Pitchfork Economics with Nick Hanauer11 Marras 2025

Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud (with Ben McKenzie)

Actor and author Ben McKenzie didn’t set out to become one of crypto’s fiercest critics—but when the pandemic hit and Hollywood shut down, his curiosity turned into a full-blown investigation. The result was the bestselling book, Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, a blistering exposé of the crypto craze as “casino capitalism” at its dumbest. In this episode, McKenzie joins Nick and Goldy to explain how the industry turned hype and libertarian fantasy into a trillion-dollar bubble, why the true believers won’t let go, and how fake “innovation” and corporate lobbying are putting the entire financial system at risk. They dig into the cult psychology of crypto, the rise of legalized gambling as an addiction economy, and why letting corporations issue their own “money” could end in disaster. Ben McKenzie is an actor, author, and director best known for his roles on The O.C., Southland, and Gotham. He holds a degree in economics and foreign affairs from the University of Virginia. McKenzie has become one of the most prominent critics of the cryptocurrency industry, co-authoring the book Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud with journalist Jacob Silverman. The premiere of Everyone is Lying to You For Money is on Sunday, November 16, 2025, in New York City. Get tickets at DOCNYC.net. Social Media: @benmckenzie.bsky.social mrbenmckenzie @ben_mckenzie Further reading: Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud When Prophecy Fails Mistakes Were Made (but Not By Me) New York Magazine: ⁠Congress Just Injected Crypto Directly Into the Most Stable Part of the Economy What could go wrong? Website: http://pitchforkeconomics.com Instagram: @pitchforkeconomics Threads: pitchforkeconomics Bluesky: @pitchforkeconomics.bsky.social Twitter: @PitchforkEcon, @NickHanauer YouTube: @pitchforkeconomics LinkedIn: Pitchfork Economics Substack: ⁠The Pitch⁠

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Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics: Shareholder Value (with William Lazonick and Lenore Palladino)

This week, we’re continuing our archive miniseries, Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics, with the myth that corporations exist to maximize shareholder value. For decades, Americans were sold the ...

30 Kesä 47min

Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics: Regulations Kill Growth (with Robert Reich)

This week, we’re kicking off our archive miniseries, Myths That Built Trickle-Down Economics, with one of the most persistent myths in American politics: that regulation kills growth. Corporate lobby...

23 Kesä 39min

AI Job Loss Is Real. The Catastrophe Is Optional (with Kathryn Edwards)

AI doomsdayers want us to believe mass job loss would be unprecedented. But Kathryn Anne Edwards has a sharp reminder: In the first five weeks of the pandemic, the U.S. economy shed 22.5 million jobs—...

16 Kesä 38min

The Policy Choices That Suppressed American Wages (with Josh Bivens and Larry Mishel)

Why have wages for working Americans stagnated for decades—even as productivity, corporate profits, and the wealth of the people at the top continued to rise? The mainstream explanations are familiar...

9 Kesä 38min

Market Humanism: A New Operating System for the Economy (with Nick Hanauer)

For the first time in Pitchfork Economics history, Nick Hanauer is on the other side of the mic. Goldy and Paul sit down with Nick to discuss Market Humanism: the emerging economic paradigm he and Er...

2 Kesä 56min

What Comes After Neoliberalism? (with Nick Hanauer & Eric Beinhocker)

This week, we’re sharing a special episode from Washington Monthly featuring Pitchfork Economics co-host Nick Hanauer and Oxford professor Eric Beinhocker in conversation with Anne Kim about Market Hu...

26 Touko 31min

The Worker Power Missing From the Abundance Debate (with Kate Andrias and Alexander Hertel-Fernandez)

Everyone wants more housing, more clean energy, more transit, more care infrastructure, and more of the things people need to live good lives. But too much of the “abundance” debate treats workers, un...

19 Touko 34min

How the AI Oligarchy Went Hyperscale (with Tim Murphy)

The AI “cloud” sounds weightless. But behind every chat bot, every prompt, and every promise of a coming AI revolution is a massive physical footprint: hyperscale data centers consuming enormous amoun...

12 Touko 38min