Issue 58: Dossier
We have all the vocabulary you need to score big on your Robinhood app.
19403 Articles by: Ryan Switzer
Ryan Switzer is a PhD candidate in sociology at Stockholm University. He researches right-wing politics in welfare states.
Blue Devils
More than half of the top 15 crypto-PAC-backed candidates during the 2024 campaign season were Democrats.
Wannabe Gordon Gekkos
Are you missing the point by idolizing them?
Minecraft Scorsese
A Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg satire of mainstream film’s IP problem — in which everything is an adaptation of something else — fails to excuse or address their own extensive IP crimes.
In Carbon We Trust
In Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Ministry for the Future, a global currency backed by carbon removal turns speculation into salvation.
Five Books on Speculation
As history and literature are quick to remind us, many a get-rich-quick scheme has ended in sorrow.
Fruit of the Union
Union assets have skyrocketed while membership remains largely stagnant.
DJ D-Sol’s Double Life
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon knows how to drop a beat. But could he handle a drop in the markets?
Heavy Metals Music
Zamrock emerged from the optimism of postindependence Zambia, fusing psychedelic rock with nationalist ambition. Its rise and fall mirror the promise — and the exhaustion — of a country built on copper.
Money for Nothing
Why the modern financial sector is better at extracting rents than funding the future.
Elon’s Slash-and-Burn Operation
DOGE has cut millions of dollars’ worth of grants in every state.
A Socialism That Invents
Why Nordic countries out-innovate the United States.
Making Plagues Investable
The World Bank’s pandemic bonds tried to turn public health crises into speculative opportunities.
State of the Art
At the height of the NFT craze, the cost of some digital art surpassed that of the great masters’.
Attacks on Undocumented Workers Are Attacks on Unions
Contrary to popular belief, many undocumented workers are organized in unions across the US. But ICE’s mass arrests will target these unionized immigrants disproportionately and weaken the hand of labor.
Zohran Mamdani Is Right on Public Safety
In last night’s New York City mayoral debate, socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani warded off attacks about “defunding the police” by articulating a principled and compelling message on public safety.
For All That Is Good About Humankind, Ban Smartphones
Smartphones are making us unhealthy, miserable, antisocial, and less free. If we can’t yet nationalize the attention economy, maybe it’s time to abolish its primary tool — before it finishes abolishing us.