Person of interest 2024: the longlist

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The implausible face of opportunist capitalism.

[The techno-optimist manifesto - A16Z]

Interim head of the Kingdom’s folly retrenchment programme. Probably not built on the bones of slave labour, the Egyptian pyramids were the region’s last construction project of similar ambition.

[Saudi Arabia tightens its belt - FT]

In 2020, the zeobank founder published Banking On It: How I Disrupted an Industry And Changed the Way We Manage our Money Forever. By mid-2023 she’d gone, apparently after kicking off about Jupiter devaluing her stake by offloading its own. In 2024, Starling was fined for AML onboarding processes the FCA said had “left the financial system wide open to criminals”. A second edition of the book may sell better than the first.

[Starling: a bank built on ‘shockingly lax’ customer checks - FTAV]

Always giving 110 per cent.

[Funding issues and ‘over-optimism’ behind UK failures on jobs data - FT]

Legislature abhors a moral vacuum.

[Letter: Reeves’ death tax will kill off fam­ily busi­nesses - FT]

Once a senior member of the Autonomy accounting team in charge of revenue recognition, Baroness Gustafsson now encourages investment based on numbers that make little sense.

[Summary of the Claimants’ claims re ‘reciprocal’ transactions - Judiciary.uk]

Pioneer of invasive retail, former CEO and creator of Temu, where the descriptions rarely match what’s being delivered.

[The mysterious rise of the Chinese ecommerce giant behind Temu - FT]

Main character, readership division.

[With Bluesky, the social media echo chamber is back in vogue - FT]

Who better than a Tether enthusiast to inspire confidence that America’s bitcoin strategic reserve will be transparently audited.

[Tether’s friend in the White House - FT]

Drug test speculator turned co-chair of The Presidential Advisory Committee for Procuring Elon a Fidget Spinner.

[Trump chooses Musk and Ramaswamy to lead government efficiency effort - FT]

Using real money to buy fake money for a volatility launderette that runs on FOMO and crapola. Never has a strategy been so micro.

[Microstrategy’s secret sauce is volatility, not bitcoin - FTAV]

Crypto’s most shameless publicity vampire complained in April when we called him that, possibly while eating a $6.2mn banana. We stand by our reporting.

[Music to shill coins by - FTAV]

A self-styled performance psychopath whose most popular cost reduction was his last. Taxi (which Stellantis is almost certain not to have built) for Tavares.

[Why Stellantis chief Carlos Tavares was axed - FT]

Don’t ask. Don’t tell. Hang on tight for ten or 12 years. Wait for it all to blow over. Keep your counsel. Forget the details. Hold your nerve. Put your faith in a higher power. Pray that IT is too dull a subject for the tabloids, and that catastrophic mismanagement on your watch is never turned into a hit ITV drama starring Dobby from Harry Potter.

[Post Office scandal explained - Computer Weekly]

Would it be fun for you, your family, some GSK researchers, and everyone on dataleaks.onion to find out you’re 27 per cent Ashkenazi Jewish, your dad’s not your dad, and you’re predisposed to developing spinal muscular atrophy? Unsurprisingly, the answer was no.

[23andMe warns of ‘substantial doubt’ over its survival - FT]

Those are our nominations. Yours go in the comment box.

Further reading: FTAV PoI 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014