Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried accumulated an impressive number of high-profile celebrity brand ambassadors for his <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/cryptocurrency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cryptocurrency</a> empire, but he was especially dogged in his devotion to securing a nod from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/taylor-swift" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Taylor Swift</a>.
FTX filed for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/30-year-old-billionaire-loses-entire-fortune-overnight-as-his-bahamas-based-cryptocurrency-empire-implodes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bankruptcy</a> after users discovered that the company was likely intertwined with Alameda Research, a trading firm controlled by Bankman-Fried. Among other aggressive marketing efforts, FTX solicited a number of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/from-brady-to-shaq-here-are-the-celebrities-who-lost-big-on-the-ftx-implosion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cultural icons</a> to participate in advertisements featuring the exchange platform; Taylor Swift could have joined the ranks of Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry and celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary, as well as Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel ex-wife Gisele Bündchen.
The singer-songwriter and the digital asset startup neared the late stages of negotiating a $100 million sponsorship deal that never came to fruition, according to a <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2b0601e2-d371-404d-8531-227f11d4a83f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Financial Times. Discussions included a ticketing scheme based on digital certificates known as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). According to one unnamed employee, Bankman-Fried is “a fan of Tay Tay.”
Fellow executives disapproved of the idea and questioned the value of previous celebrity marketing efforts. “No one really liked the deal. It was too expensive from the beginning,” one person familiar with the negotiation told the outlet. “That’s front of the soccer jersey level prices.&#8221;
<a class="c-link" tabindex="-1" href="https://get.dailywire.com/readers-pass/read-only-v2?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://get.dailywire.com/readers-pass/read-only-v2?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_medium=editorial&amp;utm_source=dwsite&amp;cid=dwplus&amp;mid=z&amp;xid=0" data-sk="tooltip_parent" data-remove-tab-index="true" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-54730">TIRED OF THE LEGACY MEDIA’S BIAS CONTROLLING THE NARRATIVE AND OBSCURING THE TRUTH? JOIN US.</a>
Swift may have dodged a legal bullet even as she dodged her unlikely fan. Brady, O’Leary, and other former celebrity ambassadors are the subject of a class-action lawsuit claiming that they <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tom-brady-steph-curry-other-celebrities-sued-for-pushing-ponzi-scheme-ftx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">participated</a> in a “fraudulent scheme” against unsophisticated investors. The lawsuit contended that the brand ambassadors, many of whom received equity stakes in the company, neglected to perform “any due diligence” before marketing FTX to the public, adding that their failure to disclose “the nature, scope, and amount of compensation they personally received” in exchange for promoting FTX is “a violation of the anti-touting provisions of the federal securities laws.”
Another <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/07/sam-bankman-fried-lobbied-for-taylor-swift-deal-as-ftx-bled-cash.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from CNBC showed that Bankman-Fried was incredibly determined to cut a deal with Swift, who recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/taylor-swift-finally-breaks-silence-after-eras-tour-ticket-fiasco" target="_blank" rel="noopener">made headlines</a> for crashing Ticketmaster as millions of fans tried to purchase seats for her next tour. Three individuals close to FTX told the outlet that Bankman-Fried ignored his lieutenants’ admonitions to refrain from the sponsorship deal, despite the company’s worsening business environment.
Bankman-Fried, who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/left-of-center-media-accepted-millions-from-democrat-donor-and-disgraced-crypto-wunderkind-sam-bankman-fried" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cultivated a public image</a> as an unkempt and easygoing young executive, was reportedly “insular” in his leadership style, blaming underlings for his mistakes when angry and lecturing dissenting employees, according to CNBC. The would-be wunderkind allegedly ignored messages from top executives if he disagreed with them and avoided face-to-face confrontations. He lived in a luxury penthouse in the Bahamas with a handful of FTX employees who may have been part of a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/amphetamine-fueled-polycule-or-undersexed-group-of-nerds-inside-ftxs-bahamas-culture" target="_blank" rel="noopener">romantic network</a> called a “polycule.”
The 30-year-old former billionaire told CNBC that he disagrees with the description of his leadership style, but did not offer comment on his desire to collaborate with Swift. “Partnerships were an area that was more contentious and on the margin I originally was in favor and ultimately started pushing back on new ones,” he remarked.
FTX emerged three years ago as an overnight success. Headquartered in the Bahamas and incorporated in Antigua and Barbuda, multiple leaders within the cryptocurrency empire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/here-are-the-democrats-and-republicans-who-received-campaign-cash-linked-to-bankrupt-crypto-empire-ftx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">donated extensively</a> to Democratic and Republican campaigns. Bankman-Fried was the second-largest contributor to the Biden campaign during the 2020 election cycle and the sixth-largest overall contributor during the recent midterm elections.

Collage Maker-07-Dec-2022-03.17-PM

Sam Bankman-Fried Was A ‘Fan Of Tay Tay,’ Badly Wanted Her To Sign $100 Million Marketing Deal With FTX

Sam Bankman-Fried Wanted Taylor Swift As A Brand Ambassador

Business

Crime

Cryptocurrency

Money

Sam Bankman-Fried

Taylor Swift

Less than one decade ago, Elizabeth Holmes was the darling of Silicon Valley. After dropping out of Stanford University, she launched a startup called Theranos, which claimed to have mastered the extraordinarily complex biochemistry problem of testing for a variety of diseases from a single drop of blood. Only after she <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-did-elizabeth-holmes-build-her-fraudulent-biomedical-empire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">secured</a> a $9 billion valuation for her company and deceived the nation’s most important power brokers, from James Mattis to Hillary Clinton, was her venture revealed to be utterly fraudulent. She is now on her way to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-elizabeth-holmes-disgraced-media-darling-behind-theranos-fraud-sentenced-to-11-years-in-prison" target="_blank" rel="noopener">federal prison</a>.
Around the same time, fintech entrepreneur Dan Price made headlines for giving himself a massive pay cut to ensure that no employee at his company would ever earn less than $70,000, a move that The New York Times called a “swashbuckling blow against income inequality.” More recently, however, the Gravity Payments executive <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/seattle-ceo-praised-by-the-left-for-cutting-his-own-salary-resigns-amid-sexual-assault-charges" target="_blank" rel="noopener">resigned</a> his post amid charges of fourth-degree assault, fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation, and reckless driving. The purportedly big-hearted executive allegedly cornered a woman in his Tesla, attempting to kiss her and grabbing her throat when she declined his overtures.
What do these two failed entrepreneurs have in common? They knew how to make woke go broke. A post-mortem of the Holmes affair would conclude that, among other blind spots, Silicon Valley was desperate for a female technology legend, allowing her to win over the ultra-progressive startup world. In a similar vein, liberal customers and investors desperately wanted to link arms with a man-of-the-people business leader like Price, who seemed to worry more about dividing the pie than making it larger.
Enter Sam Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old cryptocurrency wunderkind who turned exchange platform FTX into an overnight success. Even as he purchased <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ftx-executives-reportedly-bought-themselves-real-estate-in-the-bahamas-with-corporate-funds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">luxury real estate</a> in the Bahamas alongside his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/amphetamine-fueled-polycule-or-undersexed-group-of-nerds-inside-ftxs-bahamas-culture" target="_blank" rel="noopener">possibly polyamorous</a> cohort of roommates, the young entrepreneur made headlines in the United States as an “effective altruist” devoted to giving away every last penny of his $15 billion fortune. The house of cards <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/30-year-old-billionaire-loses-entire-fortune-overnight-as-his-bahamas-based-cryptocurrency-empire-implodes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collapsed</a> when the world learned that Bankman-Fried, who allegedly pulled money from FTX to fund his gambling addiction at adjacent trading company Alameda Research, had been generous with other people’s money. 
Unlike Holmes and Price, Bankman-Fried admitted to the entire scheme. During a direct message <a href="https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23462333/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-cryptocurrency-effective-altruism-crypto-bahamas-philanthropy">conversation</a> with Vox reporter Kelsey Piper, the likely fraudster said that the environmental, social, and governance movement, also known as ESG, has been “perverted beyond recognition.” Bankman-Fried also acknowledged that his effective altruism was mostly a front, boasting that he convinced “woke westerners” to like him by saying the right things.
FTX somehow <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/sam-bankman-fried-esg-truth-teller-ftx-cryptocurrency-crash-11668723808">earned</a> a stellar “leadership and governance” from one ESG ratings agency Truvalue Labs. Yet John Ray III, a former attorney for individuals harmed by Enron, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lawyer-overseeing-ftx-fallout-never-in-my-career-have-i-seen-such-a-complete-failure" target="_blank" rel="noopener">described</a> the cryptocurrency exchange as the most “complete failure of corporate controls” in bankruptcy filings. Among other “systems that did not exist” were cybersecurity and risk management.
Later reports revealed that the entire progressive establishment was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/left-of-center-media-accepted-millions-from-democrat-donor-and-disgraced-crypto-wunderkind-sam-bankman-fried" target="_blank" rel="noopener">in the pocket</a> of Bankman-Fried. He contributed millions to Democrats in the most recent midterm elections and millions more to left-of-center media outlets. Suddenly, the glowing coverage and subsequent kid-glove treatment of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-dont-even-know-how-to-code-mit-grad-and-now-broke-crypto-ceo-sam-bankman-fried-tells-niche-vlogger" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a> he does not “even know how to code” makes much more sense.
The story of how entire institutions embraced an incompetent con man has not yet fully unfolded. On one hand, the evidence thus far suggests that ideology certainly played a factor. On the other hand, however, financial incentives were at play. As the book of Proverbs says: “A bribe is like a magic stone in the eyes of the one who gives it; wherever he turns he prospers.”
In any case, there is no indication that progressive Silicon Valley and Wall Street elites have learned their lesson. Center for Cultural Leadership senior fellow Jerry Bowyer told The Daily Wire that institutional investors have not yet discovered how to recognize progressive charlatans because their own money is not at stake.
“Large asset managers are more on board with ESG and other forms of ideological investors because they get social kudos and have an excuse to charge higher fees,” the investor and author contended. “There’s a similar problem with celebrity financial pundits who never lose their media perches no matter how much they flog investments which later flop. Also, virtue signaling business brands don’t want to give up a story which is too good to be true.”
The cult-like behavior of liberal asset managers has become especially clear amid the current macroeconomic headwinds, during which many funds have persisted in financial self-immolation. Harvard Management Company, which oversees the elite university’s endowment, reported a $2.3 billion loss in the most recent fiscal year and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/harvard-university-endowment-loses-2-3-billion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">admitted</a> that efforts to achieve net zero emissions through oil and gas divestment “weighed upon performance,” even though the organization remains “proud to be deeply engaged in the issue of sustainability.”
Bowyer added that investors with their own money on the line will be quicker to learn their lessons than those charged with acting as fiduciaries. “ESG investing was already suffering a catastrophic collapse in credibility coming from the bottom up,” he continued. “Real investors have already caught on. The collapse of FTX, which was built partly as the ESG-sensitive version of the cryptocurrency world, just adds downward momentum to an investment fad already in freefall.”

FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Interview

How Sam Bankman-Fried Weaponized Wokeness To Dupe Progressive Investors

Investors

Readers Pass

U.S.

Woke Culture

House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/maxine-waters" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maxine Waters</a> (D-CA) raised eyebrows on Friday for politely asking former FTX CEO and possible fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried to participate in a hearing before lawmakers.
FTX recently filed for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/30-year-old-billionaire-loses-entire-fortune-overnight-as-his-bahamas-based-cryptocurrency-empire-implodes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bankruptcy</a> after users discovered that trading firm Alameda Research, a company run by former Bankman-Fried love interest Caroline Ellison, had allegedly been using funds from FTX to make bets. Though the disgraced entrepreneur may have lost untold billions in clients’ money, Waters <a href="https://twitter.com/RepMaxineWaters/status/1598693811252875264" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> Bankman-Fried on social media that “we appreciate that you&#8217;ve been candid in your discussions about what happened” at FTX.
“Your willingness to talk to the public will help the company&#8217;s customers, investors, and others,” she added, noting that the House Financial Services Committee would “welcome your participation” in the hearing, which is currently scheduled for December 13.
Bankman-Fried, the son of two Stanford Law professors with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mother-of-disgraced-crypto-billionaire-sam-bankman-fried-is-a-democratic-fundraiser-who-once-wrote-essay-blasting-personal-responsibility" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deep-seated connections</a> to the Democratic Party, emerged as an overnight success three years ago. He contributed $39 million during the recent midterm elections, with the vast majority of funds benefiting Democratic candidates, according to <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/outside-spending/top_donors/2022?disp=D&amp;type=V&amp;superonly=N" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from Open Secrets. During the most recent presidential election cycle, he was the second-largest donor to the Biden campaign.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) cited the would-be wunderkind’s campaign contributions in a response to Waters. “So polite and accommodating,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/RepAndyBiggsAZ/status/1598736803233599488" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tweeted</a> along with a photo of Bankman-Fried and the lawmaker posing for cameras. “See how differently Democrats treat their donors?”
Newsmax anchor and podcast host Benny Johnson posted <a href="https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1593723486765289472" target="_blank" rel="noopener">footage</a> of Waters appearing to blow Bankman-Fried a kiss during a previous hearing. “She’s the one who’s supposed to grill SBF next month?” he asked.
Joe Concha, a columnist for The Hill, <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeConchaTV/status/1598723290725552130" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that the “polite” nature of the message was absurd and akin to saying, “We appreciate that you&#8217;ve been candid in your discussions around destroying the lives of thousands of your investors while hiding out in your $40 million penthouse in the Bahamas that said investors paid for.”
Despite his considerable donations to left-wing candidates, Bankman-Fried also gave “about the same amount” in dark money to Republicans, he said during an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/i-dont-even-know-how-to-code-mit-grad-and-now-broke-crypto-ceo-sam-bankman-fried-tells-niche-vlogger" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with cryptocurrency vlogger Tiffany Fong. “The reason was not for regulatory reasons. It was because reporters freak the f*** out if you donate to Republicans,” he contended.
Members of the media have extended a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/left-of-center-media-accepted-millions-from-democrat-donor-and-disgraced-crypto-wunderkind-sam-bankman-fried" target="_blank" rel="noopener">considerable</a> amount of grace to Bankman-Fried, who is presently still located in the Bahamas, where FTX is headquartered. New York Times financial columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sam-bankman-fried-denies-wrongdoing-in-ftx-implosion-during-live-streamed-new-york-times-interview" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interviewed</a> the 30-year-old at the outlet’s recent DealBook Summit despite widespread criticism for neglecting to cancel the conversation.
After Sorkin pressed him on the alleged intertwining of funds between his companies, Bankman-Fried claimed that a “failure of oversight” on his part resulted in confusion rather than any desire to defraud investors for his own profit. “I wasn’t running Alameda. I didn’t know exactly what was going on,” Bankman-Fried remarked. “I was nervous because of the conflict of interest of being too involved.”

Collage Maker-02-Dec-2022-03.44-PM

Maxine Waters Blasted For Gentle Tweet Politely Asking Possible Financial Criminal Sam Bankman-Fried To Testify

Maxine Waters Blasted For Polite Tweet To Sam Bankman-Fried

Congress

Maxine Waters

Politics

Harvard University Management Professor Arthur Brooks admonished <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/wall-street" target="_blank" rel="noopener">corporate</a> leaders to reject the bullying of <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/woke" target="_blank" rel="noopener">woke</a> employees and focus on their bottom lines rather than involve themselves in culture war battles.
During an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbRfl7M95ss" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with CNBC anchor Joe Kernen, the former president of the American Enterprise Institute observed that only a slim subset of the population desires to politicize major institutions. “One of the things that we need to tell CEOs that they are really not aware of … 3% of your employees are activists instead of working, and they’re blowing up your Slack channel right now demanding that you get involved in a culture war and make political statements,” he remarked. “Don’t do it! The rest of your employees are feeling bullied as well.”
Brooks cited a survey showing that 93% of respondents hate the divided status of the country. Referencing the recent acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk, a move the world’s richest man intended as a mechanism to advance freedom of speech, Brooks added that those who do not hate the divided national conversation are the same people who subscribe to absurdities such as “if you buy a Tesla, it means somehow you believe in hate speech.”
“It’s time for us to say, ‘I will not be conscripted into America’s culture war.’ We’re going to make good products, we’re going to help people, we’re going to lift each other up,” Brooks said.
Several corporations have been severely reprimanded by the marketplace for their ventures into social activism. Entertainment conglomerate Disney denounced legislation in Florida that prohibits instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity for students between kindergarten and third grade, ultimately causing the iconic company to lose trust among some consumers. Disney CEO Bob Iger remarked in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-disney-ceo-says-company-will-quiet-things-down-regrets-predecessor-battled-desantis" target="_blank" rel="noopener">footage</a> obtained by Manhattan Institute fellow Christopher Rufo that he regrets Disney entered the battle over the statute.
Earlier this year, an <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/poll-by-two-to-one-margin-investors-reject-woke-companies-pushing-political-causes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exclusive poll</a> from The Daily Wire showed that American investors would prefer that companies commit solely to the maximization of profits rather than causes favored by executives. Although 29% of respondents agreed it is a “good thing” for companies to leverage their financial power for political or social means, 58% said it is a “bad thing.”
Kernen noted that he now sees social media users calling people white supremacists for supporting Elon Musk or defending the principle of free speech. “We have to disregard it,” Brooks commented. “Something like 15% of Americans are actually involved on Twitter. A very small percentage of them are producing the overwhelming amount of tweets about politics, but it gets disproportionate coverage because it’s so outrageous. This drives out the people who want to have ordinary conversations, talk about the news, have non-controversial opinions.”
Musk reported that new user inflow and the amount of time users spend on Twitter each day have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-reveals-how-twitters-business-is-doing-under-his-leadership" target="_blank" rel="noopener">soared</a> under his leadership, even as a significant number of advertisers pause campaigns or entirely suspend their relationships with the platform following pressure from activist groups. “Elon Musk is quite correctly trying to address the fact that there was too much censorship that was all going almost completely for one political point of view, and he’s trying to balance the equation,” Brooks added.

Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise

Harvard Professor Warns CEOs That 3% Of Their Employees Are ‘Activists’ Bullying Coworkers About Politics Instead Of Working

Harvard Professor Says It's Time To Ignore Woke Corporate Culture Warriors

Social Issues

Wall Street

Wokeness

One year after Dollar Tree announced a controversial move to increase <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/inflation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prices</a> to $1.25, the variety store chain appears to be succeeding despite a challenging <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">macroeconomic</a> environment.
The company’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dollar-tree-will-raise-prices-to-1-25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">first price hike</a> in nearly four decades came amid elevated inflation and permitted Dollar Tree, which also owns discount store chain Family Dollar, to expand merchandise offerings, even though share prices fell 11% upon the initial announcement of the pivot. According to the company’s <a href="https://corporate.dollartree.com/news-media/press-releases/detail/237/dollar-tree-inc-reports-results-for-the-third-quarter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">earnings report</a> for the third fiscal quarter, diluted earnings per share increased by 25% since the same period last year.
“Our third quarter sales performance reflects the timely execution of merchandising initiatives to drive our consumables business in this uncertain and inflationary environment,” Dollar Tree CEO Mike Witynski remarked. “Same-store sales for both segments improved from the prior quarter and delivered a sequential monthly improvement throughout the quarter. Shoppers are responding to our new value proposition at Family Dollar and Dollar Tree as we focus on driving both traffic and store productivity.”
Shares for Dollar Tree have risen more than 7% since the beginning of the year, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&amp;P 500 have respectively declined 6% and 16% over the same period. Dollar Tree plans to increase sales outlooks for the year.
“The efforts to evolve the assortment to drive consumables performance at Dollar Tree, combined with initiatives designed to improve the value proposition at Family Dollar, are working,” Witynski continued. “We believe we will continue to be part of the solution to millions of households seeking value at a time when they need us most.”
Consumers who solicit discount stores generally come from lower income households. Inflation has a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wharton-economist-warns-that-inflation-is-hitting-poor-americans-the-hardest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">greater impact</a> on such households, which generally allocate a greater portion of their monthly income to basic living expenses in comparison to wealthier families.
Price levels rose 7.7% year-over-year as of last month, according to a <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Elevated inflation will have a salient impact on the holiday season; retail sales during the critical period for American retailers are expected to grow between 6% and 8% since last year to possibly surpass $960 billion, according to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/rise-in-holiday-spending-to-be-outpaced-by-inflation-forecast-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the National Retail Federation, meaning that the nominally higher sales will be largely eclipsed by rising price levels.
Americans are nevertheless among the only citizens of developed nations planning to increase spending on Black Friday, according to a recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-black-friday-is-different-this-year-because-of-record-inflation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">analysis</a> from Boston Consulting Group. While Americans are predicted to spend 6% more, German and French shoppers will spend 15% less, while their counterparts in Australia and the United Kingdom will spend 18% less.
Evidence suggests that many American households have been spending beyond their means amid inflationary headwinds. The total level of consumer loans increased from $1.5 trillion at the beginning of last year to $1.8 trillion as of two months ago, according to <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CONSUMER" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, the personal savings rate has dropped from 20% to slightly more than 3% over the same period, according to <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PSAVERT" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, marking a significant decline from typical rates witnessed before the lockdown-induced recession.

US-INFLATION-ECONOMY-SHOPPING

Dollar Tree’s Controversial New $1.25 Price Point Is Actually Working

Dollar Tree's $1.25 Prices Are Reaping Massive Rewards

Economy

Inflation

Stock Market

Don’t expect the Left-wing press to admit it got snookered by a shibboleth-spewing schlub.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-got-overconfident-and-careless-sam-bankman-fried-reveals-what-went-wrong-with-ftx/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Sam Bankman-Fried</a>, who is accused of pulling off a Madoff-level investment scam, somehow still has the media in his otherwise empty pockets. Even his own shocking admission that his &#8220;woke&#8221; persona was as big a fraud as his cryptocurrency exchange may not be enough to stem the deluge of journalistic valentines.
SBF, as the friendly press likes to refer to the phony philanthropist, lost billions of dollars of his clients’ money. His company, FTX, helpfully held the coins of people who didn’t want to bother with “cold storage,” the complicated process of personally securing their crypto investments. Except he didn’t hold the money, he blew it. Oh, and SBF’s company FTX, had a crypto token of its own which appears to have been a total scam.
Now that SBF’s empire has crumbled and he may be prison-bound, you might think the financial press would turn on him. After all, he made them look like complete fools for buying his seemingly selfless pledges to give away a fortune once estimated at $25 billion to save the globe from global warming, pandemics, and evil conservatives.
But much of the media still seems to believe SBF is the good guy who slept on a beanbag chair in his office and eschewed respectable attire and personal hygiene to focus on solving the world’s problems. After all, this was the man who hobnobbed with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, donated about $30 million to Democrats for the midterms, and promised to give billions more to a host of causes. “Earning-to-give,” was his policy.
“If what you’re trying to do is donate, you should make as much as you can and give as much as you can,” Bankman-Fried told Recode last year.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
What are the leftist media hiding in their coverage of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX? 
Its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, was one of the biggest Democratic donors in the last election cycle – second only to George Soros. <a href="https://t.co/xigg7l6DcN">https://t.co/xigg7l6DcN</a>
&mdash; Media Research Center (@theMRC) <a href="https://twitter.com/theMRC/status/1593259641219194880?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 17, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
But now that he’s lost – or stolen — the money with which he was entrusted, SBF won’t be able to spend it to save humanity. A Washington Post headline on Wednesday lamented the price mankind may now pay because of SBF’s tragic plight.
“FTX collapse dooms founder’s effort to prevent another pandemic,” it read before someone at the newspaper that once called the head of ISIS an &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/58280/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">austere religious scholar</a>&#8221; mustered enough shame to change it to, “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/11/16/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-pandemic-prevention/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Before FTX collapse, founder poured millions into pandemic prevention</a>.”
A saccharinely soft New York Times interview with SBF was published Monday under the headline, “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/technology/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-crypto-bankruptcy.html#:~:text=How%20Sam%20Bankman-Fried’s%20Crypto%20Empire%20Collapsed%20Mr.%20Bankman-Fried,details%20about%20his%20handling%20of%20FTX%20customers’%20funds." target="_blank" rel="noopener">How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Crypto Empire Collapsed</a>.” A good editor might have distilled the answer down to something like, “He’s a crook,” or found a few places to deftly work the word “fraud” into the copy. A great editor might have sent it back to the writer with a subject line like, “WTF?”
No, the Old Gray Lady tied itself in knots portraying SBF as a well-meaning, big-hearted entrepreneur who maybe should have paid closer attention to his customers’ money. It didn’t press SBF on why he allegedly <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-behind-ftxs-fall-battling-billionaires-failed-bid-save-crypto-2022-11-10/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gave at least $4 billion of other people’s money</a> to a hedge fund run by his novice investor on-and-off girlfriend, who promptly lost it. There was nothing about SBF’s private jet and over $40 million Bahamas real estate portfolio, allegedly fraudulent bookkeeping, mysteriously wiped servers, or that “hack” that emptied the last $400 million from FTX coffers as the company collapsed.
It&#8217;s worth noting that SBF’s victims included not just big players like crypto lender BlockFi, which may soon file for bankruptcy because of its exposure to FTX, but a bunch of regular folks, too. SBF had a strategy of recruiting beloved sports stars like Tom Brady, Shaquille O’Neal, and Stephen Curry to make cryptocurrency investments appeal to everyday people.
The real SBF revealed himself this week in a Twitter direct message interview with Vox’s Kelsey Piper. The fawning media will hate reading what he said almost as much as SBF’s lawyers.
“Man all the dumb s*** I said,” Bankman-Fried wrote. “It&#8217;s not true, not really &#8230; some of this decade&#8217;s greatest heroes will never be known, and some of its most beloved people are basically shams.&#8221;
Piper prodded him: “You were really good at talking about ethics, for someone who kind of saw it all as a game with winners and losers.”
&#8216;Ya hehe &#8211; I had to be,” SBF replied. “It&#8217;s what reputations are made of, to some extent. I feel bad for those who get f***ed by it &#8230; by this dumb game we woke westerners play where we say all the right shiboleths and so everyone likes us.&#8221;
Next week, the New York Times and World Economic Forum partner Accenture plan to co-host <a href="https://twitter.com/loffredojeremy/status/1593115059819274240?s=20&amp;t=v-LlGfEcEmwO9SwpMqB4Ew" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a live event</a> featuring Sam Bankman-Fried, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen among others.
You would think one of those guests might be disinvited. Don’t be so sure.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Key Speakers At IIF Annual Membership Meeting

Shameless Media Just Can’t Quit Love Affair With Crypto Creep SBF

Shameless Media Just Can't Quit Love Affair With Crypto Creep SBF

Bitcoin

The city of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/san-francisco" target="_blank" rel="noopener">San Francisco</a> is offering a monthly stimulus program exclusively for transgender residents.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed announced that the city would begin accepting applications for the Guaranteed Income for Trans People (GIFT) program Wednesday. The program is exclusive to transgender residents of the city, and led by The Transgender District, a neighborhood of the city for transgender people; it will give 55 transgender residents $1,200 a month for up to 18 months. The move is allegedly part of an effort to advance equity for transgender people.
&#8220;Guaranteed Income for Transgender People (G.I.F.T.) will provide economically marginalized transgender people with unrestricted, monthly guaranteed income as a way to combat poverty our most impacted community members face,&#8221; a <a href="https://www.giftincome.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a> for the program reads. &#8220;The Transgender District and Lyon-Martin Community Health Services, in partnership with municipal city departments in the City and County of San Francisco, will provide 55 Transgender residents of San Francisco County with $1,200 a month in guaranteed income for a year and a half. The program will prioritize enrollment of Transgender, Non-Binary, Gender Non-Conforming, and Intersex (TGI) people who are also Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC), experiencing homelessness, living with disabilities and chronic illnesses, youth and elders, monolingual Spanish-speakers, and those who are legally vulnerable such as TGI people who are undocumented, engaging in survival sex trades, ​or are formerly incarcerated.&#8221;
The pilot program is the first of its kind, <a href="https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/san-francisco-launches-transgender-guaranteed-income-program/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KRON 4 News</a> reported. In addition to the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, the Office of Transgender Initiatives, and the Treasurer &amp; Tax Collector, the program is being led by Lyon-Martin Community Health Services and The Transgender District.
The payments will be regular and unconditional for qualified applicants to provide steady income for the recipients to spend as they see fit. The Mayor&#8217;s Office also said, via the outlet, that in addition to the temporary income, the program will also provide other resources such as so-called &#8220;gender affirming medical and mental health care,&#8221; as well as financial coaching.
On its website, the program announced it was accepting applications from November 15 to December 15.
“Our Guaranteed Income Programs allow us to help our residents when they need it most as part of our city’s economic recovery and our commitment to creating a more just city for all,” Breed told the outlet. “We know that our trans communities experience much higher rates of poverty and discrimination, so this program will target support to lift individuals in this community up.”
The city previously enacted a similar program to help starving artists affected by the COVID pandemic. According to a report from <a href="https://www.kqed.org/arts/13894521/san-francisco-launches-guaranteed-income-pilot-program-for-struggling-artists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KQED</a>, the “Guaranteed Income Pilot” program debuted on March 25, 2021. It gave 130 San Francisco-based artists $1,000 a month in income for six months, with no strings attached.
Earlier this year, the city of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chicago-rolls-out-lottery-system-giving-500-monthly-payments-to-residents-to-promote-equitable-recovery" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chicago</a> rolled out a similar guaranteed income program to promote &#8220;equitable recovery.&#8221; Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, along with Department of Family and Support Services Commissioner Brandie Knazze, announced the $31.5 million pilot program, called the “Chicago Resilient Communities Pilot,” which would give $500 monthly payments to 5,000 Chicago families for one year “to provide additional economic stability.”
The program was one of a number of initiatives within the city of Chicago’s $1.2 billion “Chicago Recovery Plan,” which was created “to promote safe and thriving communities and an equitable economic recovery from COVID-19.”

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San Francisco Launches Program To Pay Trans Residents $1,200 A Month For 18 Months

COVID-19

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San Francisco

Transgender

In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous Sherlock Holmes tale, Silver Blaze, the detective investigates the case of a murder of a horse trainer. At first, investigators presume that the murderer of the trainer must have been a stranger to him. But Holmes cracks the case with the revelation that a watchdog remained silent the night of the murder – a “curious incident,” as Holmes puts it, if the watchdog had been confronted by a stranger. No, Holmes concludes, the murderer must have been known to the watchdog.
We would do well to keep Holmes’ “curious incident” in mind when discussing the complete meltdown of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange run by Sam Bankman-Fried, a man who looks like he emerged from a laboratory dedicated to the manufacture of charlatans. Bankman-Fried was, at one point, worth some $26 billion; his exchange was the second-largest in the world. But he also bragged about never reading books (“I think, if you wrote a book, you f***ed up, and it should have been a six-paragraph blog post”); he lived in a “polycule” – a polyamorous semi-colony – along with nine of his executives; he wore gym shorts and t-shirts to important company events with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair; he placed at the head of human resources the girlfriend of the director of engineering and as chief operating officer his own intermittent girlfriend and as head of his associated hedge fund yet another intermittent girlfriend. 
The red flags were endless.
And yet the scam continued.
In the coverage of FTX’s meltdown, many in the media have been rather slow to ask a simple question: why didn’t anybody notice that SBF was one of the most obvious scam artists of all time? Perhaps it’s the insanity of the digital age, in which those fresh out of college can be assessed as billionaires without actually showing a balance sheet. But there’s something else going on here: SBF was a key cog in a political machine dedicated to the proposition that a coalition of like-minded Left-wingers can seize the reins of capitalist enterprise and then work with friends in government to reconstruct the world.
That, after all, was what SBF was publicly attempting to do. He dumped $40 million into the midterm elections in support of Democrats; he donated $5.2 million to Joe Biden during the 2020 election cycle. He had pledged the FTX foundation to hand out $1 billion in 2022. He did all of this in the name of supposed “effective altruism,” a philosophy in which Left-wingers seek to use capitalism in order to enrich themselves, then dump the money into favored causes. “I wanted to get rich, not because I like money but because I wanted to give that money to charity,” SBF told one interviewer. 
“Effective altruism” is just another iteration of the World Economic Forum-approved “stakeholder capitalism” idea – the idea that CEOs owe their shareholders nothing, but the world at large their time, money, and resources. There is a reason that FTX had partnered with WEF – a fact that WEF has now obscured by cleaning its website. 
How many scam artists are using such bluewashing in order to cover for malfeasance – all the while colluding with government figures to redraw regulations that benefit them? That, after all, was SBF’s biggest scam: he was an advocate of particular types of regulation that benefited him, and used both familial and business connections in order to protect his corporatism.
And that’s the dog that didn’t bark here: where were the regulators with whom SBF was close? Where were the supposed advocates of “ethical capitalism,” who posit social responsibility but whose friends seem to repeatedly be caught with their fingers in the cookie jar, dating all the way back to Bernie Madoff?
Maybe, just maybe, the problem isn’t with capitalism per se, and its chief admonition caveat emptor, its belief that trust is to be earned rather than granted freely. Maybe the problem is with a cadre of supposed protectors of the public who aren’t out to protect the public at all, but to hobnob with other “change agents” from Bahamian estates while patting themselves on the back for all the good they’re doing.

Ben Shapiro 5

The FTX Dog That Didn’t Bark

Ben Shapiro

Steve Jobs’ famous sandals have sold for a six-figure sum through an auction.
Steve Jobs, who founded tech company Apple, loved Birkenstocks sandals, and on Sunday, a buyer was able to purchase the shoes that he used in the 1970s and 1980s for $218,750, according to <a href="https://www.julienslive.com/lot-details/index/catalog/427/lot/193431?url=/auctions/catalog/id/427?page=1&amp;catm=any&amp;order=order_num&amp;xclosed=no&amp;featured=no&amp;key=steve+jobs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Julien’s Auctions</a>. The shoes were originally <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/15/steve-jobs-birkenstock-sandals-auction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">valued</a> at a much lower cost — around $60,000.
Mark Sheff, Steve Jobs’ residence manager, told Business Insider that he obtained the sandals and other things because Jobs “kept very few things.”
&#8220;We kept some, shared some with the landscapers and friends and brought some to Goodwill. The collection we ended up with is quite random,” he added.
The sandals have been on exhibit at several locations, and Jobs wore them at many important times in the life of Apple.
Jobs&#8217; former partner, Chrisann Brennan, discussed the sandals in an interview with Vogue.
“The sandals were part of his simple side. They were his uniform. The great thing about a uniform is that you don&#8217;t have to worry about what to wear in the morning,” she said.
&#8220;He would never have done or bought anything just to stand out from others. He was simply convinced of the intelligence and practicality of the design and the comfort of wearing it. And in Birkenstocks he didn&#8217;t feel likea [sic] businessman, so he had the freedom to think creatively,” she added.
“Steve Jobs wore these sandals during many pivotal moments in Apple’s history,” Julien’s Auctions said on its website. “In 1976, he hatched the beginnings of Apple computer in a Los Altos garage with Apple’s co-founder Steve Wozniak while occasionally wearing these sandals.”
According to Julien’s Auctions’ executive director Martin Nolan, per <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/11/15/1136637908/steve-jobs-auction-sandals-birkenstocks-apple" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NPR</a>, the price tag was the most anyone has ever shelled out at an auction for a pair of sandals. Nolan also said they sold in the past for only $2,000 in 2016 at an auction.
&#8220;Steve Jobs changed the world not only with his revolutionary innovations but with his business leadership style and fashion in wearing sandals,&#8221; Darren Julien, CEO and founder of Julien&#8217;s Auctions, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/style/article/steve-jobs-birkenstocks-auction-intl-scli/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> CNN in a statement earlier this week. &#8220;These beloved Birkenstocks were worn by Jobs as he made history in the making of the Apple computer and were the tech icon&#8217;s signature staple.”
Shoes have been sold for more than the Jobs’ sandals in the past. Last year, a pair of Nike Air Ships that were used by basketball player Michael Jordan went for $1.47 million, which is the most a pair of tennis shoes has ever sold for at auction.

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Steve Jobs’ Birkenstocks Sandals Sell For Six Figures

Steve Jobs' Birkenstocks Sandals Sell For Over $218,750

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Sam Bankman-Fried, the now-bankrupt founder of the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cryptocurrency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cryptocurrency</a> exchange FTX, gave a staggering sum of money to Democrats and far-left causes this midterm election cycle before his multi-billion dollar empire imploded this week.
FTX, which is headquartered in the Bahamas, was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/30-year-old-billionaire-loses-entire-fortune-overnight-as-his-bahamas-based-cryptocurrency-empire-implodes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launched</a> in 2019 and had accrued more than one million users by 2022. Users suddenly demanded $6 billion in withdrawals after an article published by CoinDesk revealed last week that the two arms of Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire, FTX and Alameda Research, had significant overlap on their balance sheets in the form of the cryptocurrency FTT, which FTX invented. Rival firm Binance, which had been planning to purchase FTX, announced that it would discharge all holdings in the coin and eventually reversed course on the acquisition.
The disheveled 30-year-old went from boasting a $15.6 billion net worth to having “no material wealth” over the span of approximately two days. Federal and state officials are now investigating whether Bankman-Fried broke laws with his actions at the company.
Bankman-Fried was the second largest donor for Democrats this last election cycle, only behind megadonor George Soros, giving at least $38 million to leftist causes, PACs, and candidates, Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/troubled-crypto-boss-sam-bankman-fried-lost-15b-week-funneled-millions-dems-far-left-causes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/10/crypto-megadonor-sam-bankman-fried-00066062" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that Bankman-Fried was a top resource to whom Democrats went when lawmakers began looking at ways to regulate cryptocurrencies because of &#8220;his willingness to write multimillion dollar checks to boost Democrats.&#8221;
Bankman-Fried <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/24/crypto-billionaire-says-he-could-spend-a-record-breaking-1-billion-in-2024-election.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> earlier this year that he was preparing to spend between $100 million and $1 billion on the presidential election in 2024 to keep Democrats in the White House.
“This is an absolutely stunning turnaround from somebody who was the darling of Washington policy circles,” said Blockchain Association Executive Director Kristin Smith. “It was built on a house of cards.”
Bankman-Fried had reportedly negotiated an emergency sale of the company to Binance, but the company backed out of it after digging into FTX&#8217;s books.
&#8220;As a result of corporate due diligence, as well as the latest news reports regarding mishandled customer funds and alleged US agency investigations, we have decided that we will not pursue the potential acquisition of FTX.com,&#8221; Binance said in a statement. &#8220;In the beginning, our hope was to be able to support FTX’s customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
In the beginning, our hope was to be able to support FTX’s customers to provide liquidity, but the issues are beyond our control or ability to help.
&mdash; Binance (@binance) <a href="https://twitter.com/binance/status/1590449164932243456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 9, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Bankman-Fried resigned from the company on Friday and claimed that he was &#8220;sorry&#8221; for what he did.
&#8220;I&#8217;m sorry. That&#8217;s the biggest thing. I f***ed up, and should have done better,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I sincerely apologize.&#8221;
Ben Zeisloft contributed to this report.

Billionaire FTX Founder Who Lost Entire Fortune Gave Massive Sum To Democrats Before Empire Collapsed

Billionaire

Democrats

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/cryptocurrency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cryptocurrency</a> exchange platform FTX experienced a liquidity crisis that led to the company’s bankruptcy and erased the fortune of Sam Bankman-Fried, its young billionaire founder.
FTX, which is headquartered in the Bahamas, was launched in 2019 and had accrued more than one million users by 2022. Users suddenly demanded $6 billion in withdrawals after an <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/02/divisions-in-sam-bankman-frieds-crypto-empire-blur-on-his-trading-titan-alamedas-balance-sheet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> published by CoinDesk revealed last week that the two arms of Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency empire, FTX and Alamada Research, had significant overlap on their balance sheets in the form of the cryptocurrency FTT, which FTX invented. Rival firm Binance, which had been <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/11/09/why-is-crypto-tanking-the-ftx-binance-drama-explained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">planning</a> to purchase FTX, announced that it would <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/09/binance-backs-out-of-ftx-rescue-leaving-the-crypto-exchange-on-the-brink-of-collapse.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">discharge</a> all holdings in the coin and eventually reversed course on the acquisition.
“Every time a major player in an industry fails, retail consumers will suffer,” Binance said in a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/09/binance-backs-out-of-ftx-rescue-leaving-the-crypto-exchange-on-the-brink-of-collapse.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>. “We have seen over the last several years that the crypto ecosystem is becoming more resilient and we believe in time that outliers that misuse user funds will be weeded out by the free market. As regulatory frameworks are developed and as the industry continues to evolve toward greater decentralization, the ecosystem will grow stronger.”
Bankman-Fried, who is 30 years old, went from boasting a $15.6 billion net worth to having “no material wealth,” according to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-11/bankman-fried-s-effective-altruism-implodes-with-his-fortunes#:~:text=The%20Bloomberg%20Billionaires%20Index%2C%20which,to%20have%20no%20material%20wealth.">data</a> from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The entrepreneur resigned on Friday as his company filed for bankruptcy. “I&#8217;m sorry. That&#8217;s the biggest thing,” the founder <a href="https://twitter.com/SBF_FTX/status/1590709166515310593" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on social media. “I f***ed up, and should have done better.”
Cryptocurrency, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-exactly-is-bitcoin-heres-how-the-worlds-largest-cryptocurrency-actually-works" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decentralized digital money</a> that can be transferred between users’ virtual wallets, has been the subject of skepticism from regulators over the past several years. The price of FTT fell from $23.53 on Sunday to $2.61 on Friday, while the price of Bitcoin dropped more than 20% over the past five days, reaching a price of $16,691.70 as of Friday afternoon.
FTX had been valuated at more than $30 billion before the sudden liquidity crisis. Sequoia Capital, one of the leading venture capital firms in Silicon Valley, announced a $150 million loss due to the collapse in a <a href="https://twitter.com/sequoia/status/1590522718650499073" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to investors defending the company’s due diligence process.
“We are in the business of taking risk. Some investments will surprise to the upside, and some will surprise to the downside,” the letter explained. “We do not take this responsibility lightly and do extensive research and thorough diligence on every investment we make.”
A number of lawmakers <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/11/10/ftx-collapse-sparks-alarm-from-us-lawmakers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> renewed pushes to investigate the sector after FTX filed for bankruptcy. &#8220;The events that have transpired this week reinforce the clear need for greater federal oversight of the digital asset industry,” Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) remarked.
“The recent collapse of FTX is a loud warning bell that cryptocurrencies can fail, and just like we saw with over-the-counter derivatives that led to a financial crisis, these failures can have a ripple effect on consumers and other parts of our financial system,” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) said in a statement. “The cryptocurrency market’s continued turmoil is why we must think carefully about how to regulate cryptocurrencies and their role in our economy.”

30-Year-Old Billionaire Loses Entire Fortune Overnight As His Bahamas-Based Cryptocurrency Empire Implodes

Crypto Exchange Implodes, Billionaire Founder Loses His Fortune

One lucky <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/california" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California</a> resident is about to be a whole lot richer.
According to the Powerball <a href="https://powerball.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a>, a single winner from California won the record-breaking $2 billion jackpot during Monday&#8217;s drawing. Lottery officials confirmed the lucky draw to the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-11-08/powerball-winner-jackpot-2-billion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Los Angeles Times</a>. The record-breaking figure was originally set at $1.9 billion dollars, but was readjusted to more than $2 billion after lottery officials adjusted their calculations; the jackpot has an approximate cash value of $997.6 million.
&#8220;California Lottery makes its FIRST EVER Billionaire!&#8221; the <a href="https://twitter.com/calottery/status/1590039368265523202?s=20&amp;t=-QXKrb9ctuZHHJ1DRrsCig" target="_blank" rel="noopener">California state lottery</a> announced on its Twitter account Tuesday. &#8220;One lucky ticket sold at Joe’s Service Center in Altadena matched all 6 numbers in the November 7 #Powerball draw. The final jackpot amount for this draw came to $2.04 BILLION dollars.&#8221; The lottery also announced that five players in Gardena, Beaumont, and San Francisco matched five numbers minus the Powerball, which awards a $1 million prize.
The winning numbers were 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56. The Powerball number was 10.
A spokeswoman for the California lottery told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/08/us/powerball-lottery-record-delayed-drawing-tuesday-trnd/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNN</a> Tuesday that the winner has yet to come forward. “Somebody is holding on to a very important piece of paper this morning,&#8221; lottery spokeswoman Carolyn Becker told CNN.
According to the Powerball website, in addition to the jackpot, one winner in Florida matched the five winning numbers with a Power Play bonus, doubling the prize amount to $2 million. On top of that, a total of 22 players in 16 states, including the five, won $1 million by matching the five winning numbers.
In addition to the winners, the owner of Joe&#8217;s Service Center, Joseph Chahayed, was also awarded $1 million for selling the winning ticket. “They said, ‘Congratulations, your station sent a winner,’” Chahayed recounted to CNN. The gas station owner is a Syrian native who immigrated to the U.S. in 1980 with his wife and two children. He has 11 grandchildren.
The prize was so large that California officials had to improvise their sign at Joe&#8217;s Service Center. Officials reportedly taped the letter &#8220;B&#8221; over the &#8220;Millionaire made here&#8221; sign given to stores where winning tickets are sold, so that it would read &#8220;Billionaire made here,&#8221; CNN reported.
The drawing was originally scheduled for Monday, but was delayed after the Minnesota lottery announced it was having an issue with its sales verification system that was causing processing delays. &#8220;The Powerball drawing scheduled for Monday, Nov. 7 remains delayed,&#8221; the Multi-State Lottery Association said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/calotterypress/status/1589882628748251136?s=20&amp;t=G_0lAvdehC_N8tfbnrXzQg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> at around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. &#8220;Currently, one participating lottery is still processing its sales and play data. Powerball requires all 48 participating lotteries to submit their sales and play data prior to the winning numbers being selected. Once Powerball receives the outstanding submission, the drawing can proceed.&#8221;
&#8220;Powerball has stringent security requirements to protect the integrity of the game and remains committed to holding a drawing that gives all players a fair chance to win,&#8221; the organization added. &#8220;Due to the length of the draw delay, it is likely that we will not know the official results of the Powerball drawing until Tuesday morning. Players should hold onto their tickets.&#8221;
The Multi-State Lottery Association said that the current jackpot hit on the 41st draw of the run. It was the sixth time the Powerball jackpot hit this year; the last time was on August 3, when a player in Pennsylvania won $206.9 million, <a href="https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/powerball-jackp0t-winner-pennsylvania/3325701/#:~:text=A%20single%20ticket%20matching%20the,a%20Westmoreland%20County%2C%20Pennsylvania%2C%20Sheetz" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NBC 10 Philadelphia</a> reported at the time. The previous record Powerball jackpot hit in January 2016, when three winners in California, Florida, and Tennessee split a $1.586 billion jackpot; each person walked away with nearly $529 million, before taxes.

Powerball card

Single Powerball Player In California Wins $2 Billion Jackpot

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