Precision is an illusion.
At Dark Markets, David Z. Morris is your personal guide to the moments when markets become divorced from reality: the hopium of venture capitalists, the intervention of states, the mass hallucination of bubbles, and the devious logic of fraudsters.
Financial markets are an attempt to turn reality into numbers.
They always fail.
Because beneath the abstraction of the market is a fleshy, organic, poetic reality - the reality of humans, in all their perversity and imperfection.
In our hyper-mediated age, lies, cult thinking, and self-delusion are a constant threat to the integrity of your thesis. Those able to navigate that minefield will find a universe of alpha – and live to keep it.
David Z. Morris, PhD
David Z. Morris is an economic sociologist-turned-financial and technology journalist. He is a former staff writer for Fortune Magazine and ex-chief columnist at CoinDesk.
His most recent focus has been cryptocurrency, where his financial insights let him identify and help bring down a rogue’s gallery of bad actors - most notably Luna mastermind Do Kwon and altruistic supervillian Sam Bankman-Fried.
Prior to becoming a journalist, David earned a PhD in the history of media technology from the University of Iowa, and was a teacher and researcher at institutions including Tokyo University of Fine Arts (Geidai) and the University of South Florida.
Dark Markets draws on David’s academic background and philosophical training to offer insights far deeper, and far subtler, than you’ll get from any mainstream finance or technology news source.
Only David will tell you why French philosopher Jean Baudrillard predicted the rise of Do Kwon - and explain those insights in terms plain and actionable enough to help you spot the next fraud coming.
Nothing is True, Everything is Exchangeable
Most of you likely know that last week saw the spectacular collapse of a large blockchain project, with the Terra system collapsing from a paper value of $68 billion dollars to zero practically overnight. In my daytime capacity as someone with actually useful knowledge, I’ve been diving into the economic details of the system, why it unwound, and the
David’s interest in markets and technology was seeded in the early 2000s in Austin, Texas, when he was a staff writer at the Napster-like file-sharing site Audiogalaxy. Witnessing the impact of file sharing on the music industry sparked an undying interest in the complex connection between the texts that give life meaning, and the channels we use to share them.
Crypto
David is possibly the single reporter and writer most respected by serious crypto industry insiders. He is part of a small group who both understand the technology’s transformative potential, and can use grounded financial insights to identify fraudulent or flawed crypto projects.
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence, much like crypto, is a transformative technology being overleveraged to trick naïve investors. As with crypto, David will help you understand the difference between hype … and what “artificial intelligence” actually means.
