Non-fungible tokens are useful, innovative—and frothy
The craze extends from digital art to sports clips and cat cartoons
![No Everydays object](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/sites/default/files/images/2021/03/articles/main/20210320_fnp501.jpg)
“EQUIVALENT VIII” by Carl Andre was a minimalist sculpture bought by Britain’s Tate Gallery in 1972. The Tate described the work as “a rectangular arrangement of 120 firebricks...altering the viewer’s relationship to the surrounding space”. The public called it a pile of bricks. A few years later newspapers execrated the gallery for having wasted brick-shaped wads of cash on the avant-garde work.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “What’s wrong with this picture?”
Finance & economics March 20th 2021
- China’s markets are shaking off their casino reputation
- America’s banks have too much cash
- Non-fungible tokens are useful, innovative—and frothy
- Efforts to modernise economics teaching are gathering steam
- Italy is central to the bull case for euro-zone stockmarkets
- Why two former central bankers are talking about trust
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That is the contention of Cliff Asness, one of the great quant investors
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American office delinquencies are shooting up
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China is suffering from a crisis of confidence
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America has a huge deficit. Which candidate would make it worse?
Enough policies have been proposed to make a call
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