A year into a ruinous pandemic, the wealthy have so much capital they’re inventing ever more chaotic ways to spend it. For New York Magazine’s April 12-25, 2021 issue cover story, a look into the new world of money with Max Read on the non-fungible, memeified, cryptodenominated, degenerate future of finance; Scott Galloway on how outsiders are making their own volatility in a system rigged by the rich; an overnight millionaire’s confessions; the NFT catalogue; and more.
“Over the last year or so I’ve been fascinated to watch many of my friends turn into app-based currency traders and stock speculators, investing real money in the market in the same enthusiastic but casual way they might have otherwise been dropping a few bucks on football bets,” says writer Max Read, who formerly edited New York’s coverage of all things technology. “When Redditors and other outsiders took GameStop to unimaginable heights in January and February, it became clear this was a much wider phenomenon. But what, exactly, was happening? Redirected lockdown energy? The effects of new technology? Or something bigger? Researching this column I came to the conclusion that we were living through more than just a pandemic blip in the economy.”