What Ben McKenzie Learned When He Started Investigating Crypto
Odd Lots
Bloomberg
4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 29 June 2023
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When the pandemic struck in 2020, the actor Ben McKenzie (who you might know from The OC and Gotham) had a lot of time on his hands. And like a lot of people, he suddenly got interested in crypto when an old friend of his pushed him to buy some Bitcoin. But unlike a lot of other people, McKenzie didn't rush out to buy it. Instead, he dusted off his old economics degree and decided to learn about how the industry really works. And what he learned shocked him. So he (along with his co-author Jacob Silverman) spent the last few years writing a new book titled Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and The Golden Age Of Fraud. In an interview conducted live at the Bloomberg Invest summit, McKenzie explains why he thinks the industry is rotten and corrupt and designed in a way to enrich a small group of insiders at the expense of a large, misinformed and desperate public.
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| 0:57.3 | Hello Odd Lodz fans, this is a special episode of the podcast that was recorded June 8th at the Bloomberg Invest Conference. |
| 1:17.5 | Our guest, Ben McKenzie, he's a well-known actor, you might remember him from the OC, |
| 1:22.1 | and he's the author of a forthcoming book called Easy Money about his journey into the world of cryptocurrency. |
| 1:28.4 | Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lodz podcast, I'm Jill Wyzenthal. |
| 1:33.4 | And I'm Tracy Alloway. |
| 1:34.7 | Tracy, you know, that intro video they showed, you know, used our line The Perfect Guest, but this week, |
| 1:40.2 | of all weeks, we have a really good guest. |
| 1:42.1 | Yeah, this week it's actually true. |
| 1:43.8 | We're going to be talking crypto. |
| 1:45.2 | Actually, was someone who you wouldn't necessarily expect to be the perfect guest to discuss crypto? |
| 1:50.8 | No, but he is, so obviously this week we're recording it the same week after the SEC filed suits |
| 1:56.9 | against both Coinbase and Binance. |
| 1:59.3 | So we're going to be speaking with Ben McKenzie, a well-known actor and the author of the forthcoming |
| 2:04.9 | book Easy Money, cryptocurrency, casino capitalism and the golden age of fraud. |
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