The modern world of spycraft is vastly different than the one from Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It is one of social media and influence rather than a secret war trying to install someone at the top of the government. The mere fact that the rumor exists that the President of the United States is a Russian agent is, in itself, a sort of victory for the SVR.
Now think about what makes America strong. Why is the S&P 500 so durable and why is it so different than other countries financial institutions. You don’t have to look hard and just looking at who the CEOs of Nvidia, Microsoft, and Google provide the answer. America isn’t a country of territory or people. It is a country of ideas. A shared belief that it is the people of a country that make it great and not its leaders or foundation, but the participation of that people in a process that produced freedom, liberty, and justice for all.
Now when we look around the web at prevailing narrative and vulnerabilities in our systems we can paint a giant bullseye on our financial system. Today, anyone can invest. If the Russian Tsar wanted to set up a fake Yahoo address and open a Robinhood account he could. There is nothing stopping him. He barely needs any tradecraft to influence financial markets.
Now for the narrative. There is a British gentleman by the name of Ed Zitron that is one of the loudest and staunchest believers in what has come to be known as the AI bubble. I am certain that during this buildout and adaptation to new technology there will be winners and losers and some whole sectors will go bust, but Ed Zitron believes the technology itself is a scam and that major American companies are engaged in what he calls Enron accounting. The scariest part of all this is how much he is parroted on social media. One very loud dumb person can do some damage but when that dumb person can suddenly have millions of children spreading his dumb ideas that is even worse.
That brings us to Philby, the inspiration for the book Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Philby was an MI6 agent that rose to be the head of their America house and to this day is one of the biggest black marks on western tradecraft.
The interesting thing is he was British recruited to spy on the Americans. That was his value. Now loop that back to someone like Zitron. Upset and angry at a world progressively headed in the wrong direction. Right wing politics taking over the western world, a dunce as American president, Brexit, and one day he is approached by a pretty redhead. Things start fast and go faster until on one date Zitron finds himself in the back of a Skoda parked in a field along the A39.
Then it is meetings in St. James Park and drops in the Underground for Mr. Zitron. He says what the Tsar wishes of him, and we have the most publicized bubble in US histroy. The fear feeds itself and the question of how much our financial institutions are manipulated start to matter more and more. People don’t check facts. Look how powerful it is to compare AI to the dot-com bubble even though it doesn’t hold up under the slightest bit of scrutiny.
Now I am not saying that Mr. Zitron is working for the SVR, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if he retires to a Dacha outside Moscow in a few years.
