A Tycoon’s Deep-State Conspiracy Dive
Sheelah Kolhatkar, 07 December 2020
In July, 2015, Patrick Byrne, the founder of the online discount retailer Overstock, delivered a twenty-minute talk at FreedomFest, the annual libertarian conference in Las Vegas. Other speakers included the venture capitalist Peter Thiel; John Mackey, the chief executive officer of Whole Foods; and the Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump.
Byrne’s talk, entitled “Turtles All the Way Down: How the Crypto-Revolution Solves Intractable Problems on Wall Street,” was a version of one he had given many times before. It touched on several of his interests, including the kind of liberalism usually referred to as libertarianism, the flaws in the structure of the stock market which make it vulnerable to manipulation, and how a blockchain-based financial system could eliminate those flaws. After the talk, a line of people waited by the stage to speak to Byrne.
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Dr. Patrick M. Byrne received a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and Asian studies from Dartmouth College, a master’s in philosophy (ethics) from Cambridge University as a Marshall Scholar, and a doctorate in philosophy (focusing on political theory, jurisprudence, and economics) from Stanford University. Patrick served as chairman, president and CEO of Centricut, LLC, a manufacturer of industrial torch consumables, then held the same three positions at Fechheimer Brothers, Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway company that manufactures police, firefighter and military uniforms. Patrick Michael Byrne is the former CEO of 