Tag Archives: Bitcoin

A Mile-High House of Cards… 3 Ways to Protect Yourself Before Your Bank Collapses, by Nick Giambruno

Posted on March 14, 2023 | Leave a comment

Cash, gold and silver, and Bitcoin are going to be salvation for a lot of people during the next financial crises. From Nick Giambruno at internationalman.com:

The Truth About Your Bank Deposits

It’s hard to think of a topic where following conventional wisdom is more dangerous than banking.

The general public and most financial experts accept as absolute truth that putting your money in a bank is safe and responsible. After all, the government insures your deposits, so if anything were to go wrong…

As a result, most people put more thought into the shoes they purchase than the bank they entrust with their life savings.

However, the banking system is a mile-high house of cards that could collapse anytime.

Here are three reasons why.

Reason #1: Government Deposit Insurance Is a False Sense of Security

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) insures bank deposits in the US.

When a bank fails, the FDIC pays depositors up to $250,000. The FDIC has a reserve of around $126 billion for this purpose.

Now, $126 billion is a lot of money. But, considering there are around $9.8 trillion in insured deposits in the US, $126 billion is just a drop in the bucket, around 1.3%, to be exact.

In other words, the FDIC’s reserve has around one penny for every dollar of deposits it insures.

It wouldn’t take much to wipe out the FDIC’s reserves. One large bank failure and the FDIC itself could go bust.

For example, the recently failed Silicon Valley Bank—the largest bank failure since the 2008 crisis—had around $210 billion in customer deposits. That’s $84 billion more than the FDIC’s entire reserve.

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Charlie Munger: Exemplar of Cantillionaire Privilege, by Mark E. Jeftovic

Posted on February 5, 2023 | Leave a comment

Charlie Munger is Warren Buffet’s right hand man. The dynamic duo, sometimes portrayed as pure capitalists, have made a lot of money with investments that are anything but pure capitalism. From Mark E. Jeftovic at bombthrower.com:

Berkshire Hathaway was built atop a system that Bitcoin was created to destroy

The Oracle of Omaha’s second banana has pronounced judgement on crypto. It was even more unhinged than previous attacks (“rat poison”), as Munger applauded communist China’s technocratic dictatorship as a sensible ideal we should be following here in the West.

“the communist government of China recently banned cryptocurrencies because it wisely concluded that they would provide more harm than benefit…What should the U.S. do after a ban of cryptocurrencies is in place? Well, one more action might make sense: Thank the Chinese communist leader for his splendid example of uncommon sense.”

The fact that Munger is able to aggrandize a communist police state that maintains concentration camps, engages in organ harvesting and forced labour with impunity is a testament to his insular position (not to mention the lopsidedness of our political zeitgeist).

Munger is a Cantillionaire – after Richard Cantillion who wrote one of the first economic treatise in the eighteenth century describing how proximity to the monetary inputs of a society confer special advantages at the expense of wider populus.

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3 Things Most People Don’t Know About Gold, Bitcoin, and Money, by Nick Giambruno

Posted on January 12, 2023 | Leave a comment

In the coming collapse, Bitcoin may be a better way to transact and preserve wealth than gold. Or it may not, but it’s a good idea to learn as much as possible about both. From Nick Gaimbruno at internationalman.com:

Bitcoin has been likened to the platypus… which sounds like an odd comparison.

The platypus is a strange duck-billed mammal with webbed feet and a furry body like a beaver. It has characteristics of birds, mammals, and reptiles. Females lay eggs but also nurse their young with milk. Males produce a potent venom.

When Europeans discovered the platypus in Australia in 1798, they wrote letters to folks at home to describe this bizarre new animal. People thought the platypus was a joke or a hoax—because it didn’t fit into the classification of animals at that time.

But it was a real animal.

People just didn’t understand it because it was a new thing that didn’t fit into the established paradigms.

Bitcoin is much the same. It doesn’t fit into the framework of traditional financial analysis metrics.

There is no P/E (price-to-earnings) ratio because Bitcoin has no earnings.

There is no P/B (price-to-book) ratio because Bitcoin has no book value.

Bitcoin has no CEO, no marketing department, and no employees.

Bitcoin is an entirely new asset people are adopting as money because of its superior monetary properties, namely its resistance to inflation.

The monetization of a new global money is genuinely unlike anything anyone alive has ever seen before. There is nothing else comparable.

Like the platypus, Bitcoin is an entirely new animal. That’s why Bitcoin confuses many people, including prominent investment professionals.

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Deglobalization And The End Of Trust-Based Money Set The Stage For National Bitcoin Adoption, by Ansel Lindner

Posted on December 7, 2022 | 1 comment

Trust-based money means money that has nothing going for it other than social custom and legal tender laws lead to its acceptance. The only thing behind it is promises from people who repeatedly lie to us—central bankers and politician. Bitcoin is a whole new ball game. From Ansel Lindner at bitcoinmagazine.com:

This is an opinion editorial by Ansel Lindner, a bitcoin and financial markets researcher and the host of the “Bitcoin & Markets” and “Fed Watch” podcasts.

Two forces have dominated the globe economically and politically for the last 75 years: globalization and trust-based money. However, the time for both of these forces has passed, and their waning will bring about a great reset of the global order.

But this is not the global, Marxist kind of Great Reset promoted by Klaus Schwab and those who attend Davos. This is an emergent, market-driven reset characterized by a multipolar world and a new monetary system.

Globalization Is Ending

The first reaction I usually get to my claim that the age of hyper-globalization is ending is flippant disbelief. People have so completely integrated the environment of the dying global order into their economic understanding that they cannot fathom a world where the cost-to-benefit analysis of globalization is different. Even after COVID-19 exposed the fragility of complex supply chains, like when the U.S. very nearly ran out of surgical masks and basic medications or when the world struggled to source semiconductors, people have yet to realize the shift that is happening.

Is it that hard to imagine that the businessmen who designed such fragile, overcomplicated production processes didn’t properly weigh the risks?

All that is needed to break globalization is for risk-adjusted costs to change a few percentage points and outweigh the benefits. The pennies saved by outsourcing numerous tasks to numerous jurisdictions will no longer outweigh the possibility of complete collapse of supply chains.

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Bitcoin Is Far More Than An Investment, by Paul Rosenberg

Posted on November 21, 2022 | 1 comment

Bitcoin embodies the promise of encryption, a way to free yourself from government. From Paul Rosenberg at freemansperspective.com:

Over the past few years, huge numbers of people have come to see Bitcoin as an investment… as a stock. That’s because a significant percentage of the populace – certainly a good percentage of the investing class – knows someone, at least a friend of a friend, who has done very well with Bitcoin. That’s the kind of thing that people notice, and not unreasonably so.

The truth, however, is that Bitcoin is more and better than an investment… much more and much better.

We’ll get to some detail on this later, but before I start on the story of Bitcoin, I should at least say that rather than being an investment (even though its exchange price does rise dramatically), Bitcoin is actually a new societal model. It is fundamentally different from the old model, being both more efficient and morally superior.

It Came From Outside

Now, let’s spend a few minutes on where this thing came from. And the short version is that it came from outside.

Bitcoin, you see, is not an adaptation based on existing currencies, nor can it be understood that way. Bitcoin is from the realm of radicals.

In particular, Bitcoin came to us from the cypherpunks, a group of cryptography advocates. They began to flourish in the early 1990s, as they realized they could “wall-off” areas of cyberspace from the intrusions of governments. Here, to give you some flavor, are a few quotes from these people:

Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us.

We don’t much care if you don’t approve of the software we write. We know that software can’t be destroyed and that a widely dispersed system can’t be shut down.

A specter is haunting the modern world, the specter of crypto anarchy.

Arise, you have nothing to lose but your barbed wire fences!

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The Bitcoin Revolution & How Fiat Money Ruins Civilization, by Jimmy Song

Posted on November 21, 2022 | Leave a comment

Any currency whose quantity and value can be adjusted at the whim of a government is inherently immoral and will eventually be tossed into the garbage bin of history. From Jimmy Song at bitcoinmagazine.com:

Fiat money leads to a degradation of incentives, creating a society motivated only by the consumption of resources and zero value production.

This is an opinion editorial by Jimmy Song, a Bitcoin developer, educator and entrepreneur and programmer with over 20 years of experience.

We want nice things. We want to live in a nice house, eat good food and have fulfilling relationships. We want to travel to exotic places, listen to great music and experience fun. We want to build something that lasts, achieve something great and leave a better world for tomorrow.

These are all part of being human, of participating in society and of progressing humanity. Unfortunately, all these things and more get ruined by fiat money. We want nice things, but we can’t have them, and the reason is because of fiat money.

Governments want the power to decree prosperity, fulfillment and progress into existence. They’re like the alchemists of yesteryear, who wanted to turn lead into gold through some formula. Actually — they’re worse. They’re like a five-year-old that thinks by wishing hard enough, that she can fly.

Being the delusional power-drunk politicians that they are, the elites think that by decreeing something to be so, it magically happens. That’s indeed where the word “fiat” comes from. The word literally means “Let there be,” — in Latin and in English, it’s become an adjective to describe creation by decree. This can be most easily seen in Genesis 1:3 in Latin. The phrase there is “fiat lux” which means “let there be light.”

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One Veteran’s story: An Orange-Pilled Green Beret

Posted on November 12, 2022 | Leave a comment

He thought he was fighting for freedom as a Green Beret. Now’s he fighting for freedom with Bitcoin. From Adam R. Gebner at bitcoinmagazine.com:

This is an opinion editorial by Adam R. Gebner, a Green Beret and West Point graduate.

The opinions expressed throughout this piece are mine alone, and in no way reflect official policy or opinions of the U.S. Army or the U.S. Department of Defense. Though I am by no means a writer, I hope that by publishing this, more service members consider working in the Bitcoin industry and Bitcoin companies consider expanding their efforts to hire Veterans. Additionally, I am always learning more about Bitcoin, how it works, and the potential value it may bring to our world. Please let me know where I am off base, thanks!

Early in my life, I knew I wanted to be a Green Beret officer. Fighting to liberate oppressed people by working by, with, and through local populations was at the core of my motivations to choose this path. I saw the Special Forces’ mission as a cost and risk-efficient way to prevent large-scale conflict while enabling people to defend themselves and secure their own freedom. After graduating from West Point in 2014 and serving with the 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne) for three years, I ultimately earned my Green Beret and an opportunity to lead a detachment of America’s Chosen Soldiers. Now that I’ve accomplished what I set out to do with my military career by commanding an “A-team” for two years, I am looking forward to the next mission in my professional life: contributing to the adoption and integration of the best freedom-protecting innovation in modern history — Bitcoin.

Like so many others, I had a few touch points with Bitcoin before seriously considering the validity of the technology. In 2010, during my first year at West Point, I overheard a few Computer Science majors discussing this “internet money” and I foolishly dismissed it without trying to learn anything else. Then in 2013, when I started learning about investing and economics, I stumbled across bitcoin again. I read a little bit more into it, but not enough to understand how it could replace gold as a sound money system (thanks Peter Schiff…).

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Can the Government Ban Bitcoin? Three Things You Need To Know Today, by Nick Giambruno

Posted on November 8, 2022 | Leave a comment

It will be difficult for the government to ban bitcoin. It will require a coordinated effort among governments. From Nick Giambruno at internationalman.com:

Ban Bitcoin

The notion that the US government will ban Bitcoin is popular for a good reason.

Bitcoin threatens a significant source of the government’s power—the power to create fake money out of thin air and force everyone to use it.

That’s because Bitcoin can give monetary sovereignty to the individual and render central banks obsolete—along with their confetti currencies.

That’s no small accomplishment.

It’s a historical development that profoundly alters the status quo between the rulers and the ruled. It’s similar to the invention of gunpowder, the printing press, and the Internet.

There’s no question the US government would want to protect their racket from an encroaching monetary competitor in the same way the mafia does when a rival encroaches on their turf.

The $64,000 question is whether they’ll be successful.

Friedrich Hayek, the great free-market Austrian economist, once said:

“I don’t believe we shall ever have a good money again before we take the thing out of the hands of government, that is, we can’t take it violently out of the hands of government, all we can do is by some sly roundabout way introduce something that they can’t stop.”

Hayek is right.

By their very nature, governments never peacefully relinquish power. And if forcefully taking power out of their hands is out of the question, then the only way to do it is through “some sly, roundabout way introduce something they can’t stop.”

Is Bitcoin that solution?

Many people think the answer is “no” because the government will shut it down.

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Bitcoin Is The Ultimate Freedom, Says Former EU MP Nigel Farage

Posted on October 15, 2022 | Leave a comment

In a sea of faceless mediocrities, Nigel Farage stands out as one of the few European who speaks his mind, and speaks it rather eloquently as well. From Namcios at bitcoinmagazine.com:

The former Member of the European Parliament drew parallels between leading a “political insurgency” with Brexit and the opposition Bitcoin experiences today.

Any new idea automatically faces the opposition of the establishment, said former Member of the European Parliament, Nigel Farage, on a panel at Bitcoin Amsterdam on Thursday.

That argument served as the introduction to Farage’s point throughout the conversation, as he drew parallels between Bitcoin and his experience pushing the then-unpopular idea of Brexit, the exit of the U.K. from the European Union.

​​“I led a political insurgency, I took on the establishment,” Farage recounted. “What I think is happening with Bitcoin is we’re seeing a similar type of insurgency, an economic insurgency that is being driven and led by people who are worried about the sheer size and scale of big government.”

The subject was ignited by fellow panelist and “What Bitcoin Did” podcast host Peter McCormack’s initial question. “What are you doing at a Bitcoin conference?”

Farage concluded that because of the links between his past experience and the Bitcoin movement today, it was “a perfect and natural place to be.”

The politician expanded on his argument, detailing more of his views of the establishment and why it can be difficult to challenge it. Those who are part of and maintain the establishment, he argued, “own and set the status quo, they are very comfortable… and they don’t want anything to come along and disrupt.”

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The Top 3 Outcomes As the Elites Try To Reset the International Monetary System, by Nick Giambruno

Posted on October 5, 2022 | Leave a comment

All monetary roads eventually lead to gold, and perhaps Bitcoin. From Nick Giaumbruno at internationalman.com:

Reset the International Monetary System

It’s self-evident the fiat currency system centered on the US dollar is self-destructing at an alarming rate.

After more than 50 years, it’s long past the end of its shelf-life, like a carton of spoiled milk.

Even the elites running the system can see that and are openly talking about what they’d like to see come next.

That’s why there’s all this talk about a “reset” as the current international monetary system falters.

The way I see it, there are three possible outcomes.

Outcome #1: Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and the International Monetary Fund’s Special Drawing Rights (SDR) replacing the US dollar as the world’s new reserve currency. This is the elites’ preferred outcome.

Outcome #2: A reluctant re-monetization of gold. Central bankers don’t want to go back to gold, but they will have no choice if their fiat system collapses, forcing their hands.

Outcome #3: Bitcoin is the wild card. A Bitcoin standard could spontaneously emerge regardless of what the elite want. Bitcoin is an entirely new asset people are adopting as money because of its superior monetary properties, notably its total resistance to inflation.

It’s good to keep Bitcoin’s long-term monetization trend in mind. However, both gold and Bitcoin will likely do very well in the short and medium-term as fiat currencies lose value.

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