I have not yet read Michael Lewis’ book, “The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine,” but it seems unlikely that the author expressed much sympathy for those involved in the United States housing bubble before the 2008 financial crisis. However, in his latest book, “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon,” Lewis takes a different approach with former FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), painting a relatively positive picture of him.
In this new book, published on Oct. 3, Lewis reveals many previously unknown details about the downfall of FTX. This includes SBF’s attempt to pay former President Donald Trump to not run for office again, as well as writing a list of pros and cons for former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison about their sexual relationship. However, what is most striking about the book is not the background information on Bankman-Fried, but rather the focus on how SBF’s mind works when it comes to money and his interactions with others.
Lewis dedicates an entire chapter to exploring SBF’s motivations behind effective altruism, which is the belief that people should accumulate wealth in order to make the world a better place by giving it away. This theme runs throughout the book, portraying SBF as someone who gathered a group of effective altruists with little or no experience in crypto or finance to launch Alameda and FTX, positioning them as crusaders working towards a noble cause. However, this narrative largely ignores the negative consequences for FTX users who lost their savings when the exchange collapsed.
When FTX declared bankruptcy in November 2022, many people were deeply affected both financially and emotionally. Some media outlets had portrayed SBF as a rising star who could bridge the gap between crypto and traditional finance, and FTX held billions of dollars from retail investors. Unless these investors were able to quickly withdraw their funds as the exchange spiraled downward, most have been unable to access their money for months.
According to the book, Ellison’s farewell message to Alameda employees after the collapse seemed uncaring and disconnected from the reality of people losing their jobs, money, and reputation. Lewis only deviates from this narrative once, when he describes a conversation between former FTX COO Constance Wang and SBF following the bankruptcy. Wang questions SBF about whether he ever considered the harm caused to people and if that factored into his decision-making process.
However, both before and after this confrontation, Lewis often portrays Bankman-Fried as an adult who is highly skilled in trading but incompetent in tasks that most adults would consider basic. He includes details about FTX’s headquarters in the Bahamas, which was designed to include a cube made of pure tungsten. The book concludes with Lewis’ own discovery of the cube, and SBF’s dismissive response: “badminton courts.”
If the prosecutors had only relied on the information presented in “Going Infinite,” it is unlikely that there would have been any charges against the former FTX CEO. The book suggests that the matter could have been seen as a misunderstanding and resolved outside of court. Lewis himself concludes that FTX user funds had not disappeared and implies that hedge fund managers were unaware of any wrongdoing before the collapse of the exchange.