Narc of the week
I saw a combination halal cart/mobile weed bodega on my way to the subway yesterday. It was magnificent. It was illegal.
Puff, that sounds dope, where is it?
I’m not telling! Why? Because I don’t know who reads this newsletter, and I’m not a narc!
Why do we have a whole weekly section dedicated to narcs around here? Because narcs are agents of the long-standing drug war in this country, a war that has caused immeasurable harm to predominantly BIPOC communities.
We can use ‘narc’ as more than just the sobriquet for federal drug enforcement agents. Complain about your neighbor smoking a joint? Narc. Whine about other folks selling weed while taking money from Russian oligarchs? Narc. Rat out a combination halal cart/mobile weed bodega? Narc.
The point is, what we say, and who we say it to, matters. I should know. Last week I was just a simple newsletter proprietor, but this week…
ANNOUNCEMENT
I’m still just a simple newsletter proprietor, but now I’m doing it full time! Why? Because of a few words Matt Levine put in his inimitable newsletter about Money Puff. Thank you to everyone’s who’s subscribed — and be sure to puff, puff, pass this along. And since I’ll be doing this full time now…
ANOTHER ANNOUNCEMENT
I started another newsletter. It’s called Fintech Findings.
But Puff, it’s not hard to believe you’re a stoner, what with all your typos and long-winded ramblings and such. But why should we believe you’re a fintech expert too?
Well, don’t take my word for it; take Matt Levine’s. Yesterday, he dedicated the top section of his world-renowned financial newsletter to describe Goldman Sachs’ consumer banking strategy. A core part of that strategy is (was?) GreenSky, which Goldman bought back in 2021. And who worked on that deal?
That’s right — your resident financial blogger. I was a fintech banker from 2019-2021, when it was the biggest sector in the world. A lot of buzzy startups raised obscene amounts of money to ‘disrupt’ the trillion-dollar financial services industry. Some were bought by big financial institutions. Some have lost a lot of money. Some turned out to be fraud.
Goldman and Prudential’s splashy acquisitions are faltering. Stripe — once the most valuable private company on earth — is raising a massive down round; Klarna and Affirm’s valuations have cratered. And FTX… well, yeah. In the same way we’ve been talking about cannabis over at Money Puff, I hope to use Fintech Findings to bring you valuable analysis and insights on this emerging and evolving sector.
Can’t wait to see you there — thank you for reading!