Thread by @PaulBlustein

Here on Ye Olde Hellsite, I tend to be a consumer rather than a producer of tweets.
Every so often, though, something so moronic and noxious comes to my attention that a rant is imperative.
Uncritical journalism about #crypto has reached that point. I can’t swallow my bile.
🧵

In this recent @wsj video, for example, the likes of #Dogecoin gets treated with gravity, as if it were worthy of consideration for investment.
This, from a media organization fabled for its economic and financial sophistication.
wsj.com/video/series/c…

Without a trace of skepticism, a journalist labeled “WSJ stock market and retail investing reporter” declares on the video that buyers of Doge, Shiba Inu etc. “see it as a good way to make money quickly, and try their hands at the investing game!”

As an ex-@wsj reporter, I can think of quite a few former bosses who must have been rolling in their graves.

Acknowledging that Doge etc. is “risky” and “volatile,” as the video does, is far from sufficient.
What’s called for is disdain, derision—and shout-from-the-rooftops warnings against squandering money on an asset lacking the slightest intrinsic value.

See? It’s not impossible, as this this terrific piece by @DSegalNYTimes attests:
nytimes.com/2021/08/05/bus…

That dopey video appeared shortly after another appalling example of the genre:
wsj.com/articles/bitco…

A few warnings about frauds and scams were included in that article. But nowhere did it mention the opinion, held by every respectable economist I know, that Bitcoin has essentially the same intrinsic value as Doge—i.e. zero—and that “investing” in it is nuts.

No doubt, the reporters and editors who worked on those pieces are smart and conscientious. But if they can’t recognize a 21st century version of tulip bulb mania—as others can, like @jemimajoanna and @RobinWigg—then they shouldn’t be covering crypto.
ft.com/content/025ea3…

And if they’re ignorant enough to believe the BS about fiat that crypto bros spout, they might try educating themselves by reading this thread by one of my favorite denizens of Ye Olde Hellsite:

https://twitter.com/Tr0llyTr0llFace/status/1366750946630451206?s=20

I don’t mean to pick on @wsj. The staff includes plenty of people with a firm grasp of monetary economics. One of them, @greg_ip, wrote this exceptionally insightful piece:
wsj.com/articles/crypt…

Finally, just in case this thread causes me to be mistaken as a tool of the financial industry, let me close by noting the dedication for a book I wrote titled “And the Money Kept Rolling In (And Out): Wall Street, the IMF, and the Bankrupting of Argentina.”
End of rant.