Issue No. 311 October to 17 October 2026
From ZIRP to SVB to Figma, and the teenagers asking whether college is worth the wait.
Money, manias and the young
In this issue
Leaders
-
NFTs and ownership
Right-click, save
The $69.3m paid for Beeple's collage buys a verifiable record of who owns a picture the whole world can still look at, which is a real novelty but not remotely worth the price, and buyers should insist on being told what the receipt actually covers
11 March 2021
-
Archegos and the banks
Margin for error
The collapse of Archegos shows that banks, not regulators, were the only ones who could see a family office's leveraged swaps, and the law should make them say what they see
30 March 2021
-
Rivian's listing
If you build it
Investors who pay a Detroit-sized price for a firm that has delivered 156 pickups are buying a story, and should demand that the story be audited like a factory.
10 November 2021
-
Algorithmic stablecoins
Dollar days
Congress should stop letting tokens that promise a dollar without holding one call themselves stable, and write rules by what a coin promises rather than by who issues it.
13 May 2022
-
Klarna and credit
Owe, owe, owe
Klarna's listing at a third of its private-market peak shows that buy-now-pay-later is a lender's business, and its customers and regulators should treat it as one
10 September 2025
Business & Finance
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Student founders · Terman
Tune in, drop out
Student debt makes skipping university look shrewd, but the best evidence says successful founders are closer to 45 than 19, so the case for dropping out is narrower than its fans claim.
16 August 2019
-
WeWork · Giannini
Out of office
The collapse of WeWork's flotation is not a failure of public markets but their finest hour: investors read the prospectus and declined.
30 September 2019
-
Campuses close · Terman
Zoom, zoom, zoom
The class of 2020 is learning that a degree bundles a lecture with a place and a crowd, and universities should now say which parts of the bill they are still delivering.
20 March 2020
-
Quibi · Giannini
Short, sharp, shut
Quibi's failure is not a verdict on short video but on a business that spent $1.75bn before asking anyone what they wanted.
22 October 2020
-
Retail trading · Giannini
Short changed
Robinhood's curbs on GameStop were forced by plumbing, not conspiracy, but a market whose settlement lags its apps has no business promising instant access.
29 January 2021
-
SPACs and the SEC · Giannini
Warrant officers
The SEC staff's warrant ruling is a footnote with teeth, and the SPAC boom should be allowed to cool under it.
13 April 2021
-
Coinbase's listing · Giannini
Going direct
Coinbase has shown that a company can go public without paying a bank to guess its price, but the first day showed how much guessing the market itself does.
14 April 2021
-
Venture capital · Giannini
The roaring 2021s
Startups have raised more in nine months than in any full year before, and the boom rests on a price of money that is about to change.
14 October 2021
-
FTX · Giannini
Token gesture
FTX's collapse needs no new crypto law, only the enforcement of old rules about whose money is whose, and a little more suspicion from investors.
11 November 2022
-
ChatGPT in schools · Terman
Cheat sheet
New York's ban on ChatGPT protects nothing it claims to protect, and schools would do better to teach pupils to catch the bot's mistakes than to pretend it is not there.
6 January 2023
-
Skipping university · Terman
Class dismissed
Americans are leaving college and starting firms at record rates, and cheap AI will make that trade more tempting, but a degree remains the better bet for most would-be founders.
8 February 2023
-
Silicon Valley Bank · Giannini
A run for their money
Washington was right to protect SVB's depositors, but startups should learn the lesson that rescue cannot teach them.
13 March 2023
-
Instacart's IPO · Giannini
Cart blanche
Instacart's listing proves that the window for technology flotations is open again, but only for firms willing to accept what the market will pay.
19 September 2023
-
Bitcoin ETFs · Giannini
Coin of the realm
The SEC was right to let spot bitcoin ETFs trade, but it should stop pretending a court did not force its hand.
11 January 2024
-
Reddit's IPO · Giannini
Upvoted
Reddit was right to let its users buy in, but a flotation that leaves control with insiders is a poll in which only some votes count.
21 March 2024
-
Thiel Fellowship · Terman
Double or quits
Peter Thiel has doubled the price of dropping out just as AI makes small teams mighty, yet students are drifting back to campus, and on the evidence they are right to.
22 May 2025
-
Initial public offerings · Giannini
Pop idol
Figma's dazzling debut shows that public investors want good startups, and that bankers still struggle to price them.
31 July 2025
-
AI and young workers · Terman
Canary in the cubicle
A Stanford study finds that young workers in AI-exposed jobs are being hired less, which is worth taking seriously, but the evidence is too thin to justify rules against the technology.
28 August 2025
Policy & Regulation
-
Foreign students and America · Terman
Leave to remain
America nearly told 1.1m international students to go home over a technicality, and the founders it would have lost are worth far more than the rule's tidiness.
14 July 2020
-
Student loans and the courts · Terman
Debt of honour
The Supreme Court was right to stop the president cancelling $400bn of student debt by himself, but Congress should now fix the lending that created the debt instead of sending taxpayers the bill.
30 June 2023
-
California's school phones · Terman
Calling time
California is right to make every district write a phone policy, and right to stop there; the next generation of founders will need its attention more than its apps.
23 September 2024
-
Australia's social-media ban · Terman
Sweet sixteen
Australia's under-16 ban answers a real collective-action problem, but it fines platforms for an age check nobody has yet shown can work, and should have waited for the trial.
29 November 2024
Youth
-
Teens and chatbots
Dog ate my homework
More than half of American teenagers now use chatbots for schoolwork, and schools that treat this as a cheating epidemic are measuring the wrong thing.
24 February 2026
-
Anysphere and Cursor
Cursor on the quad
Four MIT students built one of the fastest-growing software firms on record, then sold it to a buyer with its own models, which shows how thin the moat was.
14 August 2026
-
Prediction markets
Swap meet
Raising the minimum age on Kalshi to 21 would be tidy and mostly beside the point, because the product is a sportsbook with a federal licence and its youngest customers are its smallest problem.
9 October 2026
-
AI side hustles
Selling the shovels
The surest earner in the AI-business boom is the person selling the course, and young would-be founders should price the pitch by the regulators' record, not by the screenshots.
15 October 2026
-
Teen fintech
Cards on the table
Banking apps for teenagers teach money management about as well as financial education ever has, which is to say barely, and their real product is a customer who stays until 18 and beyond.
17 October 2026
The world this week
Student founders. Student debt makes skipping university look shrewd, but the best evidence says successful founders are closer to 45 than 19, so the case for dropping out is narrower than its fans claim. Read more on Tune in, drop out
WeWork. The collapse of WeWork's flotation is not a failure of public markets but their finest hour: investors read the prospectus and declined. Read more on Out of office
Campuses close. The class of 2020 is learning that a degree bundles a lecture with a place and a crowd, and universities should now say which parts of the bill they are still delivering. Read more on Zoom, zoom, zoom
Foreign students and America. America nearly told 1.1m international students to go home over a technicality, and the founders it would have lost are worth far more than the rule's tidiness. Read more on Leave to remain
Quibi. Quibi's failure is not a verdict on short video but on a business that spent $1.75bn before asking anyone what they wanted. Read more on Short, sharp, shut
Retail trading. Robinhood's curbs on GameStop were forced by plumbing, not conspiracy, but a market whose settlement lags its apps has no business promising instant access. Read more on Short changed
NFTs and ownership. The $69.3m paid for Beeple's collage buys a verifiable record of who owns a picture the whole world can still look at, which is a real novelty but not remotely worth the price, and buyers should insist on being told what the receipt actually covers Read more on Right-click, save
Archegos and the banks. The collapse of Archegos shows that banks, not regulators, were the only ones who could see a family office's leveraged swaps, and the law should make them say what they see Read more on Margin for error
SPACs and the SEC. The SEC staff's warrant ruling is a footnote with teeth, and the SPAC boom should be allowed to cool under it. Read more on Warrant officers
Coinbase's listing. Coinbase has shown that a company can go public without paying a bank to guess its price, but the first day showed how much guessing the market itself does. Read more on Going direct
Venture capital. Startups have raised more in nine months than in any full year before, and the boom rests on a price of money that is about to change. Read more on The roaring 2021s
Rivian's listing. Investors who pay a Detroit-sized price for a firm that has delivered 156 pickups are buying a story, and should demand that the story be audited like a factory. Read more on If you build it
Algorithmic stablecoins. Congress should stop letting tokens that promise a dollar without holding one call themselves stable, and write rules by what a coin promises rather than by who issues it. Read more on Dollar days
FTX. FTX's collapse needs no new crypto law, only the enforcement of old rules about whose money is whose, and a little more suspicion from investors. Read more on Token gesture
ChatGPT in schools. New York's ban on ChatGPT protects nothing it claims to protect, and schools would do better to teach pupils to catch the bot's mistakes than to pretend it is not there. Read more on Cheat sheet
Skipping university. Americans are leaving college and starting firms at record rates, and cheap AI will make that trade more tempting, but a degree remains the better bet for most would-be founders. Read more on Class dismissed
Silicon Valley Bank. Washington was right to protect SVB's depositors, but startups should learn the lesson that rescue cannot teach them. Read more on A run for their money
Student loans and the courts. The Supreme Court was right to stop the president cancelling $400bn of student debt by himself, but Congress should now fix the lending that created the debt instead of sending taxpayers the bill. Read more on Debt of honour
Instacart's IPO. Instacart's listing proves that the window for technology flotations is open again, but only for firms willing to accept what the market will pay. Read more on Cart blanche
Bitcoin ETFs. The SEC was right to let spot bitcoin ETFs trade, but it should stop pretending a court did not force its hand. Read more on Coin of the realm
Reddit's IPO. Reddit was right to let its users buy in, but a flotation that leaves control with insiders is a poll in which only some votes count. Read more on Upvoted
California's school phones. California is right to make every district write a phone policy, and right to stop there; the next generation of founders will need its attention more than its apps. Read more on Calling time
Australia's social-media ban. Australia's under-16 ban answers a real collective-action problem, but it fines platforms for an age check nobody has yet shown can work, and should have waited for the trial. Read more on Sweet sixteen
Thiel Fellowship. Peter Thiel has doubled the price of dropping out just as AI makes small teams mighty, yet students are drifting back to campus, and on the evidence they are right to. Read more on Double or quits
Initial public offerings. Figma's dazzling debut shows that public investors want good startups, and that bankers still struggle to price them. Read more on Pop idol
AI and young workers. A Stanford study finds that young workers in AI-exposed jobs are being hired less, which is worth taking seriously, but the evidence is too thin to justify rules against the technology. Read more on Canary in the cubicle
Klarna and credit. Klarna's listing at a third of its private-market peak shows that buy-now-pay-later is a lender's business, and its customers and regulators should treat it as one Read more on Owe, owe, owe
Teens and chatbots. More than half of American teenagers now use chatbots for schoolwork, and schools that treat this as a cheating epidemic are measuring the wrong thing. Read more on Dog ate my homework
Anysphere and Cursor. Four MIT students built one of the fastest-growing software firms on record, then sold it to a buyer with its own models, which shows how thin the moat was. Read more on Cursor on the quad
Prediction markets. Raising the minimum age on Kalshi to 21 would be tidy and mostly beside the point, because the product is a sportsbook with a federal licence and its youngest customers are its smallest problem. Read more on Swap meet
AI side hustles. The surest earner in the AI-business boom is the person selling the course, and young would-be founders should price the pitch by the regulators' record, not by the screenshots. Read more on Selling the shovels
Teen fintech. Banking apps for teenagers teach money management about as well as financial education ever has, which is to say barely, and their real product is a customer who stays until 18 and beyond. Read more on Cards on the table