Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud

(Hardback)

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At the height of the pandemic, TV star Ben McKenzie (The O.C., Gotham) was the perfect mark for cryptocurrency: a dad stuck at home with some cash in his pocket, worried about his family, armed with only the vague notion that people were making heaps of money on something he-despite a degree in economics-didn't entirely understand. Lured in by the promise of taking power from banks, possibly improving democracy, and sure, a touch of FOMO, McKenzie dove deep into blockchain, Bitcoin, and the various other coins and exchanges on which they are traded.

But after scratching the surface, he had to ask, "Am I crazy, or is this all a total scam" In Easy Money, McKenzie enlists the help of journalist Jacob Silverman for a caper and expos that points in shock to the climactic final days of cryptocurrency now upon us. Weaving together stories of average traders and victims, colorful crypto "visionaries," Hollywood's biggest true believers, anti-crypto whistleblowers, and government agents searching for solutions at the precipice of a major crash, Easy Money is an on-the-ground look at a perfect storm of 2008 Housing Bubble-level irresponsibility and criminal fraud potentially ten times more devastating than Bernie Madoff.

Reviews

If you're looking for a smart, savvy road map through the mayhem of the cryptocurrency madness, Easy Money is the guidebook for you. Ben McKenzie has given us a wry and knowing saga of his personal quest to expose the crypto charlatans, and his sleuthing uncovers a world of frauds, true believers, and opportunists that you won't soon forget. * Ron Chernow, Pulitzer Prizewinning and New York Times bestselling author of Alexander Hamilton and The House of Morgan *
Ben McKenzie takes us on an amazing journey, guiding us through the astounding story of how a bizarre cast of swindlers and scammers persuaded millions of people to take leave of their senses and part with trillions of dollars, only to put them into the surreal and illusory world of so called crypto assets and watch them vanish into thin air. When it is all over, the last couple of years will prove to have been one of the strangest episodes in the history of money. * Liaquat Ahamed, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of Lords of Finance *
Ben McKenzie's Easy Money is a perfectly timed page-turner that gets to the heart of the fundamental scam that was (and is) the mania around cryptocurrency. It's a devastatingly well-told story of greed, con men, and endless gullibility. McKenzie goes down the rabbit hole, only to become a full-throated skeptic who then takes us along on his journey of enlightenment and discovery, proving once again that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. * William D. Cohan New York Times bestselling author of Power Failure and House of Cards *
Superb . . . the terrible story of our economic times. * Julian Zelizer, coeditor of Myth America and professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University *
Easy Money is a deceptively ambitious projectat once a riveting account of the financial crime of the century, and a thoughtful meditation on the nature of democracy and what we owe each other. * Zachary Carter, author of The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes *
Easy Money is a smart, fast-paced, and timely expos of corporate greed, fraud, and incompetence masquerading as genius. Simultaneously illuminating and infuriating, authors McKenzie and Silvermans page-turning book goes on a global journey to explain how crypto is the latest Ponzi scheme orchestrated to seduce and defraud the masses while benefitting the very few. * Wajahat Ali, author of Go Back to Where You Came From *
The perfect guide to the recent bitcoin hysteria. gripping. * Financial Times *
One of the golden rules of finance is never invest in something you dont understand. This book shows what happens when you ignore it. * Times of London *
Easy Money is the delightful story of how actor Ben McKenzie and journalist Jacob Silverman realized long before most of the rest of us that cryptocurrency was a scam, and set out to take it and all of its promoters down. One part travelogue and one part anatomy of a fraud, its a must-read for anyone who wants to understand what the hell happenedand how human nature works when theres money to be made. * Bethany McLean, New York Times-bestselling author of The Smartest Guys in the Room and The Big Fail *

Author Bio

Ben McKenzie has been a fixture on TV for more than two decades, first capturing audiences in the pop culture phenomenon The O.C. Recently, he played the lead role on Foxs hit series Gotham, for which he also directed and wrote episodes. In 2020, he starred in Grand Horizons, which received a Tony Award nomination for Best New Play. McKenzie graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in economics and foreign affairs.
Jacob Silverman is a journalist in New York who writes about tech, crypto, and politics. He is the author of Terms of Service: Social Media and the Price of Constant Connection. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Republic, the Washington Post, and many other publications.