Journamalism: The best summary description and analysis of Michael Lewis’s catastrophic SBF-FTX flameout dumpster fire I have yet seen:

David Karpf: The chroniclers of the crypto collapse <davekarpf.substack.com/…>: ‘A review of Easy Money, Number Go Up and Going Infinite…. The last two chapters feature Lewis desperately trying to piece together how it all went wrong…. Lewis decides that Ray is a villain, and only Lewis himself is positioned to solve this great accounting mystery…. The last two chapters feature Lewis desperately trying to piece together how it all went wrong. He still has unfettered access to SBF. John Ray, who has been brought on as CEO to guide FTX through bankruptcy proceedings, refuses to talk to SBF. He decides that he knows people, and thinks SBF is, fundamentally, a crook. So Lewis decides that Ray is a villain, and only Lewis himself is positioned to solve this great accounting mystery….

The trouble is (1) SBF is a gifted liar, (2) SBF is lying to Lewis, (2) Lewis somehow never realizes that SBF might be lying to him, and (3) he thinks he can produce the real story of FTX without bothering with the rot at the heart of the crypto collapse.

Lewis eventually concludes that none of FTX’s money was actually missing—it was just hard to track down because of all those awful people who didn’t trust Sam Bankman-Fried to help them locate it. He places blame on everyone but SBF, his central character, his quirky financial genius. The book has immediately aged like curdled milk….

Every writer faces a choice when history veers in an unexpected direction. McKenzie and Silverman altered their book by adjusting the approach. Faux dove right in and surveyed the wreckage. Lewis carried on as though none of his operating assumptions had been challenged. Lewis chose the easy path. It resulted in a book that, if he’s fortunate, will eventually be forgotten.