Greetings and salutations my fellow plebs. My name is Walker and this is The Bitcoin
Podcast. It's Wednesday August 16th 2023. At the time of recording the Bitcoin
block height is 803-506 and the value of one Bitcoin is still one Bitcoin.
Today's episode is the weekly Bitcoin news roundup. I'm gonna go over the big
stores the week, run through some rapid fire news, then zoom out and talk about
Bitcoin volatility and narrative shifts. You can find all the links and
accounts mentioned in this episode via the article version of this show linked
in the show notes or by going to BitcoinPodcast.net slash words. Without
further ado let's get into it.
Bukele, Bonds and Bitcoin via Bloomberg. Bitcoin touting Bukele's Bond rally
draws JP Morgan, Eaton Vance. El Salvador global bonds have returned over 70%
this year. President has signaled willingness to pay sovereign debt.
Quoting Bloomberg, El Salvador president Naib Bukele scared off many on Wall
Street by embracing Bitcoin. Two years later the Bond rally he's overseeing is
proving too lucrative to resist. You really love to see this. El Salvador a
small nation that until a few years ago was more famous internationally for its
gang violence than for its beautiful beaches has seen an incredible reduction
in crime, massive increase in tourism and after giving the middle finger to the
IMF is proving that a Bitcoin standard is not only possible it's profitable. I've
had the pleasure of going to El Salvador twice and I must say it is an
amazing place. Are there still problems? Of course nowhere is perfect but the
amount of positive change in such a short time is hard to ignore. If you ever
get a chance I highly recommend visiting. I promise that the papuces taste even
better when you pay for them in Bitcoin.
Bitcoin on the ballot via Bitcoin Archive. Pro Bitcoin presidential candidate
tops Argentina's primaries. Javier Malay's unexpected victory. Here's an
overview from Bitcoin Archive.co. Javier Malay a libertarian economist has
emerged as the biggest vote-gitter in Argentina's primary election securing
30.5% of the vote leading to speculation the nation will be the first G20
nation to adopt Bitcoin as a reserve asset. The primary result from Malay was
higher than expected with the main conservative opposition block trailing
at 28% and the ruling Peronist coalition at 27%. The outcome is a
significant blow to the center-left Peronist coalition and the main
together-for-change conservative opposition block. Argentina's economic
crisis marked by 115% inflation has led to widespread discontent. The recent
primary election results have had an impact on the market with Argentine
bonds dropping by 12% on Wall Street. Malay declared in a victory speech we
are the true opposition a different Argentina is impossible with the same
old things that have always failed. Malay 52 has attracted support by calling
for Argentina to replace the peso with the US dollar and also his support for
Bitcoin. Zooming out I think we're going to see a lot more pro-Bitcoin
candidates emerge in the next couple years. Hell we even have at least three
pro-Bitcoin candidates on both sides of the aisle running for president in the
US of A in 2024. We even have RFK Jr. and Vivec accepting donations to their
campaigns in Bitcoin via the Lightning Network. In retrospect it will be clear
that being anti-Bitcoin is just bad politics. I'll leave you with a quote
from Malay. The central bank is a scam. Bitcoin represents the return of money to
its original creator the private sector.
Central Bank shenanigans. Speaking of central banks and Malay after the results
were announced Argentina's central bank did something interesting. They
devalued the peso and hiked rates. Via Reuters Argentina raises interest rate
devalues peso after shock primary election. As Sam Callahan pointed out on
Twitter a pro-Bitcoin candidate that wants to end the central bank of
Argentina wins a key primary election and the government response is to devalue
the currency 18% overnight. Unbelievable. It's a bold strategy cotton. Let's see
if it pays off for them. Meanwhile Bitcoin just made new all-time highs
against the Argentine peso. But it's not just Argentina's central bank that's
doing its citizens dirty. As Sam Callahan also pointed out a recent audit of the
Bank of Lebanon showed one officials likely embezzled over $300 million to
family members and close associates. Two they implemented a nationally regulated
Ponzi scheme to explode the national debt. Three they hid 76 billion in losses
from the Ponzi scheme by cooking their books failing to meet basic accounting
standards. Meanwhile the Lebanese pound has lost 98% of its value against the
dollar. Inflation sits at 254% year-over-year and many Lebanese have
been driven into poverty. But wait there's more. Lin Alden posted a thread
about Egypt and its currency. Here it is. Heading back to Egypt for the rest of the
summer over the past 18 months or so the Egyptian currency has been cut in half
relative to the dollar so my little wad of cash that I had lingering from last
time that I will be bringing with me is worth less. One USD equals 31 EGP. Egypt
needed an IMF loan to keep their dollar-denominated debt in working order
and one of the conditions from the IMF was to devalue the currency to try to
improve import-export balance. It makes people poorer but then arguably more
competitive in the global labor market. In other words a devaluation makes it
harder for people to import stuff, makes Egyptian vacations cheaper for
foreigners, makes Egyptian exports cheaper and thus may be more competitive
etc. It is early but so far no impact. That's one way the inflation tends to
hurt the working slash middle class in any country. Inflation puts the challenge
on the workers to negotiate higher wages just to keep up and the higher the
inflation the harder the anchoring biases to overcome. When inflation was 9% in
the US a little while ago workers basically got a pay cut unless they got
a 9% raise but it's easy for an employer to ask why are you worth 9% more than
last year but the employee is not they are just trying to tread water on real
wages even 3% per year presents an issue. A wage earner goes to employer and
asks for a 5% raise. Why are you worth 5% more than last year? I am not I am worth
2% more due to experience plus 3% inflation. People often have to switch
jobs just to get out of that anchoring bias and then of course CPI is a mix of
scarce things houses meat fuel etc and abundant things software electronics
grains etc. The price of scarce things structurally goes up faster than CPI so
the inflation treadmill tends to be stacked against the wage earner. Official
inflation in Egypt is 37% from a year ago while the price of meat is up 93%.
US inflation and CPI. Sticking on the theme of inflation on August 10th the
Bureau of Labor Statistics reported July CPI numbers putting inflation at 3.2%
year over year. Here's the thing CPI is an arbitrary basket of goods which can
be and is changed in order to make inflation look not quite as shitty as
it really is. Additionally CPI in July 2022 was 9.1% so when you hear
politicians celebrating because inflation is coming down remember that
they're talking about the year over year change so yeah prices only increased
3.2% on top of the 9.1% last year and all the other increases every year before
that. Furthermore anyone who buys groceries or gasses up their car knows
that their money is buying less and less their purchasing power is declining
politicians will always try to put lipstick on an inflationary pig but
it's still a pig and an expensive pig at that because heck meat is spendy these
days. I don't want to rant about inflation too much because I could go all
day I'll leave you with this. Inflation is not caused by prices rising.
Inflation is caused by inflating the quantity of money. To quote Mises if you
increase the quantity of money you bring about the lowering of the purchasing
power of the monetary unit. If you want to learn more about the nature of
inflation check out this week's Bitcoin Out Loud read on inflation by Ludwig
von Mises.
Tricky Dick Nixon. I know I said I was done talking about inflation but I lied
because yesterday August 15th marked the 52 year anniversary of Nixon's
suspending temporarily the convertibility of dollars to gold. This was
the final nail in the coffin for the gold standard and marked the beginning of
the US dollar as a pure fiat currency. Here's a short clip from Nixon's speech
in 1971. The strength of a nation's currency is based on the strength of
that nation's economy and the American economy is by far the strongest in the
world. Accordingly I have directed the Secretary of the Treasury to take the
action necessary to defend the dollar against the speculators. I have directed
Secretary Connolly to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar in the
gold or other reserve assets except in amounts and conditions determined to be
in the interest of monetary stability and in the best interest of the United
States. Now what is this action which is very technical? What does it mean for you?
Let me rate a later rest the bugaboo of what is called defaluation. If you want
to buy a foreign car or take a trip abroad, market conditions may cause your
dollar to buy slightly less. But if you are among the overwhelming majority
of Americans who buy American-made products in America, your dollar will be
worth just as much tomorrow as it is today. The effect of this action in other
words will be to stabilize the dollar. If you want to know more about the effects
of this 1971 decision, I recommend you check out WTF Happened in 1971.com.
Your dollar ain't shit. On August 10th, a song called Rich Men North of Richmond by
Oliver Anthony went viral. And I mean really viral. Originally posted to YouTube
on the radio WV channel, it quickly made the rounds on Twitter. This song clearly
struck a chord with people because Oliver tapped into a feeling that is
pretty much universal in the era of fiat money printed by central banks. Your
money buys less and less every year no matter how hard you work and no one is
coming to save you. Especially not the folks in DC. Rich Men North of Richmond
has been the talk of the virtual town for the past week, so I won't spend too
much time on it. Instead, I'll just play the song for you because Oliver's music
speaks for itself. Here it is.
Oh it is living in the new world. With an old soul.
Rich Men North of Richmond, Lord knows that all just want to have total control.
Want to know what you think. Want to know what you do. And they don't think you know.
But I know that you do. Because your dollar hates shit. And it's taxed to no end.
Those are rich men. Those are rich men.
I wish politicians would look out for miners and not just miners on an island
somewhere. Lord we got folks in the street and got nothing to eat and the
whole beast milk and welfare. God if you're five foot three and you're 300
pounds taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fun drowns. Young men are putting
themselves six feet in the ground because all this damn country does is keep
on kicking them down. Lord it's a damn shame what the world's gotten to. For
people like me, people like you, I could just wake up and not be true. But it is.
Oh it is living in the new world. With an old soul. These rich men know the rich men.
Lord knows they all just want to have total control. Want to know what you think.
Want to know what you do. And they don't think you know. But I know that you do.
Because your dollar hates shit. And it's taxed to no end. Cause they're rich men.
North of Richmond.
I've been selling my soul working all day. Over time hours for bullshit pay.
If you want to follow Oliver, he's at AintGottaDollar on Twitter.
Hopefully we'll get him on Noster soon so we can start zapping him some Bitcoin.
Now for some rapid fire news.
These first three headlines are all via Bitcoin Archive.
1.
If the spot Bitcoin ETF gets approved, the clearing price of Bitcoin will be above $150,000,
according to Tom Lee of Fundstrat.
2.
PayPal to stop Bitcoin purchases in the UK from October 1, 2023.
Yet another reason to delete PayPal.
3.
Oman launches $370 million hydro-cooled Bitcoin mining project.
Via Daniel Batten.
$50 million financing Bitcoin mining using vented emissions of landfills as fuel achieves
the same emission reduction as a $2.2 billion financing photovoltaic development.
Via CNN.
The typical American household spent $709 more in July than they did two years ago
to buy the same goods and services, according to Moody's analytics.
Via Glassnode.
Number of non-zero Bitcoin addresses just reached an all-time high of $48,039,035.
And finally, via Michael Saylor on August 11.
Three years ago today, MicroStrategy announced that it had adopted Bitcoin as its primary
treasury reserve asset, purchasing $21,454 BTC for $250 million, or $11,653 per Bitcoin.
To wrap up today's show, let's zoom out and talk about Bitcoin volatility and perspective.
I've seen several headlines about Bitcoin from legacy media this week that are just
too hilarious not to mention.
Here's the first from Bloomberg.
Bitcoin's extreme volatility vanishes amid extreme apathy and exhaustion, 90-day volatility
at lowest since 2016, Bloomberg data show.
Bitcoin has hovered around $29,000 throughout August.
And here's another one from Barron's.
Bitcoin and other cryptos languish.
Has Bitcoin failed?
asks Analyst.
It was more of the same from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on Monday as digital assets
continued to languish at relatively depressed levels amid a period of historically low volatility.
The lack of action is starting to unnerve some market observers.
Now you may be wondering, what's so funny about these headlines besides you reading
them in a weird voice?
Well, it's funny because it's emblematic of the legacy media still having no idea what
to think about Bitcoin.
And instead of writing anything of substance that's actually worth reading, writing vapid
clickbait headlines.
For many years, the legacy media bemoaned the fact that Bitcoin is too volatile or Bitcoin's
volatility makes it too risky.
Now their complaint is basically Bitcoin is too boring.
I mean, the Barron's article literally says, has Bitcoin failed in the headline?
Of course, Bitcoin has been pronounced dead by the legacy media 474 times in its 14 year
history.
So this is nothing new.
Here's the reality.
Bitcoin is currently hovering just over $29,000 US dollars.
It's up over 70% year to date.
It's up around 300% over the last four years.
The legacy media types may think this is boring, but to my fellow plebs out there, I would
say this is the calm before the storm.
Bloomberg mentions that the 90 day volatility is at the lowest since 2016.
In 2016, Bitcoin was under $1,000.
In 2017, it rose to almost $14,000.
The Bitcoin greed and fear index is currently at 52, meaning neutral.
It's funny how short attention spans are these days.
Bitcoin stays stable in USD terms for a couple of months and some smooth brained financial
journalists view it as a negative.
Meanwhile, plebs are out here stacking sats in preparation for the next Bitcoin halving
in April 2024.
It's also a matter of perspective because if you're in Turkey or Argentina or a number
of other countries, which are experiencing horrific inflation, Bitcoin is at an all time
high.
And that's the point.
Perspective.
Bitcoin is only boring at times or volatile at times when you look at the price in terms
of fiat currencies over the short term, and fiat currencies themselves are inherently
volatile.
But here's the difference between Bitcoin and fiat.
Over the long run, Bitcoin's volatility is to the upside.
Fiat's volatility is to the downside.
If you look at Bitcoin through the lens of the dollar over the last 90 days, yeah, it's
boring, I guess.
If you look at Bitcoin through the lens of the Argentine peso over the last 90 days,
it's definitely not boring.
But you shouldn't be looking at Bitcoin with only a 90 day time horizon anyway.
You should look at Bitcoin in terms of years and decades, not days and months.
Bitcoin isn't about getting rich quickly.
It's about saving wealth slowly, saving the value of your time and energy, of your hard
work.
So zoom out.
We say one Bitcoin equals one Bitcoin for a reason.
It's because no matter what the price of Bitcoin is on any particular day in fiat terms, you
always know that the value of one Bitcoin is one 21 millionth of all the Bitcoin that
will ever exist.
So relax.
Great value.
Stack sats.
Remember that you will die and go touch some grass.
Bitcoin isn't going anywhere.
And very soon, you may wish for more of these boring days.
And that's a wrap on this week's Bitcoin News Roundup.
You can find the written version of this show along with all the references via the link
in the show notes or by going to bitcoinpodcast.net slash words.
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 atwalkeramerica and at
titcoinpodcast.
You can also find the video version of this podcast at youtube.com slash atwalkeramerica.
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.