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Mariana Esteves

@estevesm.bsky.social

September 1, 2025 at 9:05 AM

Reposted by Mariana Esteves

JW Mason

@jwmason.bsky.social

What could go wrong?

www.ft.com/content/7027...

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https://www.ft.com/content/70279a78-6e48-49ec-a0c3-b091e9d87bc1

JPMorgan Chase is exploring lending against clients’ cryptocurrency holdings, in the latest sign that the biggest US banks are endorsing the move of digital assets into the mainstream.

The policy would mark a big shift for JPMorgan’s chief executive Jamie Dimon, who eight years ago branded bitcoin a “fraud” that would “eventually blow up” and was only useful for drug dealers and murderers.

JPMorgan could start lending directly against crypto assets such as bitcoin and ethereum next year, according to people familiar with the matter, who cautioned that the plans were subject to change. JPMorgan declined to comment.

The move would underscore the extent to which big banks, and the regulated financial industry more broadly, are opening up to closer interaction with cryptocurrencies.

July 22, 2025 at 1:09 PM

Mariana Esteves

@estevesm.bsky.social

Fascina-me como figuras tão ideologicamente díspares como Estaline e Putin podem coexistir nos mesmos altares. Quando a ideologia cede à estética do poder e do nacionalismo, resta apenas a veneração da autoridade como fim em si.

Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · Jul 22

Stalin's cult of personality was dismantled by Soviet leaders in the 1960s — but thanks to Putin, his reputation is undergoing a dramatic revision.

Stalin Makes a Comeback in Putin’s Wartime Crackdown on Dissent

At Moscow’s central Taganskaya metro station, commuters stream past a newly-restored monument to a former ruler whose reputation is undergoing a dramatic revision in Russia: Joseph Stalin.

bloom.bg

July 22, 2025 at 9:55 AM

Reposted by Mariana Esteves

Dan McCrum

@mccrum.bsky.social

The intrinsic bullshit problem

on.ft.com/4nWq8v3

Hallucinations are a very hard problem to fix because of the probabilistic nature of how these models work,” said Amr Awadallah, a former Google executive and founder of Vectara, a generative AI agent start-up. “You will never get them to not hallucinate.”

July 22, 2025 at 7:37 AM

Reposted by Mariana Esteves

Rebecca Spang

@rlspang.bsky.social

More than 14,000 "Islamic" coins (coins produced within officially Islamic polities) were buried by VIKINGS on a Swedish island in ~850-900. Numismatists can easily overwhelm me with detail, but boy when they know big things... they're big! #FollowTheMoney

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spillin...

July 18, 2025 at 6:07 PM

Reposted by Mariana Esteves

Jake Grumbach

@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

July 18, 2025 at 6:31 PM

Reposted by Mariana Esteves

Iñaki Aldasoro

@aldasoro.bsky.social

Yes.

Hilary J. Allen @profhilaryallen.bsky.social · Jul 18

Blockchains are pretty useless for payments, I agree. I think the real worry is that the big tech platforms will now launch stablecoins and process most of the payments off-chain...

From fintechdystopia.com

In addition to their political influence, Silicon Valley’s largest tech platforms already have millions if not billions of users and all kinds of personalized data that will help target advertising and services to those users. These platforms are therefore very well situated to push the use of their stablecoins for convenient payments on their platform. These platforms also have plenty of money they can use to cross-subsidize the financial services they offer, making it hard for others to compete – once entrenched, the revenues from their financial services will then be available to subsidize the platforms’ other products and services. Because it will be so easy for Silicon Valley’s largest platforms to capitalize on this platform power to encourage their users to adopt platform-affiliated stablecoins, I don’t think that Wall Street banks (who have comparatively little data about their customers, can’t offer non-financial services, and don’t always pay much interest on customers’ deposits) should be quite so complacent about their market share.

The exponential growth of AliPay and WeChat should at least give the Bank of Americas of this world pause. While it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison given that payment and banking options in China were pretty limited before the super-apps came along, AliPay and WeChat became the dominant providers of financial services in China within the space of about seven years. They were able to do so even though their customers still needed a bank account to use these super-apps. U.S. Congress is about to go even further, setting up Silicon Valley to cut banks out of the process entirely.

July 18, 2025 at 8:45 PM

Mariana Esteves

@estevesm.bsky.social

April 10, 2025 at 10:10 AM

Reposted by Mariana Esteves

spontaneous symmetry breakdance

@t8erboi.bsky.social

embrace Matt Levine thought

I have written before about my own fantasy for consumer securities regulation, which would solve all of these problems but which would probably face some political hurdles in getting enacted. It goes roughly like this:

1. Anyone can invest all they want in a diversified portfolio of approved investments (non-penny-stock public companies, mutual funds and exchange-traded funds with modest fees, insured bank accounts, etc.).

2. Anyone can also invest in any other dumb investment; you just have to go to the local office of the SEC and get a Certificate of Dumb Investment. (Anyone who sells dumb non-approved investments without requiring this certificate from buyers goes to prison.)

3. To get that certificate, you sign a form. The form is one page with a lot of white space. It says in very large letters: “I want to buy a dumb investment. I understand that the person selling it will almost certainly steal all my money, and that I would almost certainly be better off just buying index funds, but I want to do this dumb thing anyway. I agree that I will never, under any circumstances, complain to anyone when this investment inevitably goes wrong. I understand that violating this agreement is a felony.”

4. Then you take the form to an SEC employee, who slaps you hard across the face and says “really???” And if you reply “yes really” then she gives you the certificate.

5. Then you bring the certificate to the seller and you can buy whatever dumb thing he is selling.

6. If an article ever appears in the Wall Street Journal in which you (or your lawyer) are quoted saying that you were just a simple dentist, didn’t understand what you were buying and were swindled by the seller’s flashy sales pitch, then *you* go to prison.

Then you take the form to an SEC employee, who slaps you hard across the face and says “really???” And if you reply “yes really” then she gives you the certificate.
Then you bring the certificate to the seller and you can buy whatever dumb thing he is selling.
If an article ever appears in the Wall Street Journal in which you (or your lawyer) are quoted saying that you were just a simple dentist, didn’t understand what you were buying and were swindled by the seller’s flashy sales pitch, then you go to prison.

April 8, 2025 at 2:26 PM

Mariana Esteves

@estevesm.bsky.social

"Produtividade potencial dos fatores". E depois vêm gozar com quem acredita em horóscopos...

Banco de Portugal @bportugal.pt · Mar 28

Economia numa imagem do @bportugal.pt: A evolução da produtividade continuará a ser determinante para o crescimento potencial da economia portuguesa.

🔗 www.bportugal.pt/page/economi...

#economianumaimagem

March 28, 2025 at 4:22 PM

Reposted by Mariana Esteves

jamie powell

@ajbpowell.bsky.social

tesla owners having a good time of it at the moment

February 18, 2025 at 10:04 AM

Reposted by Mariana Esteves

Tiago Dias

@tiagodf.bsky.social

Tourists should pay a €500 tax just for choosing to visit such an awful place.

Unofficial BBCNews (World) Bot @bbcnews-world-rss.bsky.social · Feb 14

Albufeira: Put your clothes on or pay a fine, Portuguese resort warns

Wearing bikinis and going shirtless may soon be banned in the city, as it fights against badly behaved tourists.

www.bbc.com

February 14, 2025 at 4:54 PM

Reposted by Mariana Esteves

Shyznogud

@shyznogd.bsky.social

4 páginas no DN que nos fazem ter vontade de arrancar cabelos com a raiva/nervos

“Interrupção de gravidez? Só pode fazer até às duas semanas”

“Como faço para interromper a gravidez?”“Quantas semanas tem?”“Umas seis.”“Ai, não sei se vai conseguir. Mais que duas semanas não se pode fazer.”“Como assim, d

www.dn.pt

February 14, 2025 at 10:46 AM

Mariana Esteves

@estevesm.bsky.social

Senhor Trump, faça qualquer coisa!

Cocoa stockpiles plunge to record low

Chocolate makers grab available reserves to counter acute global shortage

www.ft.com

February 14, 2025 at 10:53 AM

Mariana Esteves

@estevesm.bsky.social

Mudar para T+1 é uma decisão necessária. Uma liquidação mais rápida reduz o risco e está alinhada com os mercados globais, mas esta frase da Albuquerque, embora pareça evidente, não faz sentido. A liquidação instantânea parece ótima, mas tem sérias desvantagens.

February 13, 2025 at 10:57 AM

Mariana Esteves

@estevesm.bsky.social

Esta dívida estava a caminho de ser vendida a preço de saldo. Com a eleição do Musk para Presidente sombra dos EUA, disparou o interesse dos "investidores" nela.

Tiago Dias @tiagodf.bsky.social · Feb 13

Wall Street nears sale of $3bn of debt tied to Elon Musk’s Twitter buyout