I think it's a pretty good rule of thumb that if you encounter somebody who claims that they can solve a social problem using cryptocurrency or blockchain, what that means is that they neither understand cryptocurrency nor the social problem that they're describing.

Economic historian Trevor Jackson joins This is Hell! to discuss two recent pieces: "Overproduction and Its Discontents: Capitalism's inherent predilection for excess" in Baffler Magazine and "The Price of Crypto: Despite its boosters' frequent references to democracy and freedom, cryptocurrency reflects a radical marketization of politics in which major players can rewrite the rules as needed" in the New York Review of Books.
You can find the Baffler article here: https://thebaffler.com/latest/overproduction-and-its-discontents-jackson
You can find the New York Review of Books article here: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/06/08/the-price-of-crypto-the-cryptopians-laura-shin/

Guest

Trevor Jackson

Trevor Jackson is assistant professor of economic history at George Washington University. His first book, Impunity and Capitalism: The Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1680-1830 (2022), is available from Cambridge University Press.

"The Economy" is Hell: On Overproduction and Crypto / Trevor Jackson

Trevor Jackson