In this week’s Takimag column, Theodore Dalrymple reflects on the precipitous downfall of another left-liberal financial-tech oligarch, whose personal wealth has plummeted from $15 billion to close to zero. Sources close to President Biden believe that Bankman-Fried is a strong contender to be the next Chair of the Federal Reserve, or the Head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

One of the things that appalls me about young billionaires (and erstwhile young billionaires) such as Bankman-Fried is their absence of taste. What is the point of being so rich if you look and dress as he looks and dresses? No doubt the look of false indigence that billionaires adopt is intended to deflect from their vast wealth, all of them being left-wing in everything but their finances, but it undermines as well as flatters public taste and detracts from civilized life.