Juggling Dynamite

Worthwhile discussion on the fantasy of central bank powers and the destructive behaviours they have inspired.

In this interview, Danielle discusses the evolution of the Fed through that period and how the policies developed and implemented then have played a role in everything from inequality and social unrest to asset bubbles and inflation. She also lays out several of the potential outcomes facing investors and citizens alike as the result of the fiscal dominance and monetization of the debt we are seeing today.

Here is a direct audio link.

Superinvestors and the Art of Worldly Wisdom · #38: Danielle DiMartino Booth On The Future Of The Federal Reserve

Exemplifying illiquidity:  of the existing 18.5 million Bitcoin in existence, around 20 percent–currently priced at about $140 billion–are reportedly lost or otherwise stranded in wallets that the owners cannot open.  After 10 guesses at forgotten passwords, credits typically become permanently encrypted and forfeited.

Wallet Recovery Services, a business that tries to help owners find lost digital wallet keys–says it is receiving about 70 requests a day from people trying to recover access to their credits.  See Lost passwords lock millionaires out of their Bitcoin Fortunes.

As exuberant pricing has yielded increasingly negative investment prospects for most asset classes today, financial speculation has gone beserk and even some traditionally sober institutions like pensions and life insurance companies have tossed cash at crypto bets.

All in and then some, open interest in CME’s bitcoin futures has surged by more than 250% since the beginning of October while regulators and governments are increasing their attention on the enabled crimes, wasted energy and madness unfolding.  See ECB’s Lagarde calls for global regulation of Bitcoin to prevent use in money laundering.

All of this promises to end in the usual way, see Bitcoin will break Wall Street’s heart:

Estimates by Digiconomist suggest that the bitcoin network consumes around as much electricity as Chile, 77.78 trillion watt hours on an annualized basis. Bitcoin mining is often concentrated in places with abundant renewable energy such as China’s Sichuan province and Iceland, but increasingly climate-conscious governments will nonetheless likely take a dim view of bitcoin mining’s social utility as a priority for energy use.

The prospect of more onerous regulation may take the shine off digital assets, too. The Treasury Department’s plan to make trading platforms keep more stringent identity and transaction records is just one example of how the attractive anonymity of the system could be undermined.

Also, watch Why investors are piling into Bitcoin despite the risk:

According to surveys, about one-third of people in Ontario say they are not following public health guidelines such as physical distancing and staying away from people in other households. Escalating infection rates confirm this, including, 14 recorded cases of the U.K. variant which is about 56 percent more contagious than the original strain.

If the more contagious version takes hold, math predicts infection levels will double in just 10 days — compared with the current rate of 35 to 40 days; daily new infections would hit 10,000 by mid-February at a 3% growth rate, 25,000 at five percent and 40,000 at seven percent. Already, 40% of nursing homes are experiencing outbreak and second wave deaths. In response, the Ontario government is announcing additional lock-down measures today. See Toronto Star:  Ontario returning to many restrictions not seen since the first days of the pandemic:

Hospital intensive care units, now filled with more than 400 COVID-19 patients, could reach 500 within days and double that in February, further reducing cancer, cardiac and other surgeries already being cancelled. Fully 25 percent of hospitals have no spare ICU beds and another 25 percent have only one or two left. Ontario has just under 2,000 ICU beds.

Similar trends are unfolding in much of the world presently, with a fresh wave of economic weakness and job loss underway.  Individuals who are not following the distancing protocols are helping to perpetuate the carnage.  These are the facts.

Sadly, The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) warns that its business closure estimates are on the rise. Here is a direct video link.