Marlon Weems

"A word after a word after a word is power." ~Margaret Atwood

United States

At the end of the day, I am a storyteller at heart. My writing is informed by my life experiences, from growing up in the segregated South to my years spent running trading businesses on Wall Street.

In addition to my occasional work as a fintech subject-matter expert, I publish a newsletter centered on the intersection of politics, cultural issues, and the persistence of anti-Black racism. I spend my spare time hanging out with my wife and kids at our home on a tiny island in North Carolina.

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Portfolio

Politics & American Culture

Medium
03/22/2023
The Lehman Brothers Mandela Effect

The failure of Silicon Valley Bank highlights our false memory of the last financial crisis When Silicon Valley Bank failed earlier this month, my first reaction was to compare the venture capital industry's financial institution of choice to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. "It's Lehman all over...

Substack
02/28/2023
When Origin Stories Collide

Earlier this month, on an episode of the PBS program "Finding Your Roots," Angela Davis, the 1960s activist and social justice icon, learned that one of her forebears came to America on the Mayflower: This segment of the series, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., the director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University, underscores a unique aspect of the Black American experience: our collective inability to know our complete heritage.

Substack
02/09/2023
Why is Elon Musk Wrecking Twitter?

For reasons known only to him, Musk paid $44 billion in an acquisition that analysts describe as "one of the most overpaid tech acquisitions in history." Musk followed up his curious purchase with one management misstep after another: re-platforming white supremacists and provocateurs like Kanye West, losing half of the company's top 100 advertisers, chasing away millions of users, and firing essential staff.

Medium
01/13/2023
Wall Street and the Fear of a Black Quarterback

To understand the financial services industry's problems with race, just look at the NFL Last summer, I wrote about starting an investment firm in Arkansas in the mid-nineties. I wrote about the racism I faced. Without question, I had many successes. My company was the state's first - and possibly the last - black-owned...

Subject-Matter Expertise

STAT
09/22/2022
Can blockchain solve health care's security problems? The financial industry offers a valuable...

ot long ago, blockchain technology captured the imagination - and the wallets - of financial services firms that sought a "first-mover" advantage by integrating it into their outdated management systems. Experts predicted that blockchain could bring millions of dollars in savings, its uses ranging from real-time clearing and settlement of securities-related transactions, to cross-border payments and regulatory compliance.

Tabbgroup
Competitive Adaptability in an Opaque Market

Over a decade and a half ago, the decimalization of equity markets transformed financial markets, permanently altering the way investment banks interact with their clients. The electronification of equity trading spawned a revolution that took markets from the open outcry system and to the automated systems we know today.

Media

YouTube
01/23/2022
Being Marlon Weems

Check out Mr. Weem's substack: https://thejourneyman.substack.com/ Follow him on Twitter: @GeekTrader

ABC NewsRadio Australia
06/03/2020
Companies and sports bodies jump on social justice bandwagon

With social justice protests sweeping across the USA and now being mirrored in numerous cities around the world from South America to Europe and Australia, the latest development is corporations and sports governing bodies posting statements of support for the Black Lives Matter movement.