Person of Interest 2021: The Longlist

His backing of GB News demonstrated that £10m is enough to buy almost anything in British politics except an audience for Andrew Neil.

[‘Start-ups are fun! Well, usually ...’ — FT]

Diamond-handed insolvetech sibyl whose bold predictions have included, “the stocks I bought will go up” and “the stocks I bought that are going down will also in the future go up.”

[Stonk market update — FT Alphaville]

EY’s hit on Paglibeppio's man-in-a-van roll up probably left its much discussed Mediterranean and Eastern European partners choking on their gabagool.

[Solutions 30: from Romania to Mauritius, with love — FT Alphaville]

The most enthusiastic promoter of interdependent affairs to be exported by Canada since Ashley Madison.

[Alphawave: the ARM wannabe’s curiously close contracts — FT Alphaville]

Miscellaneous ventures have distracted from the true value of a theoretical one and this interminably misunderstood northern powerhouse will keep tearing his company apart until we all start appreciating that.

[What does SoftBank see in THG? — FT]

The closest 2021 came to a systemically critical blow-up would have been avoided had even one person involved followed the general principles set out in the small print of spread betting adverts.

[‘He never struck me as a big risk-taker’ — FT]

Starting with the simple mission to help people lower their energy bills, Bulb has grown into a £1.7bn state liability through the innovation of simultaneously charging its customers too much and not enough.

[Bulb Energy tops FT 1000 ranking with focus on renewables — FT]

He had it all. Person of the year by unanimous verdict and the richest to ever have lived; insulated from reality by disciples who bought every gewgaw and venerated every shitpost. Whether outfoxing the stiffs at the SEC, chewing scenery or failing to deliver on basically any promise, his was success unparalleled. But on the eve of the most audacious stock market hustle in history, had he counted on the family's yokel brother turning up to gatecrash the party? Wes Anderson directs The Preposterous Musks, in cinemas September 2022 and everywhere else beforehand.

[Kimbal Musk cashed out $109m of Tesla stock just before Elon’s tweets whacked the share price — Business Insider]

Whitehall’s shitco securitiser-in-residence did what had seemed impossible just a year ago and further devalued the names of SoftBank, Credit Suisse, David Cameron, and Lex.

[The unravelling of Lex Greensill: a mix of bravado and financial alchemy — FT]

“We wish to make it expressly clear that our client had no involvement in any of the alleged crimes committed by Mr Epstein, and codewords were never used by Mr Staley in any communications with Mr Epstein, ever,” said lawyers for the former Barclays CEO, who should therefore be assumed to have bonded with the convicted paedophile over a shared appreciation of Grimm fairy tales.

[Staley exchanged 1,200 emails with Epstein — FT]

Remember the $100m New Jersey deli thing? It was this year! Please be assured that we’re as upset about this as you.

[Shareholders of New Jersey deli fire wrestling coach CEO — New York Post]

The current next Warren Buffett, benevolently uplifting humanity through undertakings of great advantage and folksy wisdoms that are rooted in the straight-talking vernacular of his hometown, Series C Funding Round.

[2020 annual letter — Social Capital]

What critics fail to understand about Tether is that nothing can exist except the act of understanding, meaning the act of understanding is all that is known in and of itself, so it’s manifest that nothing outside the bounds of a mortal soul could ever truly be understood. No further questions.

[The former plastic surgeon behind the crypto reserve currency — FT]

Had fun. Stayed poor.

[Kaminska, editor of FT Alphaville, is departing — Talking Biz News]

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

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