Perpetual futures, explained
Crypto’s most popular product offers capital efficiency for professionals, leveraged exposure for the masses, rich yields for market makers — and a poorly understood failure mode.
Previous issues of Bits about Money
A window into modern loan origination
A four party consortium can underwrite, fund, and execute a consumer loan in 15 minutes. Here's how.
Open Banking and payments competition
Why the banks really hate fintechs that allow businesses to learn your account number easily.
Two Americas, one bank branch, and $50,000 cash
Ever wondered what happens if you try to take $50,000 in cash out of a bank? Answer: a year of investigative journalism.
Bits about Money yearly recap and plans
What we covered in 2024, what are plans are in 2025, and a solicitation for supporting memberships.
Debanking (and Debunking?)
Crypto advocates kicked off a recent, somewhat politicized, discussion of debanking. Strap in for scintillating banking compliance trivia.
Fiction and Finance
Recommendations of works of fiction of interest to financial practitioners or enthusiasts.
Why the CrowdStrike bug hit banks hard
Regulation-induced monocultures meet unfortunate but explicable engineering decisions.
Working title (insurance)
Title insurance is grossly overpriced relative to actual risks involved. Why is that?
Guys what is wrong with ACATS
Ever transferred assets between brokerages? Impressive, terrifying machinations happened in the background. No cats were harmed.
The business of wallets
How digital wallets work, and how payment costs drive a lot of product decisions inside and around them.
Anatomy of a credit card rewards program
Credit card rewards are mostly funded out of interchange, a fee paid by businesses to accept cards.
Financial systems take a holiday
Ever wondered about what happens when banks are closed or why some apps have operating hours? It's fascinating.
The business of check cashing
Check cashing, as a business, is a poorly understood "alternative" financial service.
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I write roughly biweekly on the intersection of tech, financial infrastructure, and systems thinking. It's free.