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Curated playlist

American financiers

  • Al GoreAl Gore won the 2000 popular vote but lost the presidency by 537 Florida votes.
  • Ryan ReynoldsRyan Reynolds gave up his usual fee so the Deadpool film would get made.
  • Bill GatesBill Gates and Paul Allen wrote software for a computer they did not have. Their Altair demo worked the first time.
  • Magic JohnsonMagic Johnson told the world he had HIV from the free throw line in 1991. He was 32 and a five-time NBA champion.
  • J. P. MorganA visit from J. P. Morgan, one man said, left him feeling "as if a gale had blown through the house." The American financier had that effect on people. He was physically large, with massive shoulders and piercing eyes. His nose was swollen…
  • Warren BuffettWarren Buffett's yearbook photo called him a future stockbroker. He was seventeen and liked math.
  • George SorosAt 14, George Soros posed as the Christian godson of a government official to survive the Nazi occupation of Hungary.
  • Bernie MadoffBernie Madoff told his own sons in December 2008 that the fund he ran was "just one big lie." Bernard Lawrence Madoff was an American financier, born in 1938, who had once served as chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange. He admitted to…
  • Erik PrinceErik Prince, the founder of the private military contractor Blackwater, once defended his company with a line that has followed him ever since. "No one under our care was ever killed or injured. We kept them safe, all the while we had 30…
  • Michael BurryIn November 2025, Michael Burry, an American investor, hedge fund manager and licensed physician, announced that he was shutting down his fund. He followed that decision with a Substack newsletter called Cassandra Unchained. Burry is best…
  • Jim SimonsJim Simons, born James Harris Simons, once explained his dislike of publicity by borrowing a line from Benjamin the Donkey in Animal Farm. "God gave me a tail to keep off the flies. But I'd rather have had no tail and no flies. That's kind…
  • Bernard BaruchBernard Baruch refused a 1929 pool to prop up the falling stock market. He had already moved into bonds, cash and gold.

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