Interesting setup of the argument:<p><i>I have come to view cryptocurrencies not simply as exotic assets but as a manifestation of a magical thinking that had come to infect part of the generation who grew up in the aftermath of the Great Recession — and American capitalism, more broadly.<p>For these purposes, magical thinking is the assumption that favored conditions will continue on forever without regard for history. It is the minimizing of constraints and trade-offs in favor of techno-utopianism and the exclusive emphasis on positive outcomes and novelty. It is the conflation of virtue with commerce.<p>Where did this ideology come from?</i><p>It's a subtle construct that actually implicitly communicates a great deal. The thought that "favored conditions will continue on forever without regard for history" is not a mere thought for the 0.1% (sic), is it? Neither world wars, nor depressions, nor 'global pandemics' has stopped the gravy train for that subset of humanity.<p>So more precisely, what professor seems to be saying is an economic variant of "All [economic] animals are equal, but some [economic] animals are more equal than others". And yes, it is "magical thinking" to think you are part of the 0.1% or that we're playing in the same economic playground. He's right about that.