I learned everything I needed to know to understand the crypto-crisis and the great financial crisis from the Savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s.

For those too young to remember, I suppose it might be useful to resurface the paper that George Akerlof and I wrote three decades ago:

When the smoke (and mirrors) clear

Compared to their predecessors, the cryto-grifters have been pretty good at obfuscation. But in the end, looting is looting.

If you are surprised that the boy genius of the crypto world has morphed into another suspect on the run or puzzled that crypto assets disappear so frequently via mysterious “hacks,” it might be helpful to read how Michael Milken, the boy genius of the 1980s, used a network of savings and loans to manipulate the returns on junk debt he was underwriting.

But I will at least give Bankman-Fried credit for having some awareness of events that took place before he was born. His attorney is Martin Flumenbaum, who also defended Milken.