Money Stuff’s Matt Levine Talks Meme Stocks, Crypto, and More with the Zicklin School’s Lin Peng

The Rackow Conference Room of the Information & Technology Building was packed recently for a high-profile “fireside chat” between Matt Levine, a financial journalist who writes the daily “Money Stuff” newsletter for Bloomberg News, and Lin Peng, PhD, Krell Chair Professor of Finance (Bert W. Wasserman Department of Economics and Finance). 

Zicklin School namesake Larry Zicklin, as well as students in finance, accounting, CIS, and other majors, listened avidly as Dr. Peng asked Levine for his thoughts on ESG, climate finance, meme stocks, AI, and other hot topics.

Levine responded in his trademark deadpan style, declaring, “I feel dumber when I write about meme investments.” He half-joked that Robinhood, a popular electronic trading platform, was “a gateway drug” to sports gambling and ultimately to responsible investing, because Robinhood’s users would inevitably tire of constantly losing money.

Asked about the possibility of AI replacing jobs in finance, Levine advised students to learn prompt engineering and how to code deep learning models, which would make them more “useful” than employees with no understanding of AI.

Afterwards, Levine took questions from students on topics such as private credit (which he called a “growth area”) and whether he was ever tempted to return to his previous career in investment banking (“It’s more fun to write about it”). He even claimed that Tesla, Elon Musk’s electronic vehicle manufacturer, “is very arguably the original meme stock.” 

Zicklin School students are fortunate to have access to up-to-the-minute events like this, thanks to Baruch College’s location in the heart of Manhattan and the robust industry networks of Zicklin School alumni and faculty.

The conversation was co-sponsored by the Baruch College Accounting Society and the Robert Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity.

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