Principles be damned. fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha...

Dan Immergluck@danimmergluck.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Ughhh "…Gillibrand’s son, Theodore, graduated from Stanford University on Sunday. He previously was a fellow at the venture capital firm Paradigm and an intern at Andreessen Horowitz, according to his LinkedIn profile." "...Gillibrand has been a key Democratic ally for the crypto industry…”

See also @tonantzin-tlc.bsky.social www.brookings.edu/articles/deb...

Debunking the narratives about cryptocurrency and financial inclusion | Brookings

On September 16, the U.S. Department of the Treasury issued two reports in response to President Joe Biden’s Executive Order (EO) on Ensuring Responsible Development of Digital Assets, which requires ...

brookings.edu

David Dayen@ddayen.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It's become a disturbing trend in open-seat races in heavily Black districts: whoever has the most crypto Super PAC money wins. The new generation of Black politicians benefiting from this cash say that crypto brings financial inclusion @naomibethune.bsky.social explains why that makes no sense.

What a great summary! I did a longer form takedown of "efficiency" here: fintechdystopia.com/chapters/cha..., but @tante.cc says it shorter and better.

tante@tante.cc · 2mo ago

I should write down the core arguments in English as well. But until then, short summary: Efficiency is not core goal for a Democracy and a lot of complaints about "bureaucracy" are proxies for people hating democracy and participation by and the protection of marginalized people.

Molly is providing an invaluable service, not least of which is showing that the crypto industry and the GenAI industry players are the same people running the same playbook

Pam Says 'They're The Same Picture' in The Office

ALT: Pam Says 'They're The Same Picture' in The Office

static.klipy.com

Molly White@molly.wiki · 2mo ago

I've been running Follow the Crypto since 2024. Today I'm relaunching it as Tech Influence Watch, expanded to cover AI political spending alongside crypto. They’ve spent more than $400 million this election cycle, and now you can follow it in close to real time. influence.citationneeded.news

I've been running Follow the Crypto since 2024. Today I'm relaunching it as Tech Influence Watch, expanded to cover AI political spending alongside crypto. They’ve spent more than $400 million this election cycle, and now you can follow it in close to real time. influence.citationneeded.news

Tech Influence Watch

Tracking cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence industry influence on 2026 elections in the United States.

influence.citationneeded.news

💯 If you want to read a whole (free!online!) book about this, check out fintechdystopia.com

Jed Brown@jedbrown.org · 2mo ago

I love the clarity in this interview. Companies think they have a loophole for violating existing law because they have cooked up novel liability-laundering narratives founded on readily-disproven myths about what the technology is. An audit would find a gas-fired digital redlining machine.

Chart is interesting b/c the smaller-looking 1929 bubble caused more social damage than subsequent bubbles - because of all the borrowed money associated with it. That’s why it’s important to consider the AI bubble in the context of systemic leverage www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/a...

Will the AI Bubble Trigger a Financial Crisis?

Hilary J. Allen explains how dashed hopes for the technology could trigger a dangerous chain reaction.

project-syndicate.org

Anna Kornbluh@annakornbluh.bsky.social · 2mo ago

from the tooze chartbook + comments stock market bubble concentration: AI big 10 as percent of US market cap at historical tipping point "there's a name for consuming the substance of the commons without compensation: abuse...a political choice, reversible" adamtooze.substack.com/p/what-times...

not sure if everyone can access this, but I just learned about some dramatic changes to SSRN from Steve Bainbridge's Substack. This is really bad; SSRN has been how I keep up with scholarship in my field from a variety of researchers www.stephenbainbridge.com/p/the-social...

The Social Science Research Network Has Jumped the Shark

Significant and unwelcome changes to what had been legal academia's major open source scholarly repository and notice system

stephenbainbridge.com

There it is - three’s a trend! www.cnbc.com/2026/05/29/-...

Tokens or humans? The new corporate trade-off

AI is costing far more than companies expected, forcing CFOs into a new trade-off between tokens and humans and posing a risk the market hasn't priced in.

cnbc.com

Hilary J. Allen@profhilaryallen.bsky.social · 2mo ago

That's two stories now - three will make it a trend! "“Please don’t use AI just for the sake of using AI,” he told staff." www.ft.com/content/b1a6...