Where did FTX put the money?

Plus: Ukraine's many bad choices. [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a complete failure of corporate controls of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [FTX’s many flaws]( are [endemic to crypto](. - The Ukraine war has [no good outcomes]( in sight. - The [Americans and Saudis]( can make a deal. - There’s an upside to [stagnant property markets](. Let a Thousand Uncle Billies Bloom In Frank Kapra’s classic study of finance, It’s a Wonderful Life, Uncle Billy’s shoddy bookkeeping causes him to lose $8,000 ($122,000 in 2022 money), setting Old Man Potter up to take over Bailey Building & Loan and send George Bailey to prison. But Uncle Billy’s “strings on fingers” approach to organization made him Ebenezer Scrooge compared to the crypto bros at FTX. In a bankruptcy [filing](, FTX’s lucky emergency CEO — a veteran of the Enron bankruptcy, note — looks upon Sam Bankman-Fried’s works and despairs: “Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.” He added: “I award you [no points](. And may God have mercy on your soul.” As Matt Levine notes, the filing makes clear that not only could FTX not be arsed to keep track of the bets it made with other people’s money, it’s not clear it even wrote down [how much of other people’s money]( it had in the first place, much less where it all went. You may argue SBF and friends were decentralizers and disruptors, dude, not boring financiers. But you don’t need an MBA to grok the accounting concept of “don’t misplace the customers’ money.” And before you go dismissing FTX as just one bad apple in an otherwise shiny crypto bunch, Bloomberg’s editorial board would like to remind you it’s actually [symptomatic of the whole rotten crop](. In an industry awash in worthless digital tokens, inflated valuations, laughable bookkeeping and nonexistent consumer protections, FTX may be the norm. Bonus Editorial: [Medicare drug-price negotiations]( can be a big help, but they’re not ambitious enough yet. — Bloomberg’s editorial board Choose Your Own Hopeless Adventure: Ukraine Edition The fun of Choose Your Own Adventure books is picking just the right branches of the decision tree that lead you to a happy ending. But in real life, all branches can be brittle and deadly. Take the Ukraine war. Please, God. Leonid Bershidsky goes through [the war’s five likeliest outcomes]( (basically, all those that don’t include either [The Road]( or “Vladimir Putin becomes a [Quaker](”) and finds they range from a continued, deadly slog to an unsustainable peace. Quick Ukraine victory? Good luck with that. Quick Russian victory? Now even less likely. Putin “falls” out of a window? You probably won’t like Putin II. Negotiated settlement? Good luck holding Russia to it. And so on. The only lesson here is that war is self-perpetuating, and Putin is one of history’s greatest criminals for unleashing this one. Further Ukraine Reading: Too many Russians have succumbed to the mass delusion that [Ukrainians are Nazi Satanists](. — Andreas Kluth  US-Saudi Kumbaya Opportunity If there’s a silver lining in the Ukraine nightmare, it’s that it has at least strengthened the bonds of other countries horrified by the situation. Even China, which has mostly backed Putin’s misadventure, has lately recoiled from him a bit into the orbit of his Western rivals. If China can play nice-ish with the US, then maybe another Putin frenemy, Saudi Arabia, can do the same. The kingdom made President Joe Biden angry when it agreed with Russia to cut oil production by a bunch just ahead of the midterm elections. But Saudi Arabia has domestic finances to consider when propping up oil prices. And Liam Denning points out [the US has its own floor for crude](, just a bit lower than Saudi Arabia’s. As much as the countries might not want to deal with each other, it behooves them to work together to stabilize the oil market for the foreseeable future. And their positions aren’t really that far apart. Bonus Diplomacy Reading: What would [Europe do if China invaded Taiwan](? — Hal Brands Telltale Charts Japan has a [chronically stagnant property market](. Gearoid Reidy writes we should all be so lucky. A [brand-new inflation gauge](, measuring wage needs, has launched just in time to give us bad news, writes Jonathan Levin. Further Reading Nancy Pelosi [steps down]( as a giant of the House, but she [kept the top job too long](. — Matt Yglesias The banking system may be safer today, but it’s [still at risk from shadow banking](. — Paul Davies The world economy has [caught a few breaks]( lately. — Dan Moss Jeremy Hunt’s budget [only delays fiscal pain for the UK](. — Marcus Ashworth [Burberry could be the British LVMH]( Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton KFC CarMax but has a lot of hurdles to clear first. — Andrea Felsted America [raises far too many turkeys]( and chickens to be healthy or sustainable. Happy Thanksgiving! — Amanda Little [Being your own boss]( isn’t nearly as glamorous as it sounds. — Erin Lowry ICYMI Allen [Weisselberg said he cheated on taxes]( with two Donald Trump companies. Elon Musk is [softening Twitter’s work-from-home ban]( to keep staffers. [Taylor Swift canceled ticket sales]( to the general public. [Dubai’s palm-island landowners]( are getting bad news. Kickers Mariah Carey is [not the official Queen of Christmas](, thanks to Big Government. (h/t Ellen Kominers) Is [40 hours a week too much]( or too little? [Underwater sculpture project]( stops illegal trawling. [Every apple](, rated. Notes:  Please send honeycrisps and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. 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