Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael
Society & Culture
On this edition of Parallax Views, in the first segment Wall Street Window's Mike Swanson returns to the program to discuss the FTX/Sam Bankman-Fried crypto scam scandal as well as Elon Musk's buy out of Twitter. Among the topics covered in the course of our conversation:
- Sam Bankman-Friedman, Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried's apology letter and his claim that what happened with FTX was a bank run, and whether what happened was a case of an inside job fraud or not
- The high-risks involved in the crypto exchange; how these crypto exchanges aren't banks and are not regulated in a meaningful way; the damage that the FTX scandal has done to people
- Relating past events like the Enron and WorldCom scandals and the the stock market's Dot-Com Bubble of the 1990s to the present day
- The influential American venture capitalist firm Sequioa Capital and the FTX scandal; Sequioa Capital's failure in relation to the FTX scandal is symptomatic of a bigger problem; firms not wanting to miss out on the hot new "Thing" or fads
- Reports that Sam Bankman-Fried ran FTX as his own personal fiefdom
- The political Left, the political Right, and the economy
- The divide in the Libertarian movement over crypto currency
- Karl Marx, Peter Thiel, and the possibility that the capitalist system itself is producing too much capital in ways that drive down interest rates; the issue as being more than the Fed just making mistake (ie: a problem with how the 21st century capitalist system itself operates currently); new money influxes as slowing down the bear market
- The lowering of interest rates and the creation of bubbles
- Jacob Silverman and Ben McKenzie's upcoming book Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud; elements of the libertarian world agreeing with leftist critiques of crypto currency arguing that it's just a bubble or scam
- Gold and silver, the stock market, Robin Hood, and "meme stocks"
- Younger people becoming wary of stock trading
- Elon Musk's buying of Twitter for $44 billion; Musk wasn't able to back out of the deal; Twitter losing money
- Meta, Facebook, the Metaverse, and Mark Zuckerberg losing money; the layoffs at Twitter, Facebook, and Amazon
- Casino capitalism, carny tricks, and social media misleading people on issues like crypto
- Social manias, the madness of crowds, financial bubbles, and not falling for hype
In the second segment of the program, Daniel Pinchbeck, author of a number of books on psychedelics including most recently (w/ Sophia Rokhlin) When Plants Dream: Ayahuasca, Amazonian Shamanism and the Global Psychedelic Renaissance, joins the show to discuss his recent WhoWhatWhy article "Why Psychedelic Capitalism Sucks". Among the topics we cover in this conversation:
- The rise of psychedelic corporations/psychedelic start-ups
- The demonization of psychedelics in the 1960s and the cultural thaw that's led to a psychedelic renaissance through groups like MAPS and the Beckley Foundation; the reconsideration of psychedelics by society today and contemporaries studies on psychedelics related to alleviating depression, etc.
- Festivals like Burning Man and how resource-rich elites and entrepreneurs became interested in psychedelics
- Predatory practices and the critique of patents in regards to psychedelics and psychedelic therapy
- Compass Pathways and patent laws
- Downsides of psychedelics and psychedelic use
- The ecological crisis, today's profound social inequality, and psychedelics as a way to inspire social and structural change
- The contemporary psychedelic movement's focus on medicalization that fits psychedelics
- Psychedelics, creativity, and pattern recognition
- Psychedelics, temporary bliss states, and a possible 1984/Brave New World scenario
- Pioneering psychedelic researchers Sasha and Ann Shulgin's approach to psychedelic research vs. the approach of psychedelic corporations
- Psychedelic use and messianic delusion
- The positives of psychedelics and psychedelic usage
- The question of consciousness
- The climate change crisis and transforming how we live our lives; the importance of storytelling
- Shifting away from industrial agriculture
- And much, much more!
Academic Freedom, Viewpoint Discrimination, and Israel/Palestine w/ Jodi Dean
The Turbulent World - April 2024 Update on Iran & Israel, Gaza Protests, Extreme Rhetoric in Israel, Israel's Information War, Benjamin Netanyahu, and More w/ James M. Dorsey
Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War w/ Prof. Shay Hazkani
Columbia U Protests + the Kent State Massacre, Project Censored's State of the Free Press 2024, Forever Chemicals, & Remembering Daniel Ellsberg w/ Mickey Huff
Applying the Lessons of the French Evisceration of Algeria to the Gaza War w/ Sean Tomilson
Examining Biden's Policies on Economics, Gaza, and the Border Heading Into Election Season w/ Karen Dolan/How Autocrats Seek Power w/ Richard Abel
Inside the World of Deathmatch Wrestling w/ Mike Krueger
Is the U.S.-Israel Special Relationship a Strategic Liability? w/ Jon Hoffman
"White Rural Rage" Book Receives More Criticism from a Scholar It Cited w/ Kristin Lunz Trujillo/Culture Warriors Push Propaganda About Haiti Crisis w/ Patrick MacFarlane
Prominent Jewish Americans Sign Letter Opposing AIPAC w/ Alan Minsky
Jonathan Glazer's Oscar Speech, Its Parallels to Vanessa Redgrave's 1978 Oscar Speech, & the Meaning of THE ZONE OF INTEREST w/ Corey Atad
Gaza War Update w/ Prof. James M. Dorsey
Schaller & Waldman's "White Rural Rage" Thesis Misuses Data to Push an Unhelpful Narrative w/ Prof. Nicholas F. Jacobs
Europe Must Look Beyond the U.S. for Its Future in a Changing World + Biden, Netanyahu, and the Gaza War w/ Amb. Patrick Theros
The Death of Film Criticism and the Infantilization of Cinema (+ Oscar Talk) w/ Jim DiEugenio
The Islamophobia Network and the Israel-Palestine Discourse w/ Sahar Aziz and Mitchell Plitnick
Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America w/ Josie Riesman
BEST OF: The Enduring Legacy of V, the Hit Sci-Fi TV Series That Used the Alien Invasion Trope to Explore the Dangers of Fascism w/ Kenny Johnson
Israel/Palestine, the Gaza War, and Rebel Governance in the Middle East w/ Abdalhadi Alijla
The Confederation Model Approach to Israel/Palestine w/ Josef Avesar
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