The term “late-stage capitalism” has lately been on everyone’s lips. I hear the description from friends concerned with economics and a very hip, tattooed Brooklynite who sold me a pair of vintage jeans.

Late-stage capitalism now appears to be a default answer to every headline calamity. Medical insurance crisis? Late-stage capitalism. Violent right-wing blue-collar workers for Trump? Late-stage capitalism. The rise of Silicon Valley bros taking over the world? Late-stage capitalism. Is it any wonder that a majority of Gen Zers don’t think capitalism works?

Although all the above may be true, there is an unexplored area of late-stage capitalism that has gone unnoticed: crypto.

Marxist theory would suggest that the first economic era in America’s history was "true capitalism," the kind that Marx and Engels wrote about. It started with the industrial revolution. Profits were to be squeezed from exploited workers. Productivity was measured in units produced and the physical cost of goods, plus overhead and labor. This was the dynamic that gave........

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