What if 2009 through 2020 were a weird fluke and we are in some new normal? What if inflation stays higher? What if interest rates stay higher? What is going onnnnnnn?
[The New York Times]
It’s unclear what Steel Perlot does, as a company (it is “an AI and analytics company of companies”) — or even what “Steel Perlot” means (there is a sailboat that shares its name?) — but whatever it is, it’s not going well. “Just over a year after it launched, the company was asking Schmidt’s family office, Hillspire LLC, to pay its bills,” writes Forbes.
Ben Davis wrote a review of artist Devon Rodriguez’s solo show called “Underground,” a nod to how Rodriguez rose to fame: doing portraits of fellow subway riders, giving them the portraits, and posting the whole thing to TikTok.
I tend to view the existence of a review as someone taking art seriously — even if the reviewer doesn’t like the art, it was worth considering thoughtfully. Rodriguez didn’t see it that way, and now Davis is writing about what happens when social media and the art world interact.
The mix in the courtroom for the Sam Bankman-Fried / FTX trial has been reporters, occasional members of the general public, curious lawyers, crypto influencers... and one very devoted degen. Fellow line-stander David Yaffe-Bellany profiles Taco, who politely refused to tell me his government name.
[The New York Times]
We are very close to the end of the prosecution’s case, and today was pretty uneventful. I will be writing a wrap of some of the financial testimony shortly, but if you can’t wait, the talented reporters at CoinDesk have been doing all-hands-on-deck coverage.
The majority of FBI agent Richard Busik’s testimony seemed geared toward establishing jurisdiction — he was explaining cell phone pings that occurred in New York City — so I left it out of my recap.
But in order to tie Sam Bankman-Fried to the cell phone number, CoinDesk reports how the prosecution picked perhaps the funniest possible email: the Bahamian Prime Minister asking for a favor.
Nishad Singh looks less reliable. Is it enough?
Nishad Singh says he tried to get Bankman-Fried to do the right thing — but he wouldn’t listen.
There’s a Sunday evening filing from the defense team (PDF) in SBF’s fraud trial.
Turns out Bankman-Fried still doesn’t have access to his prescribed medication, which seems lousy. But that’s not the part that interests me. This is (emphasis mine, obviously):
However, as we approach the defense case and the critical decision of whether Mr. Bankrnan-Fried will testify, the defense has a growing concern that because of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lack of access to Adderall he has not been able to concentrate at the level he ordinarily would and that he will not be able to meaningfully participate in the presentation of the defense case.
