Burke Koonce and John Fichthorn discuss the latest topics of interest in politics, financial markets, and the cultural forces that shape the world around us. This is the first episode of Season Three.

Hedge fund veteran John, who regularly appears on financial news networks, and longtime Wall Street analyst Burke, who runs the Capitalism Maven site for TheStreet.com, have a long history together discussing markets, politics and contemporary subjects. These discussions sometimes get made into films such as Betting On Zero, and as of last March, Gaming Wall Street, now on HBO Max.

In this new episode, Season Three begins with the same theme that prevailed at the end of Season Two--trouble in crypto land. When Season Two ended, TerraUSD had just collapsed--a stablecoin that wasn't so stable. Well, the past was prologue--the so-called J.P. Morgan of crypto has just lost $16 billion in about three business days. Turns out SBF, the FTX pioneer, might not have been the elder statesman of crypto he held himself out to be. Who could have guessed? 

We take the deep dive into SBF and team's sudden and extremely goofy failure. Maybe de-fi isn't so de-fi? More like fi in search of a regulated version of itself--it's a cartoon version of finance. 

And of course, no episode of the Betting On Zero podcast would be complete without us bashing Russia. Things suddenly really seem to be breaking Ukraine's way. Imagine a world in which Russia and Iran have collapsed and swoon westward; it'd be interesting. 

Tune in to hear more about what's happening in the always exciting financial markets, and enjoy!