⭐⭐ Going Infinite by Lewis
| Full Title | Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon |
|---|---|
| Authors | Michael Lewis |
| Year Published | 2023 |
| Date Read | November 20, 2023 |
| Rating | 2/5 stars |
The first ~20% of this book was nearly insufferable and I almost put it down then. Perhaps that was the proper decision, because while it got a bit better, overall I came away quite disappointed.
As others have said, I think Lewis was far too credulous of SBF’s claims and towards the end of the book it is clear the time the author spent with the subject tied Lewis too much to SBF’s version of events. That’s one of the big issues here — there isn’t really a multi-faceted view of what happened, mostly one from SBF himself and then only towards the last chapter one from the incoming FTX CEO (John Ray).
My other big issue with the book is that we get no more clarity on how the fall happened or where the creditor money actually went. It’s really hard to parse here but it seems like it was a combination of hackers, extremely poor internal controls, and a complete lack of concern for investment risk on the part of SBF. Perhaps the profits from Alameda and the
investigations of Ray will ultimately be able to recover most of the funds, but it’s still insane to think that there wasn’t even completely rudimentary tracking of assets and liabilities.
I think the best part of the book is the middle third, where Lewis focuses on Jane Street and the mechanics of firms like it — if you’ve got recommendations for a text on this, I’d be interested. However, overall I think this is quite a poor showing for Lewis and the way that the subject is treated makes me start to question his competence on his previous reporting on finance, like Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt or The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine.