From meme stocks to crypto crashes and AI megabets, America’s “casino economy” is here, fortunes won and lost overnight, gamblers posing as investors
via invezz:
The US economy increasingly runs on risk and speculation rather than stable growth.
From meme stocks to AI megabets, volatility has replaced wages as a path to progress.
The “casino economy” leaves ordinary people carrying the risk while the wealthy keep winning.
Lately it feels as if every piece of modern life is a wager.Crypto coins blink on phone screens. Sports betting ads shout between plays. Meme stocks soar 1,000% in days, only to collapse by Friday.
Apps invite you to bet on elections, celebrity breakups or inflation data. Even artificial intelligence, the supposed engine of the next industrial revolution, is funded like a roulette spin.
The “casino economy” is not a metaphor anymore. It is how the system now works. From Washington to Wall Street to the average household, risk has replaced stability as the organizing principle of the economy.
The odds are rarely clear, but everyone is playing.
From memes to markets: speculation as entertainment
The pattern first looked like a fluke. In July this year, we saw the meme stock frenzy making a comeback with stocks like Opendoor and Kohl’s surging within days.In mid-October, Beyond Meat’s shares jumped 1,300% in four days, even though the company’s fundamentals had not improved. It was the latest replay of the GameStop and AMC drama from 2021.
Social media communities pushed up prices of obscure or struggling firms, partly for profit, partly for fun.
When even billionaires start speaking in AI riddles, you know the bubble has gone too far