Fintech Dystopia: A Summer Beach Read about Silicon Valley Ruining Things
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Publication Date
Summer 2025
Abstract
There’s a lot to worry about these days. Near the top of my list, though, is Silicon Valley’s slow-motion takeover of our financial system. You may have a very different ranking of worries, but Silicon Valley’s tentacles are most likely wrapping – if not fully wrapped – around the things that are near the top of your list. Those tentacles are only going to get harder to dislodge as Silicon Valley provides financial services to more and more Americans, with all the data, money, and power that come with that kind of business.
The Silicon Valley elite have been trying to “disrupt” finance for decades, and there’s increasing evidence that they’re succeeding. There’s also every reason to believe that if Silicon Valley does succeed, it will cock things up worse than Wall Street ever did. We can’t passively assume that the solutions Silicon Valley comes up with will make the world a better place – at least when it comes to finance, many of its solutions are deserving of the most withering skepticism and some of them should be outright banned. But that doesn’t mean we should remain content with the status quo. If we can resist the lure of shiny apps promising easy fixes, there are things we can do to make financial services work better for the American people.
There’s a lot to unpack there, so where do I start? Well I guess Washington DC, December 14, 2022 is as good a place and time as any…
Recommended Citation
Allen, Hilary J., "Fintech Dystopia: A Summer Beach Read about Silicon Valley Ruining Things" (2025). Books. 232.
https://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/facsch_bks/232