Greetings and salutations, my fellow plebs. My name is Walker and this is the Bitcoin podcast.
It's Friday, September 29, 2023. The Bitcoin block height is 809.929. And the value of one
Bitcoin is still one Bitcoin. Today's episode is the Bitcoin news roundup. I'm going to go over the
big stories, run through some rapid fire news, then zoom out and give you some perspective.
You can find all the links and accounts mentioned in this episode via the article
version of the show, linked in the show notes, or by going to bitcoinpodcast.net slash words.
And of course, you can always watch the Bitcoin podcast on rumble or YouTube,
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Without further ado, let's get into the Bitcoin news roundup.
Debt by 1000 cuts. Does debt matter? Well, if you're an individual, some people may advise you to
take on as much debt as you can while interest rates are low and debt is cheap to buy assets like
real estate with that debt because when rates are low, it's basically free money, right?
Others will say you should try to stay debt free as much as possible. Don't overextend
yourself because things can get out of hand fast. And the future is always uncertain.
When interest rates are low and the money printer is purring, things seem to be going okay on the
surface. But when the Fed decides to raise rates at a historically fast pace like they are now,
things start to look a little less rosy. So what does the household debt situation look like in the
US right now? On September 13, the Kobayashi letter reported the US now has a record 17.1
trillion in household debt, record 12 trillion in mortgages, record 1.6 trillion in auto loans,
record 1.6 trillion in student loans, record 1.0 trillion in credit card debt. The average house
payment is about to hit $3,000 a month for the first time in history. All as oil prices are up
40% in three months, mortgage rates hit 7.5% and credit card rates are at a record 25%.
Borrowing more debt is not the solution to high inflation. This is unsustainable.
So the household debt situation is looking pretty bleak. But what about government debt?
Well, if you are the government suckling off the teat of the taxpayer, or one of the state-sponsored
fiat economists stooges, you'll likely say debt doesn't matter, it's just money we owe ourselves
or some other idiotic thing like that. Remember, the government does not produce anything. We,
the taxpayers, produce value and the government takes an ever-growing chunk of the fruits of our
labor to finance their ever-growing bureaucracy and the military industrial complex because it's
always hungry. But they also spend more than they take in from us, and so they must borrow money
to make up the difference between the tax revenue they take in and the massive amount they spend.
So just how much debt has the US government accumulated? On September 23rd, the Kobai
C letter reported, US national debt has jumped by nearly $1 trillion per month since the debt
ceiling crisis came to an end in June. Total US debt is now up $10 trillion since 2020.
To put this in perspective, it took the US 232 years to add the first $10 trillion in debt.
The worst part? The debt ceiling is effectively uncapped until 2025, in the latest debt ceiling
agreement. Deficit spending has no limits until 2025. If we see a recession, we could easily see
$50 trillion in US debt within five years. Why is this not getting more attention?
And on September 25th, the Kobai C letter reported,
total US debt has jumped by $100 billion since it crossed $33 trillion exactly one week ago.
That's $14.3 billion per day being added to the US debt over the last week. Add in $3 billion per
day in interest expense, and that's over $17 billion per day. Meanwhile, deficit spending has
become so large that the US is issuing $2 trillion in bonds over six months, which is driving rates
higher. Simultaneously, the US is refinancing debt at current rates, which have more than doubled.
US debt and interest expense are on track for exponential growth. When will this be called a
crisis? As a side note, I highly recommend following the Kobai C letter on Twitter. They've
been putting together a ton of great information. And I think you'll find it really valuable.
Their handle is at Kobai SSI, L E T T E R. That's at Kobai C letter. James Lavish,
quote tweeting a great threat he wrote on government debt, summed it up succinctly on Twitter.
And you should follow at James lavish as well. When I wrote this a year ago, federal debt was
$30.7 trillion. And the annual interest expense was $400 billion. Today, the federal debt is over
$33 trillion. An annual interest expense is $970 billion and growing. This is why it is called
a debt spiral.
The hypocrisy of Chase. Earlier this week, Chase Bank sent out a notice to their customers in the
UK stating that they will no longer be allowed to purchase cryptocurrencies using debit cards or
through bank transfers. Here's what the notice said. To help keep you and your money safe from
fraud and scams, we're changing the types of payments you can make from Chase. From 16 October
2023, if we think you're making a payment related to crypto assets, we'll decline it.
If you'd still like to invest in crypto assets, you can try using a different bank or provider
instead. But please be cautious, as you may not be able to get the money back if the payment ends
up being related to a fraud or scam. We've made this decision because fraudsters are increasingly
using crypto assets to steal large sums of money from people. Declining these payments is one of
the ways we're helping keep you and your money safe. Now, it's important to note that the crypto
industry is rife with fraud and scams. If you're new to all this and want to understand the
difference between Bitcoin and crypto, I have a whole episode dedicated to that. TLDR, Bitcoin,
and crypto are not the same. And don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I'm not going to focus on
that distinction today. Instead, I want to point out the blatant hypocrisy displayed by Chase.
Because earlier this week, it was announced that JP Morgan Chase just settled their Jeffrey Epstein
sex trafficking lawsuit with the US Virgin Islands for $75 million via CNBC. JP Morgan Chase said it
will pay $75 million to settle a lawsuit by the US Virgin Islands, alleging that the American bank
facilitated and benefited from the sex trafficking of young women by its longtime customer, Jeffrey
Epstein. JP Morgan Chase, whether it's the US or UK division, claims they care about fraud and
scams. They want to keep you safe because they're the good guys, right? But in reality, JP Morgan
Chase is one of the worst facilitators of crime in existence. Don't believe me? Here's a rundown
of just some of their dirty dealings over the last couple decades. 2002. JP Morgan Chase settles with
investors for $2.2 billion over its role in the Enron scandal. 2003. JP Morgan Chase agrees to
pay $135 million to settle SEC allegations that it helped Enron commit fraud. 2011. JP Morgan pays
$153.6 million to settle SEC charges of misleading investors in CDO tied to US housing market.
2012. JP Morgan paid $5.29 billion over mortgage practices related to the 2008 financial crisis.
2013. The London Whale Trading Scandal. The bank paid $920 million in penalties due to large and
risky trading positions resulting in over $6 billion in losses. 2013. JP Morgan settled for
$1.7 billion for its oversight linked to the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme. 2013. The bank paid $410
million for manipulating the electricity market in California in the Midwest. 2013. JP Morgan was
fined $108 million as part of a larger bank settlement over manipulating the LIBOR rate.
2013. Again. Illegal credit card practices. They were fined $389 million for deceiving customers
into signing up for costly, unnecessary services when opening a new credit card. 2014. The bank
agreed to pay a $13 billion settlement related to its sale of toxic mortgage-backed securities.
2014. JP Morgan paid over $1 billion in fines for manipulating the foreign exchange market.
2015. Violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. Here, the bank agreed to pay $2.6 billion
penalty for failing to report suspicious activity tied to Bernard Madoff.
2018. Sanctions breaches. They were fined $5.3 million over their
princely hiring practices breaching U.S. sanctions. 2019. The seizure of the MSC Geyhan,
a ship financed by JP Morgan, was seized due to discovery of 20 tons of cocaine on board.
2019. Precious Metals and U.S. Treasuries Market Manipulation Now. They faced fines and
criminal charges over these market manipulation allegations. 2020. Record $920 million spoofing
penalty that the bank paid for allegations of manipulating commodities markets through spoofing.
2020. They paid $250 million for misleading investors about their SPOE strategy. 2020.
Unauthorized Trading. The bank was fined a paltry $3.9 million in Hong Kong for regulatory breaches
including unauthorized trading. 2021. JP Morgan admits to widespread record keeping failures
and agrees to pay $125 million penalty to resolve the SEC charges. 2023. JP Morgan fined $4 million
for deleting 47 million emails including some requested in subpoenas. I wonder what they were
trying to hide and for whom. And of course their most recent achievement. JP Morgan will pay $75
million on claims that enabled Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operations. I feel like I need to
take a shower after reading all those, but here's the point in sharing these stories of which there
are many, many more. Big bankers like to claim that Bitcoin is only used by criminals and it's
only good for money laundering. But in reality, the biggest money launderers and criminal supporters
on the planet are bankers. And they do it all with fiat money. No Bitcoin required.
Now for some rapid fire news via Bitcoin Archive. Bitcoin mining energy mix is now
plus 50% from sustainable sources, according to Bloomberg intelligence via CK Snarks. HRF,
the Human Rights Foundation, gives 19 BTC $505,000 via its Bitcoin Development Fund to support 15
projects worldwide targeting global education, Bitcoin Core, DLCs on lightning, eCash and
scholarships for some noster news from Will Kasarin aka JB 55, someone built a hacker news for
noster. So cool. Here he links oddbean.com. Go check it out via BTC Times. Nomura's $500
billion digital asset unit launches Bitcoin Fund for institutional investors via Bitcoin Archive,
SEC delays BlackRock, Valkyrie and Bitwise spot Bitcoin ETF application decisions via Bitcoin
magazine, SEC further delays $94.2 billion wisdom trees spot Bitcoin ETF application via Michael
Saylor. Micro strategy has an acquired an additional $5,445 BTC for $147.3 million at an
average price of $27,053 per Bitcoin as of 9 24 23 micro strategy holds 158,245 BTC acquired for
approximately $4.68 billion at an average price of $29,582 per Bitcoin via Daniel Batten KPMG
report picked up in the mainstream media quote mainstream media remained unfair and inaccurate
in its criticism of Bitcoin's energy consumption. The KPMG report counters this showing the
significance of Bitcoin across the three pillars of ESG. Here Daniel links to the article on Yahoo
news via Bitcoin archive Bitcoin miner core scientific buys 27,000 Bitcoin mining rigs
for $23 million in cash and $53.9 million equity investment.
To wrap up today's show, let's zoom out and talk about narrative shifts. I recently read a
surprisingly fantastic article on Bitcoin mining in Africa shared by Daniel batten. The reason this
article was surprising is that it was published on MSN.com a legacy media site. I want to read a
couple excerpts from this article written by Steven Sidley entitled the surprising simple answer to
Africa's rural energy problems Bitcoin mining small Bitcoin mines can be immediately profitable
and can therefore fund a renewable mini-grid and supply power to the community at no cost. And if
this seems too good to be true, it gets even better. Bitcoin mines are unlike any other industry.
They can live anywhere. And if the energy is stranded uncontested and free, you have a perfect
marriage where everyone benefits the community, the investors, even the Bitcoin bros. Unlike any
other buyer of bulk electricity, Bitcoin mines are a buyer of first resort, when no one else is buying,
a buyer of last resort, when there is no other demand, and a grid bouncer of last resort, keeping
the grid stable at all times. No other energy consuming enterprise has this profile. I love
that this is a factual, well researched article about Bitcoin mining in rural Africa, published on
a legacy media site. These are topics that Bitcoiners have been talking about for a long time.
But often that conversation doesn't make it outside of the Bitcoin Twitter echo chamber.
Now, we're seeing these conversations begin to reverberate into the greater public consciousness,
and that's beautiful. But getting positive stories about Bitcoin into the larger discourse
doesn't just happen. It requires hard work. It requires that Bitcoiners tell these stories first,
and often many, many times. It requires that Bitcoiners seek these stories out across the
world and share them. Joe Nakamoto and Pakodela India, aka run with Bitcoin, are doing a great
job of this right now in Peru, documenting stories of Bitcoin adoption on the ground in small communities.
You should check out the stories they're sharing. You'll learn something and laugh a lot along the
way, guaranteed. Riki and Laura, aka the Bitcoin explorers, are two other Bitcoiners currently
traveling the world sharing stories about the realities of Bitcoin adoption on the ground,
the good, the bad, and the ugly. They just published a great piece on bdctimes.com about
their experiences in Turkey. I encourage you to check them out as well. You can grab all their
links in the article version of this episode at bitcoinpodcast.net slash words. The great thing
about Bitcoin is that it is fundamentally based in truth. As Bitcoiners, we don't need to make up
imaginary tales about why Bitcoin is good. We just have to continue telling the truth and wait for
more people to listen. And that's a wrap on this week's Bitcoin news roundup. If you are a Bitcoin
only company interested in sponsoring another fucking Bitcoin podcast, head to Bitcoinpodcast.net.
You can find me on Noster by going to primal.net slash Walker. If you want to follow the Bitcoin
podcast on Twitter, go to at titcoinpodcast and at Walker America. You can also watch the video
versions of the show at youtube.com slash at Walker America and at Walker America on Rumble.
Bitcoin is scarce. There will only ever be 21 million, but Bitcoin podcasts are abundant. So
thank you for spending your scarce time to listen to another fucking Bitcoin podcast. Until next time,
stay free.