An Economy Built on Speculation—for Better and for Worse

WSJ What’s News

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News

4 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 October 2025

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From the land mania following the Revolutionary War to the AI craze now, speculation is in the American economy's DNA. These kinds of big bets have shaped our present and continue to fuel tomorrow's economic growth. Host Katherine Sullivan unpacks the past and future of American speculators. This episode is part of The Wall Street Journal’s USA250: The Story of the World’s Greatest Economy, a collection of articles, videos and podcasts aiming to offer a deeper understanding of how America has evolved. Further Reading: From Sports to AI, America Is Awash in Speculative Fever. Washington Is Egging It On. Capitalism and Democracy Often Clash in America. They Usually End Up Better for It. Financial Bubbles Happen Less Often Than You Think Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:24.8	Either this is a bubble or I am going to be a trillionaire. Like there's no two ways about it.
0:33.5	Imagine if one day your side hobby suddenly became something that people started spending millions of dollars on.
0:40.7	That's basically what happened to Mike Winkleman.
0:43.4	And it was just like, wait, what?
0:45.4	Like, people are paying collecting JPEGs?
0:49.7	Paying money for JPEGs?
0:52.6	Winkleman is a 44-year-old father of two originally from Wisconsin.
0:57.0	He started making digital art in 1999 when he was a freshman in college, long before something
1:02.6	called an NFT existed.
1:05.0	The JPEG files he made on his computer were never something he thought would make him rich.
1:10.2	Was it something that you thought you would make a living on?
1:13.0	No, 100% not.
1:15.0	It wasn't something I saw any way of making a living on.
1:18.6	But Winkleman kept at it for the next 20 years, working in web and graphic design,
1:23.6	while making art on the side as a passion project, under the name Beeple.
1:28.5	His images were surreal, futuristic, and irreverent,
1:31.8	often depicting people and themes from news and pop culture.
	...

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