The televised interview of disgraced FTX cryptocurrency exchange wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried Wednesday was not as pathetic as your typical Clueless Joe Biden brain freeze or John Fetterman debate, but that doesn’t mean it was a favorable performance by SBF (as the failed financier is known by friends and foes alike).
Reading a summation of it all today on zerohedge.com, legal types noted numerous incriminating statements made by SBF and at least 12 times he apologized or admitted failure.
I watched this SBF circus live yesterday because I was shocked that a supposedly brilliant person would go on cable television to discuss his many failures running a financial concern, with all the likely attendant litigation yet to come, both civil and criminal.
It also interested me to see exactly now tough the questioning would be from the host, a long-time liberal apologist from CNBC. It is notable that among SBF’s many proclivities that have come to light since his exchange failed was his lavish political donations, almost all to Democrats.
Cynics are wondering aloud if that helped grease the regulatory wheels, despite the fact that one head of an established commodities exchange had testified before Congress against SBF’s exchange.
My take was that the Wednesday SBF interviewer spent too much time apologizing, begging the subject’s indulgence and generally looking to be extremely deferential considering the interview subject’s failures.
A Twitter poll showed 56.9 percent saying the interviewer had “soft-balled it,” while 43.1 percent believe he had “asked the tough questions.”
I wonder what interview that second group was watching, sort of like who are the 40 percent or so of the populace that think Clueless Joe is doing a good job?
SBF’s defense for his failures broke down to, allow me to paraphrase: I’m clueless and didn’t do my job, but I’m really sorry about all the money you people lost due to that.
There were times when the studio audience – SBF was on video from the Bahamas, which he claims he is free to leave, he just chooses not to do so, but there were people in the room with the host – laughed aloud at SBF’s responses, or the questions.
I had no dog in this fight, other than wanting to see right prevail in a general sense. I never got the attraction of cryptocurrency and, missed out on making millions of dollars as the runaway speculation peaked. I’ve also avoided losing any money as the token units have declined in value, been misappropriated by so-called custodians, or have been outright stolen by hackers.
There are many established investment professionals that foresee all cryptocurrencies returning to intrinsic value, that being zero.
Losers in the FTX operation of SBF appear just to have gotten a headstart.
Sam Ross Jr's site 